GUEST POST & #Giveaway: Hippie Wagon Homicide by Mildred Abbott #cozymysteries #guestpost #giveaway

 

As a writer of cozy mysteries, I’m certain I am supposed to say my favorite part is the mysteries themselves. Don’t get me wrong, I do love them, the twist and turns, the big murder solved in every book, the little mysterious threads which go from installment to installment that tie the series together.  Those are all great. They’re not my favorite thing, however.  Without a doubt, and the thing that keeps me coming back over and over and over again to my most beloved cozy series are the characters who feel like family.  The kind of characters you think about, characters you miss between books.  Ones you can’t wait to catch up with at the next new release.  Even the loud, bossy, annoying characters that make you roll your eyes in the back of your head so hard you almost sprain something (you know the ones). After a few installments, you realize you’re in love with them too, and when they enter a scene again only to be cantankerous, disapproving, or too nosy for their own good, you’re excited  to see that they’re still there, comforted that you can roll your eyes at their shenanigans.

 That was my goal, front and center, as I crafted and planned and daydreamed over my new Twister Sisters series.  I want the mysteries to be tight, compelling, and shocking.  But more than that, I want you to fall in love with the people who make up Willow Lane. I want you to fall in love with our three Twister Sisters.

 This goal seemed even more important as the three main characters of the series are women whose ages are rarely represented on page. Cordelia and Wanda are both sixty-six, and Pamela is fifty-nine.  It’s these three women who make the business of Twister Sisters--delivering their casseroles to the townspeople in need, and, as luck would have it, discovering dead bodies and solving their murders. 

 These women have lived full, dynamic, and meaningful lives.  With over six decades of life experience and relationships built in their cozy little town, there’s a lot of history to pull from.  You’ll get to travel along with them through their explorations of those relationships, both with family and friends.  Find out why Minnie Wells, the master knitter, is always so cantankerous. Discover what makes Pastor Trout so worried about her teenage son.  Help Cordelia uncover some of the relationships she thought she understood her whole life are actually sinister puppet masters, who’ve wielded more control over the events of her town than anyone ever imagined.  

That’s the other thing about these three women--often when characters of a certain age are featured, it only deals with the past, what they did, who they were.  Life doesn’t end at sixty.  These women are still doing, they are still becoming, and they are changing their town of Willow Lane and the lives within one casserole and one mystery at a time.   Along with them, are the people and characters who have traveled life’s journey with them side-by-side. Wanda’s assistant baker who dreamed of Hollywood but stayed in the little Ozark town.  Pamela’s son who overcame addiction and came home to start anew.  And Cordelia’s first love, who moved back to Willow Lane after fifty years away.  Everywhere you turn, there’s a character to fall in love with, be suspicious of, and make you laugh and cry.  Characters you’ll be excited to catch up with in the next book!

 

 

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