It’s always fun to find a book set in places I’ve been, and I love discovering out-of-the-ordinary storylines and characters. This book by Meg Benjamin has those things plus . . . burro racing!! 🙂 What the heck is that, you might ask. Well, keep reading to find out! Today I’m featuring a guest author on the blog and her soon-to-release book, “The Tomato Jam Mystery.” Welcome Meg Benjamin–and Roxy Constantine!

Sometimes you find inspiration in the oddest places, but that’s when things get interesting. My Luscious Delights cozy mystery series takes place in a Colorado mountain town. And my heroine, Roxy Constantine, makes jam for a living. Roxy’s gone through a lot of adventures: from the death of a guy who sexually harassed her where Roxy ended up as a suspect (The Pepper Peach Murder), to the death of the father of the bride at a wedding her boyfriend Nate was catering (The Wine Jelly Murder). But I’m always on the lookout for Colorado material, and an article in the Colorado Sun a year ago really caught my eye. It was all about burro racing.

Now I’m guessing you’re envisioning a tiny racetrack with burros and very small jockeys, but that’s not it at all. Burro racing recreates the experience of prospectors during the Colorado gold and silver rushes when they had to race to the nearest town to register their claims before another prospector beat them to it. Their trusty burros raced along with them, and that’s the idea behind the races today. Several Colorado towns have burro races, and there’s even a Triple Crown of races held in Fairplay, Buena Vista, and Leadville. The teams consist of one person and one burro. The burro has a pack saddle with a gold pan, shovel, and pick, and the human is connected to the burro with a fifteen-foot rope that has to be held onto at all times. The courses are long, rugged mountain trails, and it’s frequently tough going. There are videos on YouTube for anyone who wants to see what it looks like when twenty or thirty teams of humans and burros all take off at once. Believe me, it’s worth seeing.

I knew I wanted to work burro racing into The Tomato Jam Murder, but I had to think of a way to get Roxy on the trail. She’s not exactly an outdoorswoman. In the end, I created a whole town of burro racers and a goat-cheese-making burro queen who’s Roxy’s good friend. The queen and Roxy go out to train together on the racing course, and, well, Roxy has another adventure:

–“Hello?” I called again.

“Hello yourself,” a male voice called. I put a hand to my hammering heart then stepped back and peered up the trail. Silas and his burro were on the switchback above us. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I found this little guy wandering around, and I’m trying to find his handler. I think there might be somebody in this clump of trees.”

“Okay,” Silas said when he was level with me. “Give me the lead rope. I’ll hold onto him while you see if his owner is around.”

I handed over the rope gratefully enough and stepped into the evergreen grove. The dense thatch of branches blotted out a lot of the light.

A man was lying face down in the center of the grove. On the trail, I’d seen the bright red of the bandanna he had knotted around his neck. “Um…hi?” I said, tentatively. When he didn’t move, or give any sign that he’d heard me, I stepped closer. “Mister? Are you okay?”

Something about the stillness of that body made my throat tighten. I’d seen a few dead bodies in my time, but most of them had been clearly and thoroughly dead. This guy was just lying there. Very quiet.

You’ve got to check. You know that. I did know it, but I didn’t like it. I leaned forward and put my hand on his shoulder. I felt the cool dead flesh through his thin cotton shirt. Yanking my hand away, I stumbled to the trail where Silas waited.

“Call 911,” I gasped. “There’s a dead guy in there.”–

Needless to say, Roxy soon finds herself up to her chin in murder, corruption, crooked cops, and a recipe for tomato jam that never quite comes together. And there’s burro racing. And burro tending. And a burro who plays a significant role in the solution of the mystery. I learned a lot more about burros than I ever thought I’d need to know, but I still think they’re adorable.

You can find the ebook version of The Tomato Jam Murder on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4oj93e5. Print versions and other ebook versions will be available later.

Thanks for sharing with us today, Meg! Happy reading to all! Hope you’re enjoying some nice fall weather! 

Darlene