Cozy Mystery Blog Tour: Author Guest Post, Review & Giveaway: Stirring the Plot (A Cookbook Nook Mystery #3) by Daryl Wood Gerber

Halloween in Crystal Cove, California, is a big deal, involving a spooky soiree where the Winsome Witches, a fund-raising group, gather to open up their purse strings and trade superstitions. But party magicians, fortune-tellers, and herbalists are only the beginning of this recipe for disaster…

Jenna Hart has packed The Cookbook Nook chock-full of everything from ghostly texts to witchy potions in anticipation of the annual fund-raiser luncheon. But there’s one unexpected addition to the menu: murder.

When the Head Priestess of the Winsome Witches is found dead under mysterious circumstances, there’s no logical answer and plenty of blame to go around. With her aunt, Vera, unable to call on her ability to foresee the future, Jenna will have to use more than just sleight of hand and a few magic tricks to conjure up the truth.

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Have you ever noticed that in TV shows you can figure out whodunit by who is in the cast? Big-named actors are coming out in droves to appear in popular shows. The moment they come onto the scene, you think to yourself, “Aha! I know who did it.” But then there’s another named actor or actress, and you think, “Whoa, maybe I don’t.” But then two suspects get ruled out, there’s only one named actor left to choose, and yet again, you think, “Aha!”

In books, it’s a whole different story, isn’t it? Mystery authors do their best to play fair. They give you a number of suspects, and they keep leading you down the trail toward the solution. If you haven’t met the characters before the current book, they’re all suspect, aren’t they? Not the protagonist of course. You’re rooting for her. But the wily beautician, the mean grocer, the shady lawyer.

Isn’t that fun?

As a writer, that’s the most interesting part of writing for me. I love creating all these characters. They live in my brain and on the page. Over the course of my career, I’ve had the privilege to create a ton of characters. In fact, I just put a list together with all the names I’ve ever come up with [I can’t give someone in one book the same name as a character in another], and I discovered that for the Cookbook Nook and Cheese Shop mysteries alone (a total of 12 books turned into my editor, to date), I have created over 100 characters. And I’ve written a few suspense and thrillers that have a wealth of characters, too. I know. Yipes, right?! How do I keep them all straight? With charts. But I have to populate books. A mystery with one suspect and one protagonist isn’t much of a mystery. So there I go creating the wily beautician, the mean grocer, the shady lawyer, and more. Good guys and bad guys. By the way, I can’t have suspects continue to live in town after a book because, well, if  you read the next book first, you might know they aren’t suspect, so—author’s privilege—I move them, transfer them, make them disappear. Magic! Which means I have to come up with more “new” characters. Fun!

You know what else is a blast? Hearing from fans that love this character or loathe that one. I adore hearing what my fans think about my protagonist’s love life, too. Should she be with so-and-so? What about the one that got away?

FYI, I could talk for hours about how my characters are not based on real people, yet people still walk away convinced that some are. You might wonder whether my main characters in the Cookbook Nook and Cheese Shop mysteries are thinly veiled versions of myself. As if. They’re young and optimistic. Okay, yes, I am optimistic. Always have been. But I’ve never been as curious as they, nor as daring.

Last but not least, you might wonder where I get my character names. The ether?? Sometimes. I try names out, say them out loud, see if they stick. I’ve been known to change names for characters a lot. Jesse became Jenna (close). Kathleen became Vivian (not even starting with the same letter). I’ve give some characters offbeat names because I love when a name stands out—I can remember them well. However, that can backfire. A few fans have written to tell me a name was too weird. They didn’t like Edsel. Why not? I know an Edsel. They didn’t like Dane, either. Yes, I know a Dane, too. Not everyone can be Tom, Dick, or Harry. But what can you do? I thank my fans and move on.

Now, in closing, here’s a poser: in one of my books, after I changed a character name, one instance of the original name stayed in the book. Oops! I’ve only had one fan tell me so far. I won’t tell you who the character is or in which book, but the first fan to contact me and tell me who and which (before September 30), will win a cute Savor the Mystery mug! I will tell you it was in the first edition of the book and has subsequently been fixed, and I promise to reveal the answer in a future blog. Honestly, I couldn’t believe it when I learned of the mistake. That means my first readers, my editor, my copy editor, and I all missed it!!!

Savor the Mystery and enjoy all the characters you meet as you read.

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Below is a tidbit about STIRRING THE PLOT, the next in my Cookbook Nook mysteries. It comes out September 30!  FYI, though I write a series, each book is a stand-alone and can be read first, even if you haven’t read the others in the series.

STIRRING THE PLOT

(3^rd in Cookbook Nook Mysteries)

Halloween in Crystal Cove, California, is a big deal, involving a spooky soiree where the Winsome Witches, a fund-raising group, gather to open up their purse strings and trade superstitions. But party magicians, fortune-tellers, and herbalists are only the beginning of this recipe for disaster. Jenna Hart has packed The Cookbook Nook chock-full of everything from ghostly texts to witchy potions in anticipation of the annual fund-raiser luncheon. But there’s one unexpected addition to the menu: murder. When the Head Priestess of the Winsome Witches is found dead, there’s plenty of blame to go around, and Jenna will have to use more than just sleight of hand to conjure up the truth…

[This is NOT a paranormal story. It is a traditional cozy mystery.]

Daryl Wood Gerber is the author of A Cookbook Nook Mystery series, featuring an avid reader, admitted foodie, and owner of a cookbook store in picturesque coastal California.

Prior to her career as a novelist, Daryl wrote screenplays and created the format for the popular TV sitcom Out of this World. A fun tidbit for mystery buffs, Daryl was also an actress and co-starred on "Murder, She Wrote", as well as other TV shows. Daryl is originally from the Bay Area and graduated from Stanford University. She loves to cook, read, golf, swim, and garden. She also likes adventure and has been known to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. She has been happily married for over twenty-five years, and Daryl and her husband have a grown son who has flown the coop. 

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Ooo I LOVE Halloween!  So any Halloween-themed book is quickly snatched up and read.  As a huge fan of the Cookbook Nook Mystery series, when I discovered the plot for this newest addition, I was unbelievably excited.  I waited patiently for it to arrive on my doorstep, and when it did, I read it from start to finish in a matter of hours.  

This series is remarkable in it's creativity, and the author always does an amazing job of making her characters feel like people you'd live with in your very own community.  In Stirring the Plot, she brings out the eccentricities of the characters, bringing you all the more close to each and every one of them.  Of course, she also writes a phenomenal mystery (and that's ALWAYS a bonus!). 

I read a lot of cozies, and so many of them have so many similar traits.  But this series is different.  It's one that I've enjoyed immersing myself into and I'm looking forward to what's to come for the residents of Crystal Cove.  

Rating:  5 stars

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.  All conclusions reached are my own.  

Thanks to the awesome ladies at Penguin, I have 1 paperback copy of Stirring the Plot by Daryl Wood Gerber to give away to one of my lucky readers!  Just enter the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win, and be sure to keep checking back for more awesome giveaways! 

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