Nadine Doolittle's Blog

WOW. Four years ago when I began the St. Ives Book Club Mystery Series with Advertisement for Murder, it was a fun project that kept me busy while I was submitting my Young Adult manuscript to agents and publishers. Amateur sleuthing in small town Ontario was supposed to be a little side gig while I got on with my real writing. 
Hah! Ten books later, I learned so much and had a great time in the process.
In the four-year span of writing the series, I experienced personal tragedy, immense joy and a global pandemic thrown in just to keep things interesting. Through it all, I had the St. Ives book club to keep my spirits up. 
But now we come to the end. The last book in the series is launching December 5, 2023 on Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited.
The Final Chapter


An iron-clad confession. A closed case. But the wrong man is in prison. 
Elliot Marks is convinced the real killer of a missing CSIS agent is still at large and will kill again if he isn't stopped. The amateur sleuthing of the St. Ives Book Club comes full circle in the Abercrombie library at will be their final meeting. As he did in the beginning, Elliot suggests they forgo reading about murder and prevent one instead.  But when the deductive genius of Marks leads him to brand a harmless and respected member of St. Ives society a serial killer, Avery Holmes and the book club wonder if they made a mistake. 
Elliot will not be talked out of testing his theory to the limit. Time is running out. He knows he must act swiftly to prevent another murder before the final chapter.
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Thank you for sticking with me for all these years. I'm going to take a break for a year (2024) to work on other projects, returning in 2025 with a new mystery series. 
I wish you peace and joy in this holiday season and in the New Year. 
Best wishes,Nadine 

 I wrote these titles between 2019 and 2021 for traditional publication. When they didn't find a home in the big bad pandemic world, I brought them back to live with me on my hard drive. 

In October, after launching The Missing Foote Mystery (Book #9 in St. Ives Book Club Mystery), I opened the manuscripts to take a look. Both had gone through several editorial passes; I felt confident they were ready for prime time. 

And I still liked them so here they are! A Sorta Fairytale is a standalone novel. Dawn at the Edge of the World is complete but I originally planned it to be a trilogy so the sequels will be written and published in 2024. Click on the covers to read the blurbs for each. They are fresh out of the oven. 

Both titles are in Kindle Unlimited and exclusive to Amazon until January 10, 2024. Then they will be published on all the ebook retailer platforms. Print is Amazon only, I'm afraid. I was going to do Ingram Spark as well but since they don't distribute to Chapters in Canada, I decided to postpone until I have the time to set up the files. 

In the meantime... I am toiling away on the last book in the St. Ives Book Club Mystery series. The preorder is scheduled for November 8, 2023 and the book releases on December 5, 2023. Follow me on Amazon to be notified or watch this space for the pre-order link.

Yep, I'm doing it. I'm taking the first three books in St. Ives Book Club Mystery Series to Kobo, Google Play, Barnes and Noble and Apple iBooks this Fall 2023!

Advertisement for Murder (Oct. 18)Death Knocks Twice (Oct. 30)Dead to the World (Nov. 27)

For those of us who don't understand what this means - Kindle Unlimited is a subscription service for book lovers. For a monthly fee, subscribers can borrow 10 (or is it 20 now?) books in a month. For big readers, this is an economical choice. 

For authors who enroll their books in the program, we cannot publish anywhere else for 90 days. In exchange, we're paid a percentage for every page of our books that are read. It's a great way for a new author to gain readers and fans for their series. However, it means we are not spreading our wings to other retailers.

I decided to wait until St. Ives Book Club Mystery was almost finished and reads had plateaued in Kindle Unlimited before moving the series out. It's like seeing a series on Netflix but it's not available on Prime. That sort of thing. 

I'm excited to introduce readers who frequent the other bookstores to the St. Ives Book Club amateur sleuths. The last book in the series, The Final Chapter, will be released in Kindle Unlimited Dec. 12, 2023 as usual. 

If the series does find readers in other markets, I'll move all of the books out of Kindle Unlimited gradually throughout 2024. 

IN OTHER NEWS:

The Missing Foote Mystery : Book #9 in St. Ives Book Club Mystery Series is out now!

On Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited

One country fair. Two dead bodies. Hundreds of suspects.

Avery Holmes is chagrined when the debut of her thriller, The Spy Wore Heels, is held at Northumberland County's Agricultural Fair but when a body is dug up during the plowing match, her book launch goes from bad to worse.

Agent Lannister Foote vanished last year under mysterious circumstances that CSIS analyst Elliot Marks refused to investigate. That the missing Foote turned up (literally) is not surprising to Marks. But who is the killer? A farmer's field hints at someone local. Someone they all know. Someone who is at the scene the moment the corpse is unearthed.

Then another body is discovered in the corn maze - this time bizarrely hung up like a scarecrow. The fair-goers and organizers are starting to panic.

​​​​With the sprawling five-day event under threat and pressure from the big commercial farming interests to solve the murders and fast, the St. Ives Book Club rally together to uncover a shocking secret. 

LAST BUT NOT LEAST:

THANK YOU ARC team members (advance reader reviewers) for reading this series and leaving reviews on the various book sites that we all love. You have helped readers decide to take a chance on a new mystery (and me) and we all appreciate it! 

I am looking for readers to review for Kobo, Google Play, Barnes and Noble and Apple. If you like to read murder mystery for free (that is on the cosy side of the spectrum), subscribe to my newsletter The Butler Didn't Do It  and get a free short story, Long Shadows Fall, to sample the series and my writing style. Then, if you would like to read the first three in the series for review on the sites listed, contact me through the newsletter and I'll be in touch. 

HOW TO BECOME AN ARC READER:

1. Subscribe to The Butler Didn't Do It

2. Download your free copy of Long Shadows Fall

3. Reply to newsletter with request to be added to the Team

4. I send you the link to download your books to review

5. Read. Review. Post on your favourite retailer site. 

 

Click here to PREORDER

RELEASE DATE: October 10, 2023

Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited

Book #9 in St. Ives Book Club Mystery Series

🔎

One country fair. Two dead bodies. Hundreds of suspects.

Avery Holmes is chagrined when the debut of her thriller, The Spy Wore Heels is held at Northumberland County's Agricultural Fair but when a body is dug up during the plowing match, her book launch goes from bad to worse.

Agent Lannister Foote vanished last year under mysterious circumstances that CSIS analyst Elliot Marks refused to investigate. That the missing Foote turned up (literally) is not surprising to Marks. But who is the killer? A farmer's field hints at someone local. Someone they all know. Someone who is at the scene the moment the corpse is unearthed.

Then another body is discovered in the corn maze - this time bizarrely hung up like a scarecrow - and the fair-goers and organizers start to panic.

​​​​With the sprawling five-day event under threat and pressure from the big commercial farming interests to solve the murders and fast, the St. Ives Book Club rally together to uncover a shocking secret. 

The idea for Sixth and Sensibility came to me way back in May of this year. Like its namesake, Sense and Sensibility, I thought it would be fun to put an impulsive psychic with a skeptical realist and see what happened. 

With murder. And mystery. Because of course. 

The third book in A Gracie and Gideon Mystery is out Tuesday September 5, 2023 on Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited. (Available for preorder now!)

One Vexed Vampire rounds out the trilogy, finishing the first chapter of Gracie Dare's story while leaving the door open for the series to continue at a later date. 

I started the series as a fun writing project for the summer and it was a blast. I'm trying to challenge myself as an author to experiment with new genres. Paranormal mystery is not what I usually read. I don't like books with magic, for example. But a psychic amateur sleuth in a quirky book publishing company with an attractive but cranky book editor? Yep. I can get behind that. 

 

ONE VEXED VAMPIRE

Just when I thought I was getting my psychic mojo back, a vampire has to stroll into town.

There is no such thing as vampires. Ghosts? Of course. Vampires? Please. 

Unfortunately, Mortimer Drake didn't get the memo. The long-lost love of Hazel Ripe, one of Arcania Press's authors, stumbles out of the Maine woods claiming he's being hunted by a vampire. He disappeared fifty years ago and has been living as a hermit until he became the prey of a bloodthirsty man with fangs. 

The non-existence of vampires is something my skeptical editor, Gideon Tate and I can agree on. However, my sixth sense informs me loud and clear that something dark is chasing the old hermit. 

Gideon thinks my "gift" is on the fritz until Mortimer's body turns up - bloodless - in an old cemetery. Then dead chickens begin to turn up in Mirror Falls and suspicion falls on sweet Hazel Ripe! If it wasn't for the belladonna growing in her garden or the fact that she's an expert in bloodletting, she might have a chance of clearing her name. 

For once, Gideon is forced to think outside the box and accept my help. Naturally, with my ESP, I'm confident I'll have the job done by sunset. 

With the launch of Hazel's book fast approaching and everything on the line for Arcania Press, I soon discover there is nothing natural about this mystery. 

PREORDER YOUR COPY HERE 

Sixth and Sensibility 2: A Gracie and Gideon Mystery
Releasing August 8, 2023 on Amazon Kindle and in Kindle UnlimitedPreorder is available now!
One Wily Witch

Opposites attract when psychic, Gracie Dare, inherits a peculiar publishing house and a skeptical (but hot) editor is tasked with showing her the ropes. 

A girls' night out in Mirror Falls is not like they are in Los Angeles. Mead is served instead of mojitos and spells are cast instead of karoke. As a formerly famous psychic to the stars, I was confident these soccer-moms-turned-witches couldn't summon anything more than a hangover. How wrong I was. In the middle of an incantation, a 400-year-old witch makes an appearance, scaring the leader of the coven to death.

Or was she?

Gideon Tate, my skeptical editor and debunker of supernatural phenomenon says I'm wrong a witch was involved, and he's willing to bet Arcania Press on it. It's a bet he's going to lose because my sixth sense tells me that his fiancee is up to her neck in this mystery and he's going to need my help to get her out of it. 

As if that wasn't enough, my ex-boyfriend has taken a sudden interest in me and a missing formula that promises to be worth billions. I really don't have time for a broken heart when my inheritance is on the line. You don't have to be psychic to know I may not have a choice.

 Free on Amazon for a limited time only:

The Body in the Ravine: A St. Ives Book Club Mystery

When Veronica Wakefield-Brice finds a body hanging from a tree in the ravine behind her stately mansion, the matriarch is thoroughly put out. The victim was a teller of tall tales, and though his death appears to be a suicide, it's odd that he's missing his shoes. Too odd for Elliot Marks and the St. Ives Book Club who find themselves matching wits with a unexpected killer.

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Set in the tiny hamlet of St. Ives, Ontario, a murder mystery book club discovers they have a taste and talent for solving unsolved crimes. Led by the brilliant and eccentric Elliot Marks, five active retirees and two young reporters unearth secrets that certain residents of the cosy village would prefer remained buried.

 Hey peeps.

What are you still doing here?

Head on over to the website for current events. www.nadinedoolittlebooks.ca

But since you are here, how about a little light reading for the summer? I started a new series mostly for fun and to let loose creatively. The first book in the series is out today!

Sixth and Sensibility: One Dead Devil

Psychic to the stars, Gracie Dare's life is falling apart when she inherits a small publishing company in Mirror Falls, Maine, and must contend with a grumpy (but hot) editor who has made it his mission to debunk psychics. 

Publishing books on arcane knowledge wasn't how I imagined spending my newly-single mid-thirties either, but Gideon Tate seems hellbent on making me turn tail and run back to Los Angeles.

He wants to force me out so he can publish how-to manuals that solve real-world problems. Even though he can't solve his own real-world problem of how to get his fiancee to live in the same town as him.

There is something my smoking hot editor doesn't know about me. I'm psychic. His job? To debunk psychics, and he's very, very good at it. 

So when one of our authors turns up dead, I know it's murder - mainly because the newly deceased won't stop talking about it. 

How am I going to convince the deeply skeptical Gideon Tate of that? I said I was psychic - not a miracle worker. 

It is a paranormal cozy mystery set in Maine with a dash of romance, quirky writers, small town, dead people, mystery and a few laughs. Book two and three will be released in July and August. If you haven't joined my newsletter, please do. You'll know what's going on delivered to your inbox. 

Happy June!

I know - I'm not here.Some readers who downloaded my books months ago and haven't to around to reading them until now, will click this link and isn't this nice - a free giveaway!

I have an historical mystery series in the works so I'm very interested in authors who are writing it and I thought some of my readers might be too. 

History and Mystery offers six carefully curated historical mystery novels and novellas to choose from. Historical Fiction Freebies has over sixty Historical Mystery and Romance titles.  

The giveaways are hosted by BookFunnel. You will have to give your email address and subscribe to the author's newsletter to receive your book, but you are free to unsubscribe at any time. Click on the image or the links above to be taken to the Giveaway page - and happy reading!

NOTE: Some books out there contain links to this blog, so I'll continue to update it until January 2024 with series release news, but head over to Nadine Doolittle Books and bookmark it to stay up-to-date. 
Now onto the news! Make Way for Murder is available for pre-order on Amazon! Release date is February 14, 2023 and is in Kindle Unlimited. The print edition will be launched at the same time.
Pre-Order Make Way for Murder Here!


It was an impossible murder with no solution.
When Elliot Marks and Avery Holmes come across the scene of a crime while snowshoeing, they have questions and for once, Detective Stewart Denton of St. Ives Police Department is happy to answer them. The case has baffled the department for 25 years. Fresh eyes could help.
As Denton recounts the details of the murder of Graham Wentworth, a Crown prosecutor, who was found shot through the chest in his cabin in 1998, the solution appears to Elliot Marks, but without proof, he refuses to name the killer. The book club dives in, sifting through clues to find evidence in a case that no one in St. Ives wants solved.