I'm pleased to welcome Valetta Nibley to Cozy Up With Kathy today. You can find Valetta on the pages of the Vintage Kitchen Mystery series by Victoria Hamilton. Masher of Ceremonies is the thirteenth book in the series and was released Tuesday!
By Victoria Hamilton
My name is Valetta Nibley, and I’ve known Jaymie Leighton Müller as long as she’s been alive.
Let me back up a bit: Rebecca ‘Becca’ Leighton was my best friend when we were kids. We were the same age, went to the same schools, hung out together every day, even went on vacation together. We went camping in Canada together, and to Boblo Island, and into Detroit to the museums… everywhere. We did every school project together, fell in love with the same boys, hung out with the same group of friends, and even double-dated. We were constantly in each other’s houses, and when we weren’t, we were on the phone together. Back when a phone was attached to the wall with a long cord!
Then when Becca was about fifteen her mom had Jaymie! I was so excited, and once Jaymie was born, I fell absolutely in love with her. I mean, I was besotted. It was amazing having a friend with a baby sister to coo over and play with. Becca, though she did love Jaymie, left home early, while I hung around Queensville longer. Even when I went to college I still came back to my family home every weekend, pretty much, and I’d babysit for the Leightons.
So Jaymie always felt like my own baby sister. But as we all got older and she grew up, she went to Canada to university. When she came back home to Queensville and I came back from pharmacy school and my internship, she started to become more like an adult friend to me.
And that’s the way things have been for a long time now. Jaymie and I have become so close, but I’m happy that Becca, too, has come back to Queensville where she and her husband live a lot of the time and have opened an antique store, Queensville Fine Antiques.
Jaymie and I have moved on to a new phase, in a way; we’re opening a tearoom slash vintage store together, the Kitschy Kitchen. It’s a big step, going from friend to business partner.
But I’ve watched her over the years, how she has developed business ideas – she sold picnic lunches for a while, with vintage picnic baskets and food from the Queensville Inn, writes a food blog and a food column (Vintage Eats) for the local newspaper – always putting her everything into it. Most importantly, she was always able to adapt. If the idea worked, she ran with it, but if she found that something wasn’t working, she was able to pivot and either work out the bugs or let it go.
That’s an important talent, knowing when to let go. But it’s also important to know when to work through a crisis, and Jaymie has proven time and again that she is able to do that. I’m so proud of her. Lately, the age gap between us feels like it has closed. She’s my friend, now, not the kiddo I babysat all those years ago.
I know there will be challenges ahead, but I look forward to them. Have you ever or would you ever consider going into business with a friend? Many people say, don’t do it.
What do you think?
~::~
About Masher of Ceremonies:
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 . . .
About Victoria Hamilton:
Victoria Hamilton is the pseudonym of nationally bestselling romance author Donna Lea Simpson. Victoria is the bestselling author of three mystery series, the Lady Anne Addison Mysteries, the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries, and the Merry Muffin Mysteries. She also writes a Regency-set historical mystery series, starting with A Gentlewoman’s Guide to Murder. Visit her website at victoriahamiltonmysteries.com.
Social Details:
Website: http://www.VictoriaHamiltonMysteries.com (Sign up for her newsletter for all the latest!)
On Substack (Sign up for newsletter there… always FREE!): Go to: https://substack.com/@victoriahamiltonmysteries and ‘Subscribe’ for the FREE Victoria Hamilton Mysteries newsletter!
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VictoriaHamiltonMysteryAuthor
On BlueSky: @mysteryvictoria.bsky.social
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mysteryauthorvictoriahamilton/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/598635.Victoria_Hamilton
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Victoria-Hamilton/e/B007T7LGAU
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Masher of Ceremonies: A Vintage Kitchen Mystery by Victoria Hamilton
About Masher of Ceremonies
Setting - Michigan
Publisher: Beyond the Page
Publication Date: May 19, 2026
Print Length: 254 pages
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!
About Victoria Hamilton
Victoria Hamilton is the pseudonym of nationally bestselling romance author Donna Lea Simpson. Victoria is the bestselling author of three mystery series, the Lady Anne Addison Mysteries, the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries, and the Merry Muffin Mysteries. She also writes a Regency-set historical mystery series, starting with A Gentlewoman’s Guide to Murder. Visit her website at victoriahamiltonmysteries.com.
Social Details:
Website: http://www.VictoriaHamiltonMysteries.com (Sign up for her newsletter for all the latest!)
On Substack (Sign up for newsletter… always FREE!): Go to: https://substack.com/@victoriahamiltonmysteries and ‘Subscribe’ for the FREE Victoria Hamilton Mysteries newsletter!
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VictoriaHamiltonMysteryAuthor
On BlueSky: @mysteryvictoria.bsky.social
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mysteryauthorvictoriahamilton/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/598635.Victoria_Hamilton
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Victoria-Hamilton/e/B007T7LGAU
Purchase Links Ebooks: Amazon CA AmazonUS Kobo Barnes & Noble Smashwords Google Play Books
Paperback Books:
AmazonCA: Not yet available. AmazonUS Barnes and Noble
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