by: Victoria Hamilton
Series: A Vintage Kitchen Mystery
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release Date: May 19, 2026
Publisher: Beyond the Page
A fundraiser for the local historical society nearly goes bust when someone fills the coffers with blackmail and murder...
The annual Tea With the Queen fundraiser always makes for a festive weekend in Queensville, drawing visitors from far and wide and giving local shops a welcome boost. This year, vintage kitchenware collector Jaymie Müller is running the event, and she’s got her hands full organizing old and new volunteers along with a surly catering crew. Then her master of ceremonies tells her he’s being blackmailed but can’t go to the police, and before Jaymie can sort that out she stumbles over a dead body at the tea.
Despite the demands of keeping the event up and running, Jaymie can’t help puzzling over the murder. There’s no concrete evidence linking the cretin behind the blackmail scheme to the dead body, so she begins questioning everyone connected to the blackmail, hoping to expose the killer. And just as she discovers a web of relationships that leads her to the culprit, she realizes that the Tea With the Queen may have been a royal pain, but outwitting a blackmailer and catching a killer may be the death of her...
Includes a vintage recipe!
Thank you. Good to be back!
Wow. Masher of Ceremonies is the -check notes- thirteenth book in your Vintage Kitchen Mystery series. Congratulations.
Thank you so much. The Vintage Kitchen Mysteries hold a special place in my heart. I had been writing romance novels for a few years, but desperately wanted to break into mystery writing. I was also, at the same time, looking for an agent. My proposal for A Deadly Grind (Vintage Kitchen Mysteries #1 – Berkley Prime Crime – May 1st, 2012) helped me do both, get an agent and then get published as a mystery author!
I did not know that. That’s amazing. Tell me what readers can expect from this book.
Readers can expect a return to the roots of the series in the most literal way possible! In A Deadly Grind Jaymie Leighton, the heroine of the series, is volunteering at the annual Tea with the Queen – a tea party held on the Canadian Victoria Day holiday weekend - event on the gorgeous green grass at Stowe House in Queensville, Michigan on the beautiful St. Clair River. I felt like it was time to take Jaymie back to her roots, but this time, she’s in charge of the event, which is a major fundraiser for the local historical society. It’s all up to her whether the event survives or not! Of course there are complications with the caterers, her host, her actors who impersonate Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and more, but Jaymie is determined to succeed!
Does she succeed? Or does murder once again spoil the best laid plans?
What challenges do you face with writing a long-running series?
There are a couple of challenges. I suppose I could worry that with so many books, the series would feel stale, but I honestly have never had that problem. I think the key to writing a long-running series is to let your main characters grow and evolve as people.
The second potential problem is a sticky one; I’ve been writing and publishing this series for fourteen years now, but in the book only four or five years have passed. Inevitably, in that time, there have been many changes in the world. Technology is different. Social media is MUCH more ubiquitous. We had a pandemic that changed everything. I hope readers will forgive any little anachronisms that creep in, or changes to the characters. I’ve done the best I can to keep it all truthful!
You’ve published about twenty-eight mystery books so far. If you were a character in one of your books, who would you be and why?
Oooh, fun question!! I don’t think I have Main Character Energy. My ‘sidekicks’ tend to be very intelligent and level-headed, so of course, I think I would be the ‘sidekick’. Is Sidekick Energy a thing? LOL.
I think so. I couldn’t be a main character either. Readers are generally hesitant to start a new series when there are so many previous books. Is Masher of Ceremonies a book that a new-to-you reader can easily pick up and read?
I do think that with the Cast of Characters I provide at the beginning of each book, that a new reader could pick up and read Masher of Ceremonies, but of course I would always suggest starting at the beginning if you want a fun journey! 😉 But you can definitely read this even if you’ve never read any of the other books in the series!
Victoria, thank you for speaking with me.
Thank you so much for having me and for asking such fun and thoughtful questions!
❤️ You’re welcome.
Purchase Masher of Ceremonies from:
(Affiliate Links Used)
A Vintage Kitchen Mystery Series:
Freezer I’ll Shoot (Book 3) ~ Review
No Mallets Intended (Book 4) ~ Review
White Colander Crime (Book 5) ~ Review
Leave it to Cleaver (Book 6) ~ Review
Places to find Victoria Hamilton:
You can follow the Masher of Ceremonies Blog Tour here.
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