An exciting new cozy mystery series from the author of the Chocolate Covered Mystery series:
The Trouble with Murder
by Kathy Krevat
“The story flies along, filled with humor, warmth of family, and plenty of suspects to mull over…”
—Linda Langford, Chatting About Cozies.
Single mom and gourmet cat food entrepreneur Colbie Summers thought she’d escaped her tiny California hometown forever. But when her father needs her, she packs up her adolescent son, their finicky feline, Trouble, and her budding business. She knows change is tough—but she doesn’t expect it to be murder . . . Between dealing with her newly rural life, her grumpy, sports-obsessed father, and preparing to showcase her products in the local Sunnyside Power Mom’s trade show, Colbie has more on her plate than she bargained for. Luckily, she has her official taste-tester, Trouble, by her side to vet her Meow-io Batali Gourmet Cat Food line. Things look promising—until one of the Power Moms is found dead—with an engraved Meow-io specialty knife buried in her chest. As the prime suspect, Colbie needs paws on the ground to smoke out who had means, motive, and opportunity among the networking mothers—including a husband-stealing Sofia Vergara lookalike. And the cat’s still not out of the bag when a second violent death rocks the bucolic community. Trouble may have nine lives, but Colbie’s only got one to clear her name and stop a killer from pulling off the purr-fect crime . . .
Buy Link: Mysterious Galaxy
Read a excerp from The Trouble with Murder
A chicken rang the doorbell.
I stood in the open doorway, a little dumbfounded, and stared down at the beige bird with a mop of floppy feathers on its head that looked like a hat. The kind of hat women wore as a half joke to opening day at the horse races. How could it even see through that thing? And did it really just ring the doorbell?
Braving the mid-morning heat of Sunnyside, California, inland from downtown San Diego by twenty miles and what felt like twenty degrees hotter, I stuck my head out and looked up and down my dad’s street. No teens were hanging around, giggling over their prank.
The chicken ruffled its whole body as if to say, “Yes, it was me.” The you idiot was implied by the way it poked his beak toward me and then scratched its feet on the wooden porch floor.
“Right.” I spoke out loud. To a chicken. I had to get out of the house more.
I’d been up since four in the morning, grinding various chicken parts and cooking them for my organic cat food business and I was already tired. Maybe this was a poultry hallucination brought on by exhaustion. Or induced by guilt.
Maybe this was the king of the chicken underworld, seeking retribution for what was going on in my kitchen.
I shook my head. I had to stop reading so many of those horror novels my blood-thirsty twelve-year-old son, Elliott, couldn’t get enough of.
She lives in San Diego with her husband of twenty-five years, close to the beach, their two grown daughters and Philz coffee. Kathy’s an avid supporter of youth arts education and serves as president of the San Diego chapter of Sisters in Crime.
Follow Kathy on Facebook, Twitter, or at www.kathykrevat.com.
Mix a Little Romance in Your Mystery
Did you know that most cozy mysteries include a romance? By romance industry standards, they would be considered “sweet,” with little sex on the page. The romantic partner is often part of the mystery – as a side-kick, stumbling block, police officer, and more, sometimes even a suspect.
The “happily ever after” generally takes at least three books to achieve, but progress on the relationship moves forward with each book.
I deliberately used the words “usually,” “often,” and “generally” on purpose because like all writing “rules,” lots of books fall outside these guidelines.
Commenters—Kathy wants to know: Do you like romance with your mystery?
