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Backdrop Dead: A Magnolia Showboat Mystery
Come aboard a sparkling floating palace of 1898 as librarian-turned-sleuth, Gwen Barlow, deals with headstrong actors, a heap of debt and a corpse on stage. Will she solve the murder so her showboat can move down river and begin making a profit? Will the handsome captain she hires distract her or be just the help she needs? Problems deeper than Mississippi mud in this tale of humor and suspense.
251 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2003
8 people are currently reading
13 people want to read
About the author
Cynthia Thomason
69 books53 followersI'm Cynthia Thomason, and I'm a romantic. To me, romance means love between people as well as finding romance in places, such as waterfalls, lighthouses, beaches, or wherever else your soul connects with the wider universe.. I have written 39 romance novels for Harlequin and Kensington. But I am currently proud to announce, BACKDROP DEAD, my FIRST COZY HISTORICAL MYSTERY, set on a showboat in 1898. I guess I'll add showboats to my list of romantic places.
I was raised in Ohio. I taught high school English, ran my own auction house, and wrote books. I have experienced a great love, but lost my husband a few years ago to cancer. But he's still around. I can feel him.
I have won the HOLT Medallion Award, the Golden Quill and Readers' Choice Awards and I've been nominated several times for the prestigious Maggie Award. I'm proud of those awards, but as the saying goes, "That and five dollars will get you in the door of Starbucks." I love to write about America's small towns, similar to the one where I grew up in Summit County, Ohio. I have one son, also a writer. My favorite place to spend an afternoon is the mountains of North Carolina, but I haven't been to Ireland yet. My motto as I grow older and wiser is "never stop learning." After several lessons, I am now playing the guitar and I love it.
I was raised in Ohio. I taught high school English, ran my own auction house, and wrote books. I have experienced a great love, but lost my husband a few years ago to cancer. But he's still around. I can feel him.
I have won the HOLT Medallion Award, the Golden Quill and Readers' Choice Awards and I've been nominated several times for the prestigious Maggie Award. I'm proud of those awards, but as the saying goes, "That and five dollars will get you in the door of Starbucks." I love to write about America's small towns, similar to the one where I grew up in Summit County, Ohio. I have one son, also a writer. My favorite place to spend an afternoon is the mountains of North Carolina, but I haven't been to Ireland yet. My motto as I grow older and wiser is "never stop learning." After several lessons, I am now playing the guitar and I love it.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 23, 2022
Backdrop Dead is the first book in the Magnolia Showboat Mystery series by Cynthia Thomason and readers will fall in love !!
Backdrop Dead is set in 1898, a much simpler time but there is nothing simple for main character Gwen Barlow. Gwen, along with her mother and brother, lives in Apple Creek, Ohio. Gwen is a librarian and quite enjoys her job. Everything changes when a lawyer from Hickory Bend, Missouri visits her mother and informs her that her recently deceased brother, Eli, has left her everything he owns....which is a magnificient showboat that he had built and planned to travel along the Mississippi River entertaining towns along the way. So Gwen, her mother and her brother Preston pack up and head to Hickory Bend to see what awaits them on the showboat.....Eli's Magnolia Palace.
Upon arrival to Eli's Magnolia Palace they find out that not only did they inherit the boat but there are workers and actors on board waiting to see what will become of them. Gwen also soon learns that no one has been paid in weeks and there is hardly any food left to feed everyone. And to make matters worst, the local law, Constable O'Toole rules Eli's death murder and insists that the Magnolia Palace stay right where it is until his murder is solved.
Gwen takes it upon herself to look into Uncle Eli's death as she gets to know the people who Uncle Eli hired to run and perform on the showboat. Unfortunately as she gets to know everyone including some of the townfolk, her list of suspects grows. As she continues to investigate something else happens that adds to Gwen's troubles.
Readers will love everything about Backdrop Dead. Reading a story set back in time when crimes where solved completely differently than modern times, especially without technology, is an interesting change for readers. Readers will fall in love with Gwen, her family and everyone aboard the showboat and the storyline of running a showboat on the Mississippi River will entertain readers from the moment you begin reading. I thoroughly enjoyed Backdrop Dead and look forward to what Thomason does in the next book.
Backdrop Dead is set in 1898, a much simpler time but there is nothing simple for main character Gwen Barlow. Gwen, along with her mother and brother, lives in Apple Creek, Ohio. Gwen is a librarian and quite enjoys her job. Everything changes when a lawyer from Hickory Bend, Missouri visits her mother and informs her that her recently deceased brother, Eli, has left her everything he owns....which is a magnificient showboat that he had built and planned to travel along the Mississippi River entertaining towns along the way. So Gwen, her mother and her brother Preston pack up and head to Hickory Bend to see what awaits them on the showboat.....Eli's Magnolia Palace.
Upon arrival to Eli's Magnolia Palace they find out that not only did they inherit the boat but there are workers and actors on board waiting to see what will become of them. Gwen also soon learns that no one has been paid in weeks and there is hardly any food left to feed everyone. And to make matters worst, the local law, Constable O'Toole rules Eli's death murder and insists that the Magnolia Palace stay right where it is until his murder is solved.
Gwen takes it upon herself to look into Uncle Eli's death as she gets to know the people who Uncle Eli hired to run and perform on the showboat. Unfortunately as she gets to know everyone including some of the townfolk, her list of suspects grows. As she continues to investigate something else happens that adds to Gwen's troubles.
Readers will love everything about Backdrop Dead. Reading a story set back in time when crimes where solved completely differently than modern times, especially without technology, is an interesting change for readers. Readers will fall in love with Gwen, her family and everyone aboard the showboat and the storyline of running a showboat on the Mississippi River will entertain readers from the moment you begin reading. I thoroughly enjoyed Backdrop Dead and look forward to what Thomason does in the next book.
November 30, 2022
Love the period and the showboat! Love how the family both the blood family and the showboat family operate together. This was a hard book to put aside for other things. The suspense was always there.
March 15, 2022
Loved Gwen! Great read. I was guessing until the end! I want more!
December 1, 2022
Who killed Eli Willoughby and why??? And who killed Travis Veazey and why??? I would never like being locked in a trunk though!!! I enjoyed this story and recommend the book.
December 5, 2022
1898 Lilian Barlow inherits a showboat, Elis Magnolia Palace, from her dead brother, Eli. With her daugher, Gwen, and son Preston, they travel to the Mississippi River. All is not well as it seems Eli Willloughby was murdered and in debt. Can Gwen solve the murder before another death.
An entertaining historical mystery
An entertaining historical mystery
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews