by: Jody Holford
Series: A Wannabe Sleuth
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release Date: August 23, 2022
Publisher: Tule Publishing
The coastal Oregon town of Rainbow Falls might be sleepy, but it’s definitely not innocent...
When graphic designer and true crime fan Annie Abbott agrees to house sit her parents’ home for a year, she’s convinced that even though the small town has ten coffee shops, nothing exciting will happen. But that’s before a seemingly feral cat gives birth in her garage, prompting a call to the very handsome, very single town vet. It’s a dream meet-cute, but just as their romance blooms, Annie discovers the bloody body of her grumpy neighbor. And despite the fact that she passes out at the sight of blood, the police suspect her.
To clear her name, Annie will need to put her years of watching police procedurals and reading mysteries to good use. She’ll also need to rely on her new friends who have welcomed her to Rainbow Falls, but is one of them the killer?
Welcome to Rainbow Falls…
Thank you Kim for inviting me to introduce your readers to Rainbow Falls. I’ll admit, I was very sad when my Britton Bay series ended. When I got the opportunity to develop another fictional town with some more wonderful characters, I started thinking about who these people would be. How would they be different? What were their stories? Most importantly, how did these stories overlap and impact each other?
Rainbow Falls is a tiny town on the…you guessed it, coast of Oregon. Our main character, Annie Abbott, moves there to housesit for her parents who are cruising around the world. Her job as a freelance graphic designer makes working remotely easy enough. Good cozies have a few necessary ingredients:
- Unique towns
- Quirky characters
- A swoon-worthy love interest
- A mystery our main character needs to unravel
Annie Abbott: graphic designer, wanna-be sleuth with the pesky little habit of fainting when she sees blood, a true crime and police procedural lover, a blogger, a reader, a friend, daughter, and, once she lands in Rainbow Falls, a whole lot more.
Margie: Oh Margie. This woman dresses like she’s stuck in the 70s rather than that just being her age. But she does it well and with confidence. The neighborhood boss, she keeps Annie’s small housing development on a strict schedule of helping each other out and watching each others’ backs. Though, not too closely, obviously, as a murder happens right under their collective noses.
Ben: You can go ahead and swoon. I’ll be one hundred percent honest: I made Ben as dreamy as possible. I really thought my editor would need me to pull back a little on my heart eyes where this character was concerned but, lucky for me, she fell for Ben as well.
Gill: Every cozy needs a guy who just makes life miserable. There are always reasons but there are also lots of suspects. The numbers run high when it comes to this cranky, mean guy who makes a bad impression from the first moment he meets our heroine.
What did I forget? The pets. Cozies need pets. I’m going to let you dive into the book instead of telling you how Annie ends up with a pet when she’s never had one. It’s a moment that not only brings her to Ben but helps her get all of her embarrassing quirks front and center from the get-go. Ben doesn’t scare easily. Which is good because Annie is going to need all the help she can get solving Gill’s murder.
I hope you’ll take a chance on this new series. It has all of my favorite elements of cozies as a reader and a writer.
Purchase Home Is Where the Body Is from:
You can read my review of Home Is Where the Body Is here.
The A Wannabe Sleuth Series:
Homecoming and Homicide releases January 10, 2023
Places to find Jody Holford:
Website | Facebook | Reader Group | Twitter | Goodreads | Pinterest | Instagram | Amazon Author Page
I love her books.
ReplyDeleteI do too. I still need to check out her Sophie Sullivan books.
Delete