I’m excited to share a little about Axe Me No Questions by Paula Charles. I asked Paula to tell us a little about her latest book. (Release date 1/28/25–preorder available now.)
Axe Me No Questions is the second book in the Hometown Hardware Mystery series. Dawna Carpenter was originally based on my grandmother who owned and operated the hardware store in the small town where I grew up. Friends and family have told me they hear and see me in Dawna, so I guess we’re more alike than I knew!
The town of Pine Bluff is fictionalized, but when I thought about what Dawna might be getting mixed up in during the fall, I thought of the Timber Festival my hometown used to host when I was young, and decided it was the perfect event to showcase the area and get Dawna tangled up in another murder mystery.
During the Timber Festival in Pine Bluff, the main even is a lumberjack and jill contest. While I’ve attended these type of events, I’ve only ever been an onlooker, never scrambled up a pole or attempted to roll logs in the water with my fast feet. Though I’m no award-winning axe thrower, I can wield an axe with the best of them to chop firewood!
Here’s the back cover info for Axe Me No Questions.
Heads are on the chopping block as hardware store owner Dawna Carpenter finds herself on the cutting edge of a murder investigation.
In the quaint mountain town of Pine Bluff, Oregon, fall has arrived and it’s time for the annual Timber Festival, complete with Lumberjack and Lumberjill contests, and booths serving spicy chili and creamy pumpkin pies. Dawna and her daughter April have plans to watch the logging contest together. She’s looking forward to soaking in all her favorite things about the season, which includes having a conversation with her deceased husband, who she is certain is still hanging around the house.
But when Dawna falls over the body of one of the lumberjacks, with his own throwing axe imbedded in his chest, her focus turns to murder. With the town in turmoil, Dawna takes Chief Dallas’s request to keep her ears open as a full license to snoop. Who had an axe to grind with the charismatic lumberjack? Dawna had better stay sharp, or she might be the next one to get the axe.
Thanks, Paula.
Friends, I don’t know about you, but I’m excited about the second book in the Hometown Hardware Mystery series.
Dawna’s back with friends and family in Axe Me No Questions. It’s a delightful follow-up to Hammers and Homicides in A Hometown Hardware Mystery series.
I was able to read and ARC (Advanced Readers Copy) of Axe Me No Questions, and I was riveted. I love the characters, the small-town vibe, and trying to solve the mystery with the twists and turns Paula Charles throws at the reader.
When a dead body is found, Dawna is back to sleuthing. What an adventure it is.
I recently talked to a group and not everyone was familiar with cozy mysteries.
I explained some of the fun aspects of cozies.
Small communities make good settings for cozy mysteries. They can be real or fictional. I created Heyward Beach for A Low Country Dog Walker series, Lutz, Texas for a Texas Flower Farmer series, and Fox Island for An Organized Crime series. In these tight-knit communities, my amateur sleuths feel comfortable asking people questions about the crime.
Most cozy mysteries include pets. I have dogs in all my books because I love dogs. (I’m allergic to cats, but they make appearances.)
Earlier this year, I was on a panel and our theme was Romcozies. Romantic cozy mysteries. The books have a romantic thread, but it’s only a thread. The main goal of the cozy mystery is to solve the murder.
There’s one more thing I want to include. Cozy mysteries are clean. There’s no blood and gore, no sex, and no foul language. One reader told me these some of the reasons she reads cozy mysteries.
I’m excited to share with you Ruth Hartman’s upcoming book. Ruth and I became friends when we were both authors for Dawn Dawdle.
Murder at the Painted Wings Cafe is scheduled to release on November 19. This is the second book in the Senneca James Mystery series.
Seneca James’ cousin, Evie, ends up in hot water, when she’s accused of stealing a wallet from an angry customer in Seneca’s Painted Wings Café. The customer also happens to be the local bank manager, who Evie pleads with for a much-needed loan, resulting in a public spectacle as the bank manager refuses, and ridicules Evie. When the manager later turns up dead inside the cafe, and Evie is the most likely suspect, it will take all of Seneca’s sleuthing and help from her best friend, Sheriff Cody Bales, to get Evie out of trouble.
Professional organizer Kate Sloan is hired by Ben Houser to organize his office at Seaside Hideaway Resort on Fox Island. Ben tells everybody he’s planning to revamp the resort. Ben throws money around and convinces people to invest with him. The first problem is, Ben’s a con man. The second problem is, Kate finds his dead body.
The killer believes Kate has incriminating evidence, and she must solve the mystery before she’s next on the hitman’s list.
The Prize Package includes Peach Tea, Praline Pecans, $5.00 Starbucks card, Tervis 16 oz tumbler, with travel lid with lighthouse emblem, bookmarks and stickers.
A few weeks ago, I shared the fun of having Advanced Readers Copies of Clover Covered Corpse. We traipsed around Asheville, NC with the ARC. When I heard the paperback was released, I ordered a copy for myself and had it shipped to Texas. We just spent a week in Waco, and once again, we had fun taking pictures of the paperback.
The week we were there, the temperatures hovered around 100, BUT when you added the heat index it was closer to 106. Even so, we had fun visiting the golf course, Magnolia, Fabled, Spice Village, Heritage, Common Grounds, and many more places.
It was a great week. Texas has become a special place to me, and I always enjoy my time there. Here are a few pictures from our trip.
I would love for you to tag me on social media with one of my books. There might even be a prize involved. Thanks!
My friend Ruth J. Hartman has a new cozy mystery coming out this month. May 14, to be exact. You might have guessed, cats are involved in the story. I can’t imagine Ruth writing a story without a cat.
Here’s the blurb:
When mobile cat groomer, Molly Stewart, asks her friend Evan to photograph her new feline clients, they both get more than they bargained for when the body of Evan’s old art teacher is found bludgeoned to death in his photography studio darkroom. After one of Evan’s photos catches suspicious activity in the background, Molly is ready to call the authorities with the newest piece of information. However, an anonymous phone call which threatens not only her, but Evan and their pets, convinces Molly to clam up and find the murderer herself. Will the tenuous situation end up being picture perfect or a photo bomb?
My husband grew up in New England, and I am a west coast girl. He always jokingly said, “I can’t take you to New England, because you’re going to love it and want to stay.” He wasn’t’ wrong. Five years ago, we finally made that trip and I fell madly in love with the adorable small towns, the covered bridges and old stone walls, the amazing number of hardwoods in the forests, and the incredible history.
Even though we still live in the western United States, it had taken us so long to get to New England that I decided if I set a book in New Hampshire, I would have a very valid reason to return. Thus, the Zen Goat Mystery series was born. And my logic has worked in my favor. We’ve already returned once to explore the area where I’ve set my fictional town of Bobwhite Hollow. (Okay, so my brother who lives just north in Ottawa might say it was to visit him, but nobody said you can’t mix research trips with family get-togethers!)
When I started penciling out my ideas for An Escape Goat, I wanted readers to feel as if they were transported to an iconic New England farm resplendent with a big red barn attached to a gorgeous farmhouse via a breezeway, stone walls lining the long driveway, and pine and maple trees dotting the property. The town of Bobwhite Hollow sits in northern New Hampshire in the White Mountains with Mt. Washington looming in the distance and the Connecticut River rushing past. Bobwhite Hollow needed a gazebo in the village green, a historic inn where locals gather to eat and catch up on gossip, and clapboard buildings lining Main Street. I wanted to create a place that would make readers want to visit and stay awhile.
While my husband and I were on the research expedition, we arrived in the town I thought initially was going to be my setting, but when we got there, it didn’t feel exactly right. Don’t get me wrong, I could have worked with it easily, but we drove around for a few days and lo and behold, stumbled upon the town that felt like it came directly out of my book. There was the covered bridge Callie loves so much. There was the gazebo in the village green with the town library perched on the edge of the green. The diner down the street, the county fairgrounds exactly where I’d imagined them, the police and fire station. And the crowning jewel? The Haybeck’s farm just a few miles out of town.
It was such a surreal experience. I even turned to my husband at one point and questioned him. “How can this be so perfect? Which came first, do you think? This town, or Bobwhite Hollow? When I created Bobwhite Hollow, did it make this town appear?” I was only half joking. And guess what? I wanted to stay.
An Escape Goat is the first in the new Zen Goat Mystery series. Callie Haybeck has come to New Hampshire after finding long-lost family through a DNA test kit. She’s fallen in love with her new family and decided to stay. Callie has opened a goat yoga studio on her great-uncle’s farm and is hosting her first retreat. When retreat guest Angilene Claudson turns up dead with a wine glass shattered at her side and Callie’s favorite goat lapping up the spill, the death is written off as an accidental overdose. But when the goat gets sick, Callie’s gut tells her it wasn’t an accident at all. With her new business on the line and a possible murderer staying in the guesthouse, Callie sets to work to uncover the truth and keep her family safe.
Janna also writes cozy mysteries as Paula Charles. You can find her and links to her books on her website: www.paulacharles.com
It’s easy to see why Jenna fell in love with this area. I want to go visit it too.
Jackie Layton 