Knot on Her Life - A Guest Post & Giveaway

I'm pleased to welcome Lucy Mondello to Cozy Up With Kathy today. You can find Lucy on the pages of the Quilting Mystery series by Mary Marks. Not on Her Life is the seventh book in the series and was released last week.

Hi. My name is Lucy Mondello. I’m Martha Rose’s best friend. I met Martha when she first moved to Encino right after a divorce. Her daughter Quincy and my son Richie were in the same class at Birmingham High School. (They’re still good friends.) One day I invited Martha to join me and my neighbor, Birdie Watson for a morning of quilting. Martha didn’t know a Nine Patch from an Ohio Star, but she learned quickly and caught the quilting bug. Since then, the three of us have been sewing together every Tuesday, no matter what.

My husband Ray and I are from Moorcroft, Wyoming. We got married right out of high school. He was drafted during the Viet Nam war and served in the military police. My Ray can fix anything. So when the war was over, we moved to the LA area and opened a business repairing cars. Our business grew to four locations and our family grew to five sons.

In some ways, I’m a lot different from Martha. I’m a practicing Catholic and conservative politically. But that doesn’t stop us from being the best of friends. I don’t know how she does it, but Martha manages to get sucked into murder investigations. And I often help her. My husband Ray does not approve of that at all. He’s very protective of me. So I’m extremely careful not to tell Ray when Martha and I are chasing down clues. I operate on the premise that “what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

Coming from rural Wyoming, Ray and I grew up with guns and rifles. We have a small collection which we keep locked in a huge cast iron safe in our house. Twice in the past we’ve had to lend Martha a weapon for self-protection. It’s a good thing we did, because the gun saved her life. Both times.

For years, Ray and I attempted to set Martha up on dates. We thought it was a shame that such a smart and attractive woman was all alone in the world. Well, not completely alone—she has devoted friends and family—but you know what I mean. No boyfriend, no husband. So you can imagine our shock when she became seriously involved with a six-foot six bearded biker with the street name of Crusher! At first, we didn’t know what to think about such an uneven match. But as we got to know him (his real name is Yossi Levy), all our misgivings fell away. He’s the perfect mate for Martha.

The two of them have been living together for a while now. I hope that one day they’ll get married. When I mentioned my feelings to Ray, he said, “Why? What they have going seems to work for them. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.” But I know better. Marriage is that final act of commitment. I think they both deserve to have that.

Well, it’s been nice talking to you. If you haven’t read about our adventures, I encourage you to start. Some of them are pretty funny. And if you have read the books, I hope you keep coming back for more.

Cheers!

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Knot on Her Life (A Quilting Mystery) by Mary Marks

About the Book

Knot on Her Life (A Quilting Mystery)  

Cozy Mystery 7th in Series  

Kensington (July 30, 2019) 

Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages

While quilter Martha Rose awaits the birth of her granddaughter, a neighborhood girl appears at her door with a mystery that can’t be pinned down . .

Martha’s eager to finish the baby quilt she’s making for her new granddaughter, but she scraps those plans when a young girl rings her doorbell begging for help. Poppy Halaby, the foster child of Martha’s neighbor, is an orphan whose parents were murdered by a killer who was never caught. When Poppy’s doting foster mom falls suspiciously ill, Martha is determined to keep the child safe. But she’ll have to unravel more about Poppy’s parents to stitch a broken family back together again—and prevent another crime cut from the same cloth . . .

About Mary Marks

 

About the Author: Born and raised in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, Mary Marks earned a B.A. in Anthropology from UCLA and an M.A. in Public Administration from the American Jewish University in Los Angeles. In 2004 she enrolled in the UCLA Extension Writers Program. Her first novel, Forget Me Knot, was a finalist in a national writing competition in 2011. She is currently a reviewer of cozy mysteries for The New York Journal of Books at www.nyjournalofbooks.com. Readers can visit her at www.marymarksmysteries.com and https://www.facebook.com/mmarks2013

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