cozy mystery

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

CATastrophic Connections — A klutzy Kansas City landlady, with the help of a psycho cat, locates her missing niece who is framed for embezzlement and murder, and the two join forces to bring the true evildoer to justice.

Hello, everyone! Please welcome the first guest on my new blog, fellow author Joyce Ann Brown. Joyce was kind enough to take the time to answer a few questions about her work and writer’s journey. She is the author of a new cozy mystery series involving one clever, or perhaps psycho, cat! Joyce owns rental properties in Kansas City with her husband, but none of their tenants have so far been involved in theft, kidnapping, or murder. Her two cats, Moose and Chloe, are cuddly, not psycho. Besides being a landlady, Joyce has worked as a story teller, a library media specialist, a Realtor, and a freelance writer. Her writing has appeared in local and national publications.

Let’s meet Joyce!

What genre do you write? And Why?
A cozy mystery series is my most recent endeavor. I started my first one during a mystery writing class and was hooked. Writing a mystery is like putting together a puzzle. I love puzzles.
How long have you been writing and how many published works?
I’ve been writing and telling stories for as long as I can remember, but I started writing as a profession only about four or five years ago. At that time I qualified for a pension from my school librarian career and found no job openings because of the recession. I had always wanted to write for a living. When I found out I could make a little money writing feature stories, I began taking creative writing classes. Now, I happily write short stories, articles, and mystery novels. CATastrophic Connections is my first published book, but I haven’t counted how many stories and articles I’ve had published.
Tell us a little about that CAT! What was the source of inspiration? A pet of your own?
I do have two cats, Moose and Chloe, and they have provided basic models of cat behavior and personalities. A friend’s story about how her “psycho cat” saved her from a threatening stranger when she was young became the actual inspiration for Psycho Cat in the series. Since then I’ve heard dozens of crazy cat stories and have incorporated some of them into my books.
Would you call yourself a “cat lady?”
No, I’m not a one of those crazy cat ladies. I like all kinds of animals.
Well, my husband and I do feed the kitties three times a day whenever they “tell” us it’s time. And I won’t disturb Chloe when she sits on my lap in front of the TV in the evenings, even when I really need a snack or I really, really have to go. Also, we bought an expensive fifth wheel RV and a big truck to pull it so we could take our cats with us on vacations.
But I’m not a “cat lady.” Really.
Where do you get your story ideas?
The seeds for my stories, especially for my short stories, come from my own experiences or from stories people have told me.
Is there anyone in particular who has influenced your writing career?
Many teachers encouraged my writing, and I loved reading books by Diane Mott Davidson, Janet Evanovich, Nora Roberts, and Agatha Christie, among others. Those books influenced my interest in the cozy mystery genre.
What do you do when you’re not writing?
Lately, I work promoting my writing on social media. Oh, yeah, that’s writing. Otherwise, I read, play tennis, hike Kansas City trails with my walking buddies, read, work on our rental properties (the parts of my books about landlady work are non-fiction), help my 92-year-old mother, attend meetings for all kinds of groups, do volunteer work, travel, read, read, and sometimes cook and clean house.
What’s one thing about you that most people don’t know?
I have a bit of a cat dander allergy.
What’s next on your writing journey?
My second book, FURtive Investigation, another Psycho Cat and the Landlady Mystery, is being edited. I hope to have it published this spring or summer.