Ed Lynskey's Blog: Cracked Rearview Mirror - Posts Tagged "cozy"

I don't know if they are any Jessica Fletcher fans still out there. We tuned in and watched her every Sunday night (or I think it was on Sunday night). Lots of dead bodies turned up in Cabot Cove.

Anyway, my small town cozy mystery looks as if it will appear in e-book/paper early this year. The title is QUIET ANCHORAGE. My small town is in Virginia, not in Maine. I hope my two amateur sleuths and their murder mystery are appealing to mystery fans.

I'll be sure to post more details as they become available.

I've decided to write my blogs now on Mondays and Fridays. This one comes out a little early. After all, I should be spending my time working on my books to lick them into the best shape that I can. Readers deserve that respect. QUIET ANCHORAGE, my first title in the cozy series, is in for edits at my publisher. I've finished a draft of a second cozy title, BERMUDA CANARD, that waits for my revisions. I let my novel drafts sit for months in fallow before I ever go back to do any edits on them. During the interval, I stay busy on other projects. Such as my work-in-progress, a literate noir titled ASK THE DICE. Finally, the PI Frank Johnson mystery series title, THE ZINC ZOO, is still on target for a release at late spring. Got all that? LOL. Okay, now back to it. Have a Happy Sunday to you and yours.

Sorry...I always get a little carried away when I first see the cover art to a new book. This cover goes to my cozy murder mystery, QUIET ANCHORAGE.

Cover for QUIET ANCHORAGE by Ed Lynskey

I hope it's an entertaining read that presents a fair-play, amateur sleuth mystery. I'll chat a bit more about how I came to write QUIET ANCHORAGE in future blog posts.

Yes, it's selling for one dollar. My small town cozy mystery QUIET ANCHORAGE can be purchased for Kindle and other e-book formats from the publisher's web site.

http://www.booksforabuck.com/mystery/...

Here's the scoop from the publisher's web page:

Quiet Anchorage, Virginia, looks like paradise. When she's accused of murdering her fiance, however, the small town is anything but heavenly for Megan Connors. With her fingerprints on the murder weapon, it looks like an open-and-shut case, and Sheriff Fox, running for reelection and anxious to get credit for 'solving' a murder case, intends on ramming through charges and getting a conviction. Megan's only champions are her aging aunts. They don't believe she's guilty, but what can two senior citizens do against the powers of the state and the evidence against Megan?

Isabel and Alma Trumbo may be aging, even worried about memory loss, but they've read just about every mystery published in the past half-century. They're sure they've picked up the skills and knowledge they need to prove Megan's innocence. Starting with the town's gossips and loafers, then scaling up when the sexy ex-girlfriend of one of the Sheriff's deputies joins them, they search for alternate suspects, possible motives, and any evidence that might exonerate their niece.

Author Ed Lynskey creates a memorable cozy mystery with a pair of sympathetic and interesting sleuths, plenty of local color, a sassy sidekick in the form of Sammi Jo, and a gentle humor that kept me smiling through the story. My earlier experience with Lynskey was with his hard-boiled detective stories and I was impressed how smoothly he handled the cozy format.

For the first month, you can order QUIET ANCHORAGE as an e-book (including Kindle) for one dollar from the publisher at this spot:

Where to order QUIET ANCHORAGE by Ed Lynskey

Thanks for your interest.

Right, yet another shameless plug, but Amazon has up my small town mystery QUIET ANCHORAGE now available for purchase as a trade paperback edition.

Murder has rocked the small town of Quiet Anchorage. Oh no. Does anyone remember the Cabot Cove murders that Jessica Fletcher had to solove? Well, my pair of sisters, Alma and Isabel Trumbo, are on the case, so you can rest easy.

Actually, Alma and Isabel were real dear folks, but they're no longer with us. I'll blog about them sometime, but not tonight. I'm a bit tuckered out. Long, rainy day here.

This morning I tweeted (don't you love using that cool verb?):

A few signs of spring: the crocuses are out, the forsythia is budding, the snow melt is done, and the Nats lost to the Mets yesterday.

Did I leave out anything? A few rituals are impending. Sharpen the lawnmower blade. Prune the deadwood azaleas. Rake last autumn's leaves. Does this sound familiar to you? I'm not complaining, at all. Bring on the sun and its warmth.

On the Book Reading Challenge front, I'm 19/65. Not too shabby, I suppose. Right now I'm halfway done with Julia Spencer-Fleming's ALL MORTAL FLESH. It's an enjoyable read, thus far.

Some plugs...

Rob is doing a book giveaway for QUIET ANCHORAGE here on Goodreads, if you take your mysteries cozy and small town.

Oh, I saw LAKE CHARLES, my own romantic suspense book, just went up for pre-sales on Barnes & Noble. LAKE CHARLES is being offered at 33% off. You can't beat that with a stick.

Right now I'm doing the final edits on the second title in my small town cozy mystery series featuring a pair of senior lady sleuths. This title is Bermuda Canard that is set in Bermuda, of course. The debut title, Quiet Anchorage, (see below) came out last spring.

I like to write them because the lady amateur detectives, Alma and Isabel Trumbo, are based loosely on my two late aunts. This time they're on a vacation when a murder occurs. Don't you just hate it when that happens?

With the holidays upon us, the cheerful vibe is the perfect time to be working on a cozy mystery. I'm having a lot of fun with it. You may've read my stories run in the TRUE/Dorchester magazines, but they were uncredited. Anyway, that's how I'm writing my cozies. I hope readers will enjoy them as much as I have writing them.

"These are the good, old days you'll remember, or something to that effect," is the lyric to an old Natalie Merchant song, maybe when she was in the Ten Thousand Maniacs. My point being the relatively calm Christmases are the ones to be savored and enjoyed. They won't always be like that, of course. The darker ones will stand out in your thoughts, too. But then why dwell on them? Wishing you the best for the holidays, and remember: stay safe out there.

Ed Lynskey
Twitter: @edlynskey

Ask the Dice (Newest Stand Alone Washington, D.C. Crime Noir)


The Zinc Zoo (Newest P.I. Frank Johnson Mystery)

For years, I knew a lady who had a daughter named Noel, which I thought was a cool name. One day in conversation, she revealed Noel was born on Christmas Day. Duh! I thought. It must've pretty obvious to most people, but I'd missed the connection. Anyway, I thought it'd be fun to see who else are Christmas children, starting, of course, with Jesus Christ (otherwise we'd have no Christmas).

#1. Humphrey Bogart (perfect noir link)

#2. Annie Lennox (love her gorgsous voice)

#3. Sissy Spacek (Carrie did her no justice)

#4. Rod Serling (woo-woo)

#5. Ripley of Ripley's Believe It Or Not

#6. Phil Specter (things went downhill late in life)

#7. Pete Brown (lyricist of "White Room")

#8. Ken Stabler (top-notch QB)

#9. Barbara Mandrell (golden pipes)

#10. Rickey Henderson (MLB speedster)

Ed Lynskey
Twitter: @edlynskey

Ask the Dice (Newest Stand Alone Washington, D.C. Crime Noir)


The Zinc Zoo (Newest P.I. Frank Johnson Mystery)