Opening my own Tea Room!
By Lily Roberts from the Tea by the Sea Mysteries by Vicki Delany
Hi, there. I’d like to introduce myself. My name’s Lily Roberts and I hope we can get to know each other better. I’ll make my first appearance in print in July in TEA AND TREACHERY, the first in the brand new Tea by the Sea Mysteries from Kensington.
I own, manage, and bake at Tea by the Sea, a traditional English afternoon tea room near North Augusta, on Cape Cod. The tea room sits on the property of Victoria-On-Sea, a huge monstrosity of a 19th century Victorian mansion now run by my grandmother Rose Campbell as a B&B.
Rose hates having a B&B but that’s the only way she can afford the taxes and the upkeep on the house, and it has long been her dream to have a multi-turreted, front-porched, gingerbread-encrusted house (with a full formal English garden) on the bluffs overlooking Cape Cod Bay.
My grandmother is English, you see, and she came to America in the 1950s when she married my grandfather. They lived their entire married life in Iowa which, as Rose will tell you, is no place for an Englishwoman who needs to be near the sound of the sea. They had, by all accounts, a very happy marriage, but when Granddad died, Rose pursued her dream and bought Victoria-On-Sea.
She then set about trying to convince me to help her run it. I had no desire to do that, but we hit on the idea of turning an abandoned stone cottage on the property into a tea room. Unlike Rose I’ve lived my entire life in Manhattan (yes, near the sea but not exactly what Rose had in mind). I’m a pastry chef, and I’ve worked in Manhattan bakeries and Michelin-starred restaurants. Owning my own place has long been my dream, and I was taught by my very English grandmother to appreciate everything about the ritual of afternoon tea.
And so, here I am. Trying to make a go of my tea room and keep my grandmother’s head above water, and her out of trouble. I have a feeling it’s not going to be easy.
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Review
TEA & TREACHERY by Vicki Delany
The First Tea by the Sea Mystery
Lily Roberts is living her dream by running her own tearoom, despite
family telling her she's crazy to work with her grandmother, Rose. Rose
certainly doesn't pull any punches and is furious with the developer who
wants to turn the neighboring property into a hotel and resort center.
When the man is found dead off the cliffs on Rose's property the local
police zero in on Rose as a murderer. Egged on by her friend Bernie and
Rose herself, Lily is pulled away from her tearoom and Rose's B&B in
order to investigate who else could have wanted the developer silenced.
She soon discovers shady business dealings as well as unexpected
relationship issues. Will Lily find the real culprit or will she find
herself in hot water?
The first Tea by the Sea Mystery introduces readers to an interesting group of characters. I found it difficult to like the brash and demanding Rose and Lily comes off a bit like milquetoast compared to her grandmother and the loyal, but extremely flighty, best friend, Bernie. I was suspicious of everyone else, including the seemingly perfect new gardener. The setting was actually my favorite character in the book. Cape Cod can be an idyllic locale and I could picture the charming tearoom with the stately home decor and the Victorian Bed and Breakfast with the gingerbread trim, too small kitchen, and secret room perfectly. The scents also made the story come alive, and not just the baking from the tearoom and sausages frying for the B&B breakfasts. I could actually smell the salt from the bay as it wafted through the gardens and cliffs and I wish I could actually stroll through the grounds.
Despite not warming to the main characters, the story was compelling. I appreciated the complex mystery as I wondered who actually killed the shady developer. There were several appealing suspects and the author lay plenty of red herrings to lead readers astray.
The first Tea by the Sea Mystery introduces readers to an interesting group of characters. I found it difficult to like the brash and demanding Rose and Lily comes off a bit like milquetoast compared to her grandmother and the loyal, but extremely flighty, best friend, Bernie. I was suspicious of everyone else, including the seemingly perfect new gardener. The setting was actually my favorite character in the book. Cape Cod can be an idyllic locale and I could picture the charming tearoom with the stately home decor and the Victorian Bed and Breakfast with the gingerbread trim, too small kitchen, and secret room perfectly. The scents also made the story come alive, and not just the baking from the tearoom and sausages frying for the B&B breakfasts. I could actually smell the salt from the bay as it wafted through the gardens and cliffs and I wish I could actually stroll through the grounds.
Despite not warming to the main characters, the story was compelling. I appreciated the complex mystery as I wondered who actually killed the shady developer. There were several appealing suspects and the author lay plenty of red herrings to lead readers astray.
TEA & TREACHERY serves English tea with a dollop of murder in an engaging start to a new series.
Tea & Treachery (Tea by the Sea Mysteries) by Vicki Delany
About Tea & Treachery
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Publisher: Kensington (July 28, 2020)
Hardcover: 304 pages
In this charming new cozy mystery series from nationally bestselling author, Vicki Delany, a New York City expat-turned-Cape Cod tea shop owner must solve the murder of a local real estate developer to help her feisty grandmother out of a jam . . .
As the proud proprietor and head pastry chef of Tea by the Sea, a traditional English tearoom on the picturesque bluffs of Cape Cod, Roberts has her hands full, often literally. But nothing keeps her busier than steering her sassy grandmother, Rose, away from trouble. Rose operates the grand old Victorian B & B adjacent to Lily’s tea shop . . . for now. An aggressive real estate developer, Jack Ford, is pushing hard to rezone nearby land, with an eye toward building a sprawling golf resort, which would drive Rose and Lily out of business.
Tempers are already steaming, but things really get sticky when Ford is found dead at the foot of Rose’s property and the police think she had something to do with his dramatic demise. Lily can’t let her grandmother get burned by a false murder charge. So she starts her own investigation and discovers Ford’s been brewing bad blood all over town, from his jilted lover to his trophy wife to his shady business partners. Now, it’s down to Lily to stir up some clues, sift through the suspects, and uncover the real killer before Rose is left holding the tea bag.
About Vicki Delany
Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. She has written more than thirty-five books: clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy. She is currently writing four cozy mystery series: the Tea by the Sea mysteries for Kensington, the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series for Crooked Lane Books, the Year Round Christmas mysteries for Penguin Random House, and the Lighthouse Library series (as Eva Gates) for Crooked Lane.
Vicki is a past president of the Crime Writers of Canada and co-founder and organizer of the Women Killing It Crime Writing Festival. She is the 2019 recipient of the Derrick Murdoch award for contributions to Canadian crime writing. Vicki lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario.
Author Links:
Website – www.vickidelany.com
Facebook – www.facebook.com/evagatesauthor;
Twitter: @vickidelany and@evagatesauthor
Instagram: vickidelany
Purchase Links – Amazon – B&N – Kobo – Google Play – IndieBound
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Vicki, CONGRATS on the new release and new series! The setting sounds marvelous.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much
DeleteI enjoy cozies. Thanks for this opportunity.
ReplyDeleteThis book is so good! I really love Lily & getting to know her. I'd love my own tea room, but with less stress than Lily has!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the new release and the new series I am so excited to read a print copy and review it on a few sites. Congrat and good luck to you being on tour hope you get a lot of new to me readers. peggy clayton
ReplyDelete