by: Victoria Hamilton
Series: A Vintage Kitchen Mystery
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release Date: October 17, 2023
Publisher: Beyond the Page
In the new Vintage Kitchen Mystery from the author of A Calculated Whisk, Jaymie’s not sure who to believe when every suspect’s alibi has as many holes as a sieve...
Vintage cookware collector Jaymie Müller is stunned when an irate woman accuses her pharmacist friend Val of tampering with her prescription. When more unfounded accusations follow, it seems clear the woman has a personal grudge against Val. But before they can figure out why, Jaymie and Val stumble upon the woman’s dead body on the steps of Val’s pharmacy. Given her altercations with the woman and the location of the body, the police naturally suspect Val.
Jaymie has heard rumors that the victim had become forgetful and erratic, but could that explain her death? And why was Val being framed as her murderer? Determined to find the clues that connect the woman’s strange behavior to her death, Jaymie begins questioning the people in her life—and soon suspects that the culprit is among them. But she’ll have to be careful about who she confronts, because while solving murders is hard work, there’s a killer on the loose who finds committing them all too easy...
Includes a vintage recipe!
I’m good. I’m almost always good!
For those who don’t know you and the Vintage Kitchen Mystery series, please introduce yourself and tell us all about you.
My name is Jaymie Leighton Müller, and I live in Queensville, Michigan, a little town on the St. Clair River near Algonac. A couple of years ago I married Jakob Müller, who has a ‘little person’ daughter, Jocie. Before that I would have described myself as a kitchenalia collector, because I have a deep love of vintage and antique kitchen tools, bowls, and linens! Even furniture; I adore kitchen furniture of the nineteen twenties, like the vintage Hoosier cabinet I bought at auction, and which led to me finding my first dead body. (A Deadly Grind – Vintage Kitchen Mystery #1) What a shock that was, let me tell you!
How are you, your husband Jakob, and your stepdaughter Jocie doing?
We are blessed with good health, I must say, though Jocie, as a little person, has her share of health issues. But we tackle them one by one, with the help of wonderful doctors.
What’s a typical day for you and your family?
Work, school, walking Hoppy, (my little tripod Yorkie-Poo), playing with Jocie’s cat Lilibet, cooking together, eating together; that’s a typical day. We split our time between the cabin Jakob (with the help of his brothers) built with his own hands – it’s across from some lovely woods I enjoy walking in - and my family home in Queensville, a lovely yellow brick Queen Anne given to my sister and me by our parents, who now live in Boca Raton. We do spend less time there and more time at the cabin for a very good reason; my sister and her husband opened an antique store in Queensville and so she spends more time in town now, between that and looking after our Grandma Leighton, who lives across the border in London, Ontario.
It’s been a while since I’ve visited Queensville, Michigan. Where should I go to get a meal, and what should that meal be?
Oh, without a doubt the Queensville Inn. It is an inn, but it also has a wonderful restaurant that features in-season fare. This time of year it is likely to be one of my favorites, the Pumpkin Ravioli in a brown butter sauce with sage. Yum! Anything pasta is the chef’s forté. But I’ll follow that with their high tea! We have had many tea parties at the Queensville Inn, with Jocie, her girlfriends and Mrs. Stubb, one of my best friends, the nonagenarian grande dame of Queensville society.
In the latest installment of your life, Sieve and Let Die, your friend Val has been accused of murder. What can you tell me about the victim?
I’m not sure what to say about her. I didn’t know her well in life, and I don’t like to speak ill of the dead. However, I can tell you that what people say about her and how she has been acting lately do not coincide. They describe a happy, well-traveled energetic woman, but lately, she has been forgetful, moody, and even paranoid. Once she was apparently happy, and successful, and with many friends and a good relationship with her family. All of that has fallen apart lately, and it’s got me wondering… why?
Can you tell me about some of the people readers will meet in the story?
A whole lot of people I’ve never met before… LOL. The victim was co-owner of a development corporation that planned and built subdivisions near Wolverhampton, the town closest to Queensville. As such, I’ve been aware of the housing developments, but not the players. So there is the other co-owner of the company (a shifty guy I do NOT trust!), the construction company owner who is married to Valetta’s pharmacist co-worker, the victim’s sister, the victim’s daughter and her former sister-in law… a whole host of strangers.
When you aren’t investigating murders, what do you like to do?
I am an avid collector of kitchen stuff (I may have mentioned that already?) so I loved haunting thrift stores, going to auctions, and working at the local historic house, where I created and manage the kitchen display. I love to walk in the woods with my daughter, and I love writing my column for the Wolverhampton Weekly Howler, Vintage Eats with Jaymie Leighton! (Read to the end of Sieve and Let Die for one of my columns and to savor a classic fall recipe!) When I have a few moments free, I love reading historical romance novels.
Jaymie, thank you for answering some questions for me. I hope to return to Queensville one day soon.
Thank you for having me! I think you’ll have that chance to return to Queensville as my next adventure will have something to do with a colony of feral cats, and Miss Lois Perry, Mrs. Stubbs’ cousin. (Featured in No Grater Danger, Vintage Kitchen Mystery #7) There is something fishy going on along the St. Clair River, and I want to know what it is! Cat Got Your Tongs, coming (hopefully) in 2024!
Purchase Sieve and Let Die from:
(Affiliate Links Used)
A Vintage Kitchen Mystery Series:
Freezer I’ll Shoot ~ Review
No Mallets Intended ~ Review
White Colander Crime ~ Review
Leave it to Cleaver ~ Review
Places to find Victoria Hamilton:
You can follow the Sieve and Let Die Blog Tour here.
I enjoyed the character interview. This sounds like a good story.
ReplyDeleteHello! I want to thank you so much for hosting me. I hope you enjoyed the character interview; Jaymie as very dear to me as she was the one who started my whole mystery writing career in A Deadly Grind. She's a little bit me, in so many ways! Good luck in the draw, everyone.
ReplyDeleteHi Victoria. Thank you so much for stopping by. I didn't realize Jaymie and the Vintage Kitchen Mystery series started your mystery writing career.
DeleteThanks for the info and the chance to win.
ReplyDeleteI love this cover - so fantastic!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this with us.
This sounds great thank you for sharing!
ReplyDelete