I'm pleased to welcome Carmen Radtke to Cozy Up With Kathy Today. Carmen writes the Adriana and Genie Darling Mystery series. GHOST
AND THE HAUNTED HOUSE is the fourth book in the series and was released
Kathy: GHOST AND THE HAUNTED HOUSE takes place around Halloween. I love this holiday. Is it a favorite of yours as well? How do you celebrate?
CR: I love
Halloween! Sadly, it’s not really a thing in Italy where I currently am. One of
my favorite Halloween memories is going to a friend’s house who’d completely
decked out her house and garden with spiderwebs, bats, jack o’ lanterns and everything spooky under the sun
(or rather the moon). It was just as exciting for the adults as it was for
kids, without being too scary. Magic! There were also friendly neighborhood competitions who had the best display.
Kathy: In this, the fourth Genie and Adriana Darling Mystery, the possibility of black magic arises. Do you believe that there are practitioners of the dark arts?
CR: I do believe there are a lot of people dabbling in it. Does it work? I don’t know. But there is a certain element of evil and malice involved. That’s why the distinction between white and black witches is so important, especially for someone like Adriana who’s fast becoming a guardian angel for everyone she cares about.
Kathy: Genie and her ghostly great-great-aunt Adriana have a gelato business. Why gelato and not ice cream? What's your favorite flavor?
CR: It had to be gelato! No, really. In GHOST TAKES A VACATION, Genie and Adriana travel to Italy and end taking a gelato-making class where they discover Adriana’s incredible nose for flavors and scents. My personal favorite changes whenever I try something new but cherry, hazelnut and rose water infused ice cream are definitely staying on the list.
Kathy: Genie and Adriana are also helping with the restoration of an old speakeasy. Have you ever done any restoration work?
Kathy: What first drew you to cozy mysteries?
CR: I’ve read them pretty much all my life, starting with Trixie Belden and the Famous Five. Then came Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, way back before the tern cosy crime existed. I love the setting and characters just as much as the idea of figuring out whodunnit. Books where bad things happen but in the end truth prevails, where nothing is as it seems and yet all is fair and above board? Count me in any day.
Kathy: Do you write in any other genres?
CR: I have one historical novel, WALKING IN THE SHADOW. It’s the first I wrote, inspired by a true event. If you love Victoria Hislop’s THE ISLAND, this book is for you.
Kathy: Tell us about your series.
CR: Just a ghost, living her best afterlife … When her great-great-aunt Adriana reappears as a spectral flapper, she turns Genie’s life around, murder and madcap adventures included. The ghost is the only paranormal element!
The Jack and Frances mysteries are set in the early 1930s, starring a telephone exchange operator, a nightclub owner, and a retired vaudevillian. These amateur sleuths always have a trick up their sleeves.
The Alyssa Chalmers mysteries are set in 1862 and were inspired by a true event. A boatload of brides set sail for matrimony in Canada, but there’s something wrong – and dangerous.
Kathy: Do you have a favorite character? If so, who and why?
CR: Several! I adore Adriana, with her love for animals and her zest for adventure. Being dead won’t stop her.
In the Jack and Frances mysteries, it’s Uncle Sal aka Salvatore the Magnificent. He wasn’t even planned! Instead, he just turned up on the page, with his debonair flair, stage skills and charm.
Plus,
there’s the animal characters. They hold a special place in my heart.
Kathy: Did you have a specific inspiration for your series?
CR: Do you
know the classic screwball comedy “Topper” with Cary Grant and Constance
Bennett (who even looks a lot like Adriana)? I watched it as a teenager, didn’t
think of it for ages, and suddenly it popped into my mind, together with the
series idea of teaming up a contemporary heroine with a 1920s flapper.
Kathy: What made you decide to publish your work?
CR: I
started my professional life as a newspaper reporter, so it was a logical
progression. I think.
Kathy: If you could have a dinner party and invite 4 authors, living or dead, in any genre, who would you invite?
CR: Joan Hess, Elizabeth Peters, Terry Pratchett and P.G. Wodehouse (to keep it balanced). Agatha Christie was supposedly shy and introvert, so I’d rather have her for a private afternoon tea. Adriana would invite Dorothy Parker …
Kathy: What are you currently reading?
CR: Eryn
Scott’s Pebble Cove series.
Kathy: Will you share any of your hobbies or interests with us?
CR: Apart from spoiling my cats? Travel! Movies and books! Tap dance (which is on hiatus here in Italy), and I’m currently learning Italian. It’s a lot harder than I thought.
Kathy: Name 4 items you always have in your fridge or pantry.
CR: This
might sound weird, but I lived in Christchurch, New Zealand, during the
earthquakes that destroyed half the city centre and killed 185 people. Ever
since, I have to have enough cat food in my pantry, plus canned tomatoes,
pasta, and sparkling water.
Kathy: Do you have plans for future books either in your current series or a new series?
CR: I do! GHOST CONQUERS THE CASTLE will be set in Scotland at Christmas.
I’m also
hard at work on the next in series for the Jack and Frances mysteries, set in
London in 1932.
Kathy: What's your favorite thing about being an author?
CR: I have a chance to live vicariously through my characters, although I’m sometimes really envious when I compare their lives with mine. And once in a while a reader tells me how much my books help them escape for a while or even restore their faith in humanity. It doesn’t get much better than that!
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Review
GHOST AND THE HAUNTED HOUSE by Carmen Radtke
The Fourth Adriana and Genie Darling Mystery
As Halloween approaches Cobblewood Cove is seeing an upsurge in pranks, pranks with an occult edge. Does it have something to do with Samantha Bell’s recently opened shop, Bell’s Books and Candles? Eileen and her cronies are quick to blame Jolene who is trying to restore the town’s old speakeasy and make it a new night club, saying she’s bringing evil to the town. When pranks turn into vandalism with Jolene as the target Genie Darling decides to investigate. She and her ghostly Great-Great-Aunt Adriana, along with her cat, Cleo, will try to determine what, exactly, is going on. Things take an even darker turn when murder occurs…in Samantha’s locked store. Surely there’s nothing supernatural going on. But Genie will have to sort out matters quickly, before ghost hunters arrive threatening Adriana’s very existence.
Things are getting scary in Cobblewood Cove when signs of black magick begin to appear.
Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year and what better way to enjoy the spirit of the holiday then by reading an Adriana and Genie Darling Mystery. I love this duo, the younger ghostly great-great-aunt whose joy at living her best afterlife makes me smile and Genie, the good niece, friend, and ally. As an animal lover I envy Adriana's ability to talk with the animals. I love how Cleo was able to join in the investigation because of it.
I appreciate the juxtaposition of Jolene's down to earth business, both as handywoman and restorer and new proprietor of the speakeasy and Samantha's new age shop featuring crystals and other esoteric and otherworldly items. As someone who works with crystals I enjoyed seeing their benefits being touted. Genie, like so many people, misunderstands the symbol of the pentagram, which is not intrinsically evil, and what mediums actually do. I enjoyed the mystery and especially enjoyed the way in which Adriana and Cleo were able to help solve the murder. Locked room mysteries are a treat and this is a great rendition.
A lighthearted Halloween mystery with a hint of the macabre GHOST AND THE HAUNTED HOUSE is a delightful mix of friendship, loyalty, and murder.
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Ghost and the Haunted House (Genie and Adriana Darling Cozy Paranormal Ghost Mysteries) by Carmen Radtke
About Ghost and the Haunted House
Paranormal Cozy Mystery 4th in Series
Setting - Fictional small town in New England
Independently Published (May 29, 2024)
Print length: 194 pages
Could quaint Cobblewood Cove be a hotbed for black magic? Genie and her ghostly great-great-aunt Adriana have been too busy with their gelato business and helping with the restoration of the old speakeasy to notice that something isn’t quite right in their small town. Until pranks with touch of the macabre haunt the neighborhood, right before Halloween. But it gets worse. When a locked room murder case points straight at a connection to dark forces, the sleuthing duo fears for the living - and the not-quite so departed. Can they root out the evil in their midst before it ends Adriana’s happy afterlife - forever?
About Carmen Radtke
Carmen Radtke has spent most of her life with ink on her fingers and a dangerously high pile of books and newspapers by her side.
She has worked as a newspaper reporter on two continents and always dreamt of becoming a novelist and screenwriter.
When she found herself crouched under her dining table, typing away on a novel between two earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, she realised she was hooked for life.
The shaken but stirring novel made it to the longlist of the Mslexia competition, and her next book and first mystery, The Case Of The Missing Bride, was a finalist in the Malice Domestic competition in a year without a winner. Since then she has penned several more cozy mysteries, including the Jack and Frances series set in the 1930s and the Genie and Adriana Darling series.
Carmen now lives in Italy with her human and her four-legged family.
Author Links:
Website - www.carmenradtke.com
Facebook - www.facebook.com/Carmen-Radtke-1958399947738868/
Twitter/X - https://www.Twitter.com/CarmenRadtke1
Purchase Links: Amazon
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