In the seaside town of Lighthouse Cove in northern California, everyone knows the best man for the job is actually a woman—contractor Shannon Hammer. But while Shannon can do wonders with a power drill and a little elbow grease, she’s about to discover that some problems aren’t so easily fixed....
Shannon’s home-renovation and repair business is booming, but her love life needs work. On a blind date with real estate agent Jerry Saxton, she has to whip out a pair of pliers to keep Jerry from getting too hands on. Shannon is happy to put her rotten date behind her, but when Jerry’s found dead in a run-down Victorian home that she’s been hired to restore, the town’s attractive new police chief suspects that her threats may have laid the foundation for murder.
Determined to clear her name, Shannon conducts her own investigation—with the help of her four best friends, her eccentric father, a nosy neighbor or two, and a handsome crime writer who’s just moved to town. But as they get closer to prying out the murderer’s identity, Shannon is viciously attacked. Now she’ll have to nail down the truth—or end up in permanent foreclosure.
Kate
Carlisle on Creating Lighthouse Cove
Hello,
my name is Kate Carlisle, and I have power over life and death.
Fictionally
speaking.
I’ve
just launched my second mystery series, The Fixer-Upper Mysteries, with A
HIGH-END FINISH (available now in paperback and ebook), and I brought to life
an entire town for your reading
pleasure.
At first
glance, Lighthouse Cove is an idyllic northern California coastal community,
with a charming downtown and amazing views everywhere you look, but behind that
perky façade is a growing sense of unrest. (This is a mystery series, after
all.) Those with all the wealth want more of it, and they won’t let
small-minded townies get in their way.
Shannon
Hammer bridges the gap between have and have-not. She’s blue collar all the
way, townie to her core, but she makes nice with the rich and powerful because her
construction company is the go-to choice for the wealthy owners of all of the cliffside
Victorian homes in need of restoration. In Lighthouse Cove, the best man for
the job is a woman.
The
Bibliophile Mysteries, my first mystery series, are set primarily in San
Francisco, so I work within the framework of a place that really exists. With the
Fixer-Upper Mysteries, though, I needed to create Lighthouse Cove from the
ground up with such a sense of history and place that it would feel as real to
readers as it does to me.
From A High-End Finish:
I turned up the radio to distract
myself and cruised through downtown past the Town Square on my way to one of my
houses a few streets north of Main Street.
The Town Square was pretty much
deserted at this time of the morning. In the center of the grassy square, a
large gazebo was set beneath sheltering trees. During the summer, free band
concerts were held there on the weekends. Everyone in town turned out, carrying
their lawn chairs and picnic hampers. The ice cream shop on the corner did a
bumper business on those nights. Some of my earliest best memories had taken
place right here. Fireworks. Marching bands. My mom and dad holding hands. Ice
cream.
Now, though, the Square was
silent. I scanned the area anyway on the off chance that I’d catch a glimpse of
one of my girlfriends opening her shop, but the only place open was the diner
on the corner. The other shops on the Square wouldn’t open for business for
another two hours or more.
It was just as well, I realized
as I drove on. I should probably avoid the area for the next few days. I knew
my gossip quotient had skyrocketed since I’d stumbled over Jerry’s body on
Sunday. Everyone in town would be vying to get the inside scoop from me, but I
dreaded the whispers and questions that would follow. I had to endure scrutiny
and doubt from the new police chief, but not from people I’d known my entire
life.
I hope Lighthouse
Cove will be a town you’ll enjoy visiting again and again. Grab A HIGH-END
FINISH to get in on The Fixer-Upper Mysteries from the very beginning!
Golden Heart and Daphne du Maurier Award winning author Kate Carlisle spent over twenty years working in television production as an Associate Director for game and variety shows, including The Midnight Special, Solid Gold and The Gong Show. She traveled the world as a Dating Game chaperone and performed strange acts of silliness on The Gong Show. She also studied acting and singing, toiled in vineyards, collected books, joined a commune, sold fried chicken, modeled spring fashions and worked for a cruise ship line, but it was the year she spent in law school that finally drove her to begin writing fiction. It seemed the safest way to kill off her professors. Those professors are breathing easier now that Kate spends most of her time writing near the beach in Southern California where she lives with her perfect husband.
A lifelong love of old books and an appreciation of the art of bookbinding led Kate to create the Bibliophile Mysteries, featuring rare book expert Brooklyn Wainwright, whose bookbinding and restoration skills invariably uncover old secrets, treachery and murder. Kate is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers and Romance Writers of America. She loves to drink good wine and watch other people cook.
Despite the appearance of overnight success, Kate's dream of publication took many, many years to fulfill.
What a fabulous start to a new series! Lighthouse Cove is the perfect setting for this charming cozy mystery. Shannon is a wonderful antagonist, and her supporting cast of characters add so much to the story! The mystery was creative, very well plotted, and kept me guessing right up to the end.
Ms. Carlisle has a gem of a series on her hand. I am looking forward to seeing more of Shannon and Lighthouse Cove. This book just shot on to my "favorites" list!
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.
25 comments:
Well, I'm hooked! Two of my favorite things: mysteries and lighthouses!
I would love to have the chance to win this book. Thanks for the great post on it and having a giveaway!
I love Kate's books! Can't wait to read this one.
would love to win this book!!! thanks for the chance :)
Thanks! I like her books a lot and would love to win this one. By the way, your link to follow Kate on twitter doesn't work because it is spelled wrong.
The link on the Twitter follow button is spelled wrong! But I already follow Kate, so it wasn't a problem for me :-)
Gretchen above is right about the Twitter follow button. I also follow Kate already.
Anxious to read this book. I love redoing houses!!
Excited about this series
What do you know, Patricia? Those are two of my favorite things, too! :) I hope you'll love your first visit to Lighthouse Cove in A HIGH-END FINISH.
Thank you, Angie. Good luck!
Thank you! That's so nice of you to say! <3
Thanks for entering the giveaway, Darlene. Good luck!
Oh, how nice! Thank you, Elaine. So glad to hear you love my books. Thanks for noticing the typo. You can find me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/katecarlisle
Aw, thanks for the follow, Gretchen!
Thank you, Connie! Best of luck in the giveaway.
I hope you'll love A HIGH-END FINISH, Ronna! Sounds like it's the perfect book for you. :) I have a lot of fun redoing houses through Shannon Hammer... all of the fun, none of the manual labor. ;)
Yay! I'm excited that you're excited!
Love starting a new series at the beginning, especially one that sounds so good. Thanks for the chance to win.
I am looking forward to reading a High End Finish. Thank you for the chance to win a copy.
Kathy Rando Giannone
I would love to read this book! Thanks for the chance!
Thank you for the chance!
Your books look so good
Hi Kate! Your books are wonderful! Thanks for the opportunity to win! I would be so blessed to win! I am having a lot of difficulty with the entries, they won't go through! Also, twitter is not taking me to your page, are u sure it is correct on rafflecopter, it has it as KareCarlisle, instead of KateCarlisle. Please let me know what I should do! I am praying to win! I have been very ill lately and I could really use the book when I am at the hospital for treatments! I go to the library when I can but I have read all I like, that they have and it is not such a big library and have no more funds to purchase any in the near future!
I finally got it to work! My entries are in! Thanks again for the opportunity to win! God Bless You and Your Family! Have a wonderful, blessed day!
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