Lone
Star Literary Life Blog Tours
presents
MURDER
AT PEACOCK MANSION
Blue
Plate Cafe Mysteries Book 3
by
Judy Alter
Arson, a bad beating, and a recluse who
claims someone is trying to kill her all collide in this third Blue Plate Café
Mystery with Kate Chambers. Torn between trying to save David Clinkscales, her
old boss and new lover, and curiosity about Edith Aldridge’s story of an
attempt on her life, Kate has to remind herself she has a café to run. She
nurses a morose David, whose spirit has been hurt as badly as his body, and
tries to placate Mrs. Aldridge, who was once accused of murdering her husband
but acquitted. One by one, Mrs. Aldridge’s stepchildren enter the picture. Is
it coincidence that David is Edith Aldridge’s lawyer? Or that she seems to rely
heavily on the private investigator David hires? First the peacocks die…and
then the people. Everyone is in danger, and no one knows who to suspect.
BUY
LINKS
Praise for the
author
“Kate Chambers continues to impress. This
third book in the Blue Plate Café mysteries opens with two intriguing story
lines that intermingle flawlessly and will keep you captivated until the final
page.” Terrie Farley Moran, Agatha Award-Winning
author of the Read ’Em and Eat cozy mysteries.
“With Murder at
Peacock Mansion, the showy feathers of a rich woman's birds aren't enough
to save either them or relatives of the recluse who thinks someone's out to get
her. Judy Alter, in her third Blue Plate Special mystery, serves up more than
chicken-fried chicken as cafe proprietor Kate Chambers fights to save the ones
she loves and figure out who the killer is, while keeping herself and her
business alive, too.” Edith Maxwell,
Agatha-nominated and national bestselling author of the Local Foods Mysteries,
the Country Store Mysteries, and the Quaker Midwife Mysteries.
“How did you meet Mr. Aldridge?”
“I was a cocktail waitress at the old Baker Hotel in
Dallas. You might say I was Eliza to his Henry Higgins. He taught me to dress,
speak, eat properly, even dance—he made a lady out of me, and I was always
grateful. But once I was “finished”—his term, not mine—he found other
Pygmalion-like subjects. In other words, he cheated on me, including
financially, railed that I couldn’t run the house on the reduced budget he gave
me.
“I used to lie in bed and listen to him roaming about
downstairs, sometimes throwing things—I always hoped it wasn’t the Limoges he’d
given his first wife, Alicia—and several times I thought I heard him fall. His
best friend at night was a bottle of bourbon.
“One night I woke and realized he hadn’t come upstairs. By
then I kept a derringer for self-protection, and this night I grabbed it and
put it in my pocket. I found him at the foot of the stairs—he fallen
apparently. What I didn’t realize until after I called the police was that he’d
been shot too.
This tale was getting more bizarre. I itched to check it
out on the Web, but for now I was a captive audience and, I admit, mesmerized
by the calm recital of this woman’s life story. “What makes you think his
children are trying to kill you now?” After all she’d lived this way for thirty
years.
Hall Ways Review:
Murder at Peacock Mansion is a clean, cozy mystery that engages readers immediately with the setting and interesting characters. Despite being the third book in the Blue Plate Café Mysteries, Murder at Peacock Mansion works great as a stand alone book. There are references to the prior books' events and characters, which will entice readers who haven't read the prior stories to take a look.
Murder at Peacock Mansion is a clean, cozy mystery that engages readers immediately with the setting and interesting characters. Despite being the third book in the Blue Plate Café Mysteries, Murder at Peacock Mansion works great as a stand alone book. There are references to the prior books' events and characters, which will entice readers who haven't read the prior stories to take a look.
The life of main
character Kate Chambers -- and really, the whole book -- circulates around one
stability, Kate's small town café and the three squares a day that are served
there. Food is a big part of the story, and by the end of the story, readers
will be ready to find some of that yummy home cooking for themselves.
Fortunately, author
Judy Alter is kind enough to include some of the recipes at the end of the
book.
In and out
and around the
café, readers meet both the usual and unusual suspects, and the author offers
plenty of twists and turns and foils so that readers can't easily figure out
whodunit. The writing flows very naturally, as
does the dialogue, but there are some typos that need correction -- which may
or may not bother readers.
Judy Alter has found
the right formula and created characters that readers will enjoy visiting
again.
Judy Alter retired from Texas Christian University Press after thirty
years, twenty of them as director. At the same time she developed her own
writing career, focusing primarily on women of the American West. Now she
writes fiction and nonfiction for all ages. She lives in Fort Worth.
Monday, November 30 - Books and Broomsticks - author interview
Tuesday, December 1 - Book Crazy Gals - promo
blog tour services provided
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*NOTE FROM KRISTINE at HALL WAYS: Except for the Hall Ways review, the content of this promo post was provided by Lone Star Literary Life Blog Tours. If you're a Texas blogger interested in joining the ranks of Texas Book Blog Tours, contact Tabatha Pope.
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