FLANNIGAN SISTER NUMBER 3 !!

MURDER MOST MERRY

A Flannigan Sisters Mystery #3

Lacey Flannigan should be wallowing in the cheer of her favorite time of the year—Christmas. She just aced finals in her toughest college semester yet. Instead, she’s working herself into a frazzle with extra shifts as a vet-tech, a service project at the shelter, and studying for classes that haven’t even started yet. Plus, she can barely make time for Walker, the dreamy firefighter she met during summer break who believes in her crazy premonition powers.

But at the shelter’s Home for the Holidays campaign kickoff, the director tragically dies of a heart attack. Police swoop in claiming that not only is major money missing from the shelter’s donations, but they suspect murder. It’s bad enough she’d foreseen the director’s death before it happened and couldn’t stop it—when Lacey becomes the prime suspect in the killing, she must find the culprit before she spends the holidays behind bars.

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MEET AMANDA

I’m an author of light paranormal cozy mysteries, launching my first book in October 2019, with urban fantasy romance to be added to my list in 2020. Since I was little, I’ve been a reader and lover of mystery, sci-fi, romance, and paranormal books. Some of my early favorites were a Wrinkle in Time, Dune, and Lord of the Rings. Classics, right? I found my first romance book in my aunt’s closet around thirteen years of age and quickly decided it needed to be added to my repertoire. As do many readers, I had always dreamed of writing. I finally learned the secret, and I’ll let you in on it--do it. Sure, there’s a lot to learn about writing, but the first step is to put that story on the page. Then comes the rest.

As for me beyond writing, I was a career Army brat and lived in exotic locations like Tehran, Iran and DeRidder, Louisiana as a child. I obtained an International Politics degree from Penn State, and dreamed of a career in the State Department, but due to unforeseen circumstances I learned of much later, I ended up as a federal agent. I spent 24 years investigating murders, fraud, identity theft, drug dealers and many other crimes before retiring in mid-2019. As you can imagine, it’s given me a wealth of inspiration for my mystery and urban fantasy stories.

Peace, love and murder, y’all!

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THE HOLIDAY Q&A

ANGI: Do you have plans for more Flannigan Sisters?

AMANDA:  I really want to do more stories featuring Sunny, Mina, and Lacey. I’m forecasting at least two more sets of three. I envision Sunny and Cace’s relationship escalating, Mina’s ghosts become more pesky and Lacey’s trials following her to vet school at Texas A&M. I love these girls so much!

ANGI: Which sister do you relate to most?

AMANDA: That’s a hard one, they all have aspects I adore. I love how Sunny wants to serve our veterans. My dad was career Army, my two sons are active duty, and my daughter is National Guard. I believe in the military and I believe in supporting those who laid it on the line for the rest of us. I love Mina’s snark and how that’s just covering a soft underbelly she isn’t willing to show people, maybe just a little like me. Maybe. Then there’s Lacey. I had thought of vet school when I was young, but got sidetracked by marine biology. I’ve always been an animal lover and someone who is devoted to helping them inspires me.

ANGI: What is your favorite scene in Murder Most Merry?

AMANDA: The end. I can’t spoil it. Walker does a very nice thing and I’m just all swoony!

ANGI: Grinch or Scrooge?

AMANDA: How did you know that I love both? It’s not Christmas unless I see the original Grinch and the 1951 version of the Christmas Carol, originally released in the UK under the title “Scrooge.” It has horrible sound production (I mean BAD, even remastered), but the screenplay is very close to the original story and the acting is perfection.

ANGI: What’s your favorite Christmas Cookie?

AMANDA: Traditional sugar with frosting.  Classic and oh, so good. I like to make my own. It really gets me in the mood!

ANGI: Favorite holiday movie?

AMANDA: Besides Scrooge and The Grinch, I love White Christmas. It’s very sweet and goofy and I used to watch it with my Dad. He loved it because of the story about the general, a great plot, but it’s also got romance. And the DANCING. That Vera-Ellen is amazing.

ANGI: Favorite holiday tradition?

AMANDA: Our favorite family tradition is putting the family ornaments on the tree. My husband has several hand-beaded and vintage glass ones from his grandmother. 

I’ve got several my mother made, and some ornaments she recently gave me from her mother. I love that these have been passed down. And we have several sets favorites of the kiddos that will get passed down as well. I also collect some silly, cute figurines that make me smile every time I take them out of their boxes and put them on display. 

They’re called Billy Buttons and they are no longer made. My aunt started me on them, and now I stalk them on eBay and other sites. I’m in competition with my brother and sister-in-law, because they collect them as well. It’s fun when we can ooh and ahh over each other’s finds—and feel a little bit of envy when it’s an ornament or figurine we don’t have! But it’s all in good fun as we’ll send each other something the other doesn’t have if we find it.

ANGI: Favorite holiday song?

AMANDA: Now that’s a hard one. I love White Christmas, but it’s hard to say if it’s the Nat King Cole version or the Bing Crosby version. Yes. I drill down that far on songs. I also love the original You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch!

UP NEXT for AMANDA:

THE WOLF SHIFTER’S REDEMPTION

The Enchanted Rock Immortals Series

Coming in JUNE 2020

Veterinarian and animal empath, Carrie Fletcher is finally back on track after the murder of her parents by a pure blood fanatic three years ago. She watched his execution in the arms of Nathan Hebert, a wolf shifter she thought loved her, but dumped her as soon as his mission to protect her ended. Now, it appears the fanatic is back, and so is Nathan. This time the wolf claims he not only wants to keep her alive, he’s ready to return her love.

Leaving Carrie had been the worst mistake of his life. Clan Shifter hires Nathan Hebert’s security team with the return of the fanatic who’d given the Clan a black eye. The elusive criminal has managed to give Nathan the slip after several prominent murders, and now has targeted Carrie again. Soon, Nathan finds a dangerous conspiracy stretching far beyond the clan, threatening careful balance in the Enchanted Rock Immortal world and the woman he still loves.

PREVIOUSLY RELEASED by AMANDA:

FINDERS KEEPERS

A Flannigan Sisters Mystery #1

Adulting isn’t easy, but everything is finally falling into place for Sunny Flannigan. New apartment all of her own? Check. Dream job as a physical therapist? Check. Ex-boyfriend Cace Navarro back in the picture after her meddling older sister kept them apart for seven years? Check. Her crazy power to find things leading her to a stash of stolen goods in a library’s restroom? Womp, womp.

Just when everything seems to be going right, Sunny finds someone sabotaging her carefully planned world, sending Sunny and her boyfriend on the run from the police. Can she and Cace figure their way out of the web before Sunny loses her newfound semi-adult kind of life?
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GHOSTS, PIES & ALIBIS

A Flannigan Sisters Mystery #2

The Flannigan Gift. Ha! Mina Flannigan Shaffer never believed in anything paranormal, let alone the claims her Grandmother and sisters had visions and other psychic abilities. This skeptic’s more focused on running Sweetie’s Tea Cup Cafe, rehabilitating her life, and spending time with her family after a recent split and reunification with her husband.

But her careful plans are upended when she learns she can see ghosts. Even worse? The spirit of a man who nearly caused her to lose her small-town diner blackmails her into figuring out who shot him. Now, this reluctant sleuth is hot on the trail of a murderer who is willing to kill again to keep their secrets. The suspects are piling up and Mina’s time is running out faster than icy sweet tea on a hot Texas day.

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AMANDA WANTS TO KNOW:  What’s your favorite Christmas family tradition?