Hotshot Shamus - A Guest Post & Giveaway

I'm pleased to allow Percy Cole to take over Cozy Up With Kathy today. You can find Percy on the pages of the Persephone Cole Vintage Mystery series. Hotshot Shamus is the fourth book in the series.

A Hotshot Shamus 

My name is Percy Cole. I’m a private investigator licensed in the five boroughs of New York City. You can also call me a gumshoe, private eye, sleuth, beagle, dick, flatfoot, shamus, whatever you want. It’s all fine by me. And don’t be confused by my moniker. I’m a woman, not a man. Some people think of it as a disadvantage. That’s their loss. If you hire me and pay me the going rate (fifteen bucks a day plus expenses), I will do what any male PI can do, only better.

Sometimes people are shocked when they find out they’re dealing with a lady detective. But as Mae West says, “Those who are easily shocked should be shocked more often.” Sure, once in a while from the back, I’ve been mistaken for a man. I’m nearly six feet tall and if my red hair is tucked up under my fedora and I’m wearing one of the men’s suits Mother altered for me, it can happen. People see what they expect to see. You’d think they’d know better. Women in the workforce are here to stay. Especially me.

These are modern times, 1943, and there’s a war raging overseas. Now’s the time for women to step up, take our place in society, and do the jobs only men did before. As for me and my job, I take boxing lessons in case I have to rough some felon up before I haul him off to jail. It’s happened before and it’ll happen again. I also learned how to fire the German Mauser my uncle left me in his will. But frankly, I mostly use the old noodle to get the job done. In my line of work, you gotta think on your feet.

I remember one of my first cases. This rich guy hired me to locate his run-away daughter before the cops did. You could say she was a bit on the wild side, her being seen schtupping a man in her father’s 5th Avenue jewelry store window after hours. Then the man was found dead, she took off running, and all eyes were on her. Of course, I found her before the cops but when I did she thought I was a man and started screaming and kicking. I grabbed her by the scruff of the neck, told her what’s what, and hid her out until I got to the bottom of who really killed her lover. I still got the shin splints from dealing with her. But it’s all part of the job. Turned out she was a sweet kid. I was tough on her, but she needed it.

Speaking of sweet kids, I should mention Oliver, my eight-year-old son. He is the child who gives my life meaning. I’m a single, working mom, and I’m grateful every day for my family that loves and stands by my kid. Think it’s odd this tough cookie should talk about her family? Let’s face it, it’s a rare woman who doesn’t deal with family matters, no matter how tough we are.

About men: when it comes to the male gender, I have my moments, you bet. There are men who fall for this redheaded broad with my wicked sense of humor. But I’ll stop there. We need to keep this family rated.

I was talking just the other day to my good friend, Sam Spade. He’d just finished up a case with a fat man and a black bird. I said, “Sam, where do they crawl out from?” And then I told him my story of finding a dead woman drown in a vat of chocolate. In Brooklyn, no less. Sam shook his head in wonderment and offered me a shot of whiskey, neat. I took him up on it, but only for a quick one. I had to get home and tuck Oliver in. Working mom and all that. 

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 Hotshot Shamus (The Persephone Cole Vintage Mysteries) by Heather Haven

About Hotshot Shamus

Hotshot Shamus (The Persephone Cole Vintage Mysteries)
Cozy Mystery 4th in Series
New York City 1943
The Wives Of Bath Press (April 18, 2023)
Paperback: ‎ 324 pages

Persephone (Percy) Cole saves the life of a senator’s granddaughter but had no idea how much her own life was going to change as a result. There’s the unwanted fame, reporters hounding her mercilessly, and past enemies crawling out of the woodwork. Worse yet, our 5’11” lady shamus now has to dress the part of the successful PI! Then an unknown murderer tries to frame Percy for his killing spree, leaving deadly clues pointing to her. Worse yet, these are followed by death threats against her and her family.

But who? And why?

About Heather Haven

Back in the Punic Wars, Heather wrote ad copy, comedy acts, and had several plays performed very Off-Broadway. Her novels include the Silicon Valley-based Alvarez Family Murder Mysteries, Manhattan-based Persephone Cole Vintage Mysteries, Love Can Be Murder Mysteries, Snow Lake Romantic Suspense, and standalone, Murder under the Big Top, inspired by her mother’s stint as a performer with Ringling Brothers’ Circus. Just to break up the monotony, her short stories are featured in here anthology, Corliss and Other Award-Winning Stories. She and her husband are allowed to live in the foothills of San Jose, California, with their cat, Ellie.

Author Links:  

Webpage https://heatherhavenstories.com/  

Blog https://heatherhavenstories.com/blog/  

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/heather.haven.5/  

GoodReads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4584715.Heather_Haven  

Purchase Link - Amazon 

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The Drop Dead Temple of Doom - A Guest Post & Giveaway

I'm pleased to welcome Lila Hamilton-Alvarez to Cozy Up With Kathy today. You can find Lila on the pages of the Alvarez Family Murder Mysteries. The Drop Dead Temple of Doom is the eighth book in the series and will be released tomorrow.

Lila Hamilton-Alvarez Speaks Out

As the CEO of the family-run, Silicon Valley-based detective agency, Discretionary Inquiries, it is a rare day I am able to be a part of one of my daughter, Liana’s, cases. She is the in-house investigator for our business and is quite successful at what she does. Recently, in The Drop-Dead Temple of Doom, I had an opportunity to experience and share her day-to-day investigative protocols and procedures. It is something I am never, ever going to be a part of again.

My daughter takes after her father, Roberto Alvarez, my late and very much missed husband. Liana is – as was her father – impetuous, intuitive, smart, and determined. She will even wear navy-blue with black, something he did time after time, no matter how much I protested. This is painful for me to see, as I am a firm believer that which separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom is our ability to accessorize.

Even though I love her to distraction, I’ve had to face the fact that there is very little of me in my daughter. It’s not just her temperament and sense of humor, but she even has her father’s coloring. While I am ash blonde, blue-eyed, and fair-skinned, Liana has dark, almost black hair, twilight-colored eyes, and just a touch of gold to her skin tone.

I have great respect for her sleuthing abilities, as I did with her father. While I was spending most of my time recently in the jungles of Guatemala donning insect repellent and checking the dew point, she seemed to have a fairly good idea of the deviltry going on around us. And being tenacious, she never gave up until she got to the bottom of it.

That’s not to say I didn’t do my part. I have my skills, appropriately attired in an Abercrombie and Fitch safari outfit, complete with matching pith helmet. Right before we flew from Palo Alto, California, to the wilds of El Mirador, Guatemala, I’d finished a two-week wilderness survival training course. I built a fire and knew my compass directions. But I had no idea what skills both my daughter and I would need when we were trapped in the king’s tomb under a pyramid right after an earthquake. But I am getting ahead of myself. And telling too much of the story. It was an adventure unlike any I’d experienced before. Roberto would have loved it.

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 The Drop-Dead Temple of Doom (The Alvarez Family Murder Mysteries) by Heather Haven

About The Drop-Dead Temple of Doom

The Drop-Dead Temple of Doom (The Alvarez Family Murder Mysteries)
Cozy Mystery 8th in Series
Setting - Ancient Mayan ruins, El Mirador, Guatemala
Publisher - The Wives of Bath Press (September 15, 2021)
Number of Pages - 332

A MOUTHFUL OF POISON FROG…. WHERE’S THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE?

Ace detective Lee Alvarez is perfectly cozy at home with her cats when she and her former Navy SEAL husband receive a panicky call from JJ, an archeologist cousin, who’s on assignment deep in the Guatemalan jungle. The news? JJ is pregnant-- and the father of her child has gone missing in the wilderness. The site director won’t let JJ call the police, so she asks Lee to travel to the jungle and track down her missing man.

Begging for help from Lee Alvarez sure makes sense--Lee’s family runs Discretionary Inquiries, a ritzy Silicon Valley P.I. firm. Lee is the star detective, her Uncle Tio’s on staff as the genius chef, and Lee’s brother, Richard, is a whiz at all things technology. Not to mention the presence of Lee’s very high class, upscale, and frankly scary mother Lila. Who--by the way—steamrolls her way onto Lee’s jungle trip.

A beleaguered Lee, the judgmental and prissy Lila, and Lee’s gorgeous SEAL husband (turned partner-in-crime) depart on the adventure of a lifetime, perfect for cozy mystery armchair travelers. And, once in the jungle, the already-gripping story takes a grisly turn: the three investigators have barely arrived in the lush, verdant wilderness when they discover a dead man--the assistant to JJ’s missing husband--dressed in traditional Mayan warrior garb with a poisonous frog crammed in his mouth.

And that’s just for starters: author Haven concocts a wild ride through the jungle that’s simultaneously fun, potentially fatal, and always entertaining.

Fans of cozy authors like CeeCee James, Hope Callaghan, and of course Janet Evanovich, will discover a new favorite series! Lee’s gang will also appeal to lovers of female PIs, especially those with lots of colorful friends and relatives, like Linda Barnes’ Carlotta Carlyle and Lisa Lutz’s Izzy Spellman. A near certainty: If you like THE SPELLMAN FILES, you’ll love the Alvarez family!

 

About Heather Haven

After studying drama at the University of Miami in Miami, Florida, Heather went to Manhattan to pursue a career. There she wrote short stories, novels, comedy acts, television treatments, ad copy, commercials, and two one-act plays, produced at several places, such as Playwrights Horizon. Once she even ghostwrote a book on how to run an employment agency. She was unemployed at the time.

One of her first paying jobs was writing a love story for a book published by Bantam called Moments of Love. She had a deadline of one week but promptly came down with the flu. Heather wrote "The Sands of Time" with a raging temperature, and delivered some pretty hot stuff because of it. Her stint at New York City’s No Soap Radio—where she wrote comedic ad copy—help develop her longtime love affair with comedy.

She has won many awards for the humorous Alvarez Family Murder Mysteries, Persephone Cole Vintage Mysteries, and Corliss and Other Award Winning Stories. However, her proudest achievement is winning the Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) 2014 Silver Medal for her stand-alone noir mystery, Murder Under the Big Top.

As the real-life daughter of Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey circus folk, she was inspired by stories told throughout her childhood by her mother, a trapeze artist and performer. The book cover even has a picture of her mother sitting atop an elephant from that time. Her father trained elephants. Heather brings the daily existence of the Big Top to life during World War II, embellished by her own murderous imagination.

Author Links:  

Website: www:heatherhavenstories.com  

Blog - http://heatherhavenstories.com/blog/  

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/HeatherHavenStories  

Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/Twitter@HeatherHaven  

Sign up for Heather’s newsletter at: http://heatherhavenstories.com/subscribe-via-email/  

Purchase Links - Amazon -

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Casting Call for a Corpse - An Interview & Giveaway

I'm pleased to welcome Heather Haven back to Cozy Up With Kathy today. Heather writes the Alvarez Family Murder Mystery series. Casting Call for a Corpse is the seventh book in the series and was released August 1st, 2020.

Kathy: In Casting Call for a Corpse Lee Alvarez finds a corpse in one of San Francisco's Painted Ladies. I love these Victorian homes. What do you think makes these homes so special?

HH: I think they’re special because they just ooze charm. Every nook and cranny whispers, “Just look at me, would you? Aren’t I just the cat’s meow? Look at that woodwork! and the stained glass! And have you ever seen a staircase as special as mine?” I’ve only been inside one in my life and I couldn’t believe how unique it was, loaded with design, craftsmanship, and, of course, charm.


Kathy: The prime suspect happens to be Lee's friend, an internationally acclaimed actress. Said actress is also taking part in a new musical. Do you enjoy musicals? Do you have any favorites?

HH: I love musicals! My husband and I met during our youthful forays in the theater. He was (and is) a singer and worked on Broadway in the original Grease (Doody). I worked backstage on Broadway doing costumes on many musicals. Annie, A Chorus Line, just to name two of the more popular ones. Nowadays we see a lot of musicals, but it’s from the audience rather than the wings. I don’t know if I could pick a favorite, though. Maybe Guys and Dolls, The Music Man, Hamilton! Wait, wait! My Fair Lady. And of course, A Chorus Line. Wait, wait, wait! How could I forget Gypsy? Gypsy is supposed to be the most perfect musical ever written. I read that somewhere. When I was really young one of the first musicals I ever saw was Hello Dolly when Ethel Merman was filling in for Carol Channing. I saw the power of a dynamite actress in the lead role. I never forgot that night.


Kathy: An anniversary in Paris is calling Lee. If COVID-19 didn't exist, where would you like to have an anniversary trip?

HH: The fantasy I set up for the newly married couple isn’t so bad! A trip to Paris, dinner atop the Eiffel Tower, and being showered with sapphires by a handsome man wearing a tux. Works for me.


Kathy: Was there a specific inspiration for this story?

HH: I wanted to combine the ongoing characters from the series with a few characters from a play I penned some time ago. I also wanted to add a Scottish character in honor of my heart sister, who was adopted at birth and recently found her Scottish birth family. An homage, doncha know. Frankly, I wasn't sure I could make it work. Some nights I lost sleep over whether or not I could pull this into anything readable. But I managed to do it and some readers are saying it’s my best book. That makes me feel great.


Kathy: Are you able to share any future plans for Lee?

HH: Lee Alvarez has a blessed life. She’s funny, smart, and loves a good adventure. She’s surrounded by positive, loving people and manages to do the kind of work she’s good at and loves doing. She’s going to keep on falling into one adventure after another aided by hubby, Tugger the Cat, and family. And she’ll keep learning and growing as she goes along.


Kathy: Will you share any other upcoming books?

HH: I have just begun a book from one of my other series, The Persephone Cole Vintage Mysteries. These mysteries take place during WWII and usually revolve around a holiday. This one, as yet unnamed, will take place around Mother’s Day. I haven’t written one of the books for awhile, but I polled some of my readers and that’s the book they’d like to see happen next. I have to say, I really have some marvelous readers, who – like Lee – are funny, smart, and love a good adventure. The 5th book of the Alvarez series, The CEO Came DOA, came about because readers wrote to me and said they’d like to see Lee have a Christmas wedding. It was such a fun idea, I had to write it. And what an adventure it turned out to be, too!

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Casting Call for a Corpse: A Fun Detective Cozy (The Alvarez Family Murder Mysteries) by Heather Haven

About Casting Call for a Corpse

 

Casting Call for a Corpse: A Fun Detective Cozy (The Alvarez Family Murder Mysteries) 

Cozy Mystery 7th in Series  

Publisher: The Wives of Bath Press (August 1, 2020) 

Print Length: 295 pages

A DETECTIVE AGENCY WITH HEART. AND A WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!

 

Super sleuth, Lee Alvarez, finds a dead man wearing a tuxedo in a friend’s bathtub during a soiree for San Francisco’s VIPs. And not just any friend, but an internationally acclaimed actress who recently came to live in San Francisco. And not just any bathtub, but a bathtub residing inside one of Alamo Square’s famed Painted Ladies, recently bought by said actress.

 

The police believe it’s the actress friend who done the man in. After all, it’s her house and her tub. And another man died under suspicious circumstances around her recently. Both romantic encounters, doncha know. The actress must be guilty.

 

Or is she?

 

For ace detective Lee Alvarez, the timing couldn’t be worse. She is supposed to go off in celebration of her 6-month wedding anniversary with her hunky hubby. Paris is calling!

 

Or is it?

 

Her long-time friend, plus her mother – She Who Must Be Obeyed – thinks she should stick around and find out who the real killer is. So Lee, family, handsome hubby, and Tugger, the cat, are on the job. But Lee’s nose is itching. Which means not one of the suspects is telling the truth.

 

Or not all of it. Lee soon uncovers threatening letters, sullen playwrights, dead bodies, and a criminal web of jewel thieves, all treading the boards of her friend’s latest musical. This is showbiz?

 

Author Haven pulls out all the stops in a cozy fan’s delight about a charming, and unconventional Palo Alto detective family who get their man or woman, as the case may be. Book Seven follows its tradition of the Bay Area’s favorite PI, who rolls over with all four paw in the air when it comes to her darn near perfect mother. But with the help of her computer geek brother and handsome hubby, Lee works to solve the case in time to celebrate her own 6-month wedding anniversary.

About Heather Haven

Heather moved to the Bay Area and studied creative writing at Stanford University. Previously, several of her comedy acts and plays were performed in NYC. Her novels include the humorous Silicon Valley-based Alvarez Family Murder Mysteries, Manhattan-based Persephone Cole Vintage Mysteries, Love Can Be Murder Novellas, Snow Lake Romantic Suspense Series and standalone mystery noir, Murder under the Big Top, based upon her mother’s stint as a performer with Ringling Brothers’ Circus. There is also her anthology, Corliss and Other Award-Winning Stories. Her favorite protagonist is in Corliss, one of the featured short stories, but don’t tell anyone!

Author Links:  
Website - http://heatherhavenstories.com/,  
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/HeatherHavenStories/,

 Purchase Link - Amazon

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