Cookies & Kilts Mysteries
Cozy Crime Mystery
Date Published: 01-24-2022
The annual Robert Burns Birthday Dinner celebration is underway in the
small Missouri town of Beaudin Trace. Guests gather to honor Scotland's
national poet with bagpipes and haggis and a trifle for dessert. But
everything isn't as smooth as Scotch whisky. The Society's president and
vice-president have a very public haggle over the haggis. And less than an
hour later, one of them is found dead.
And found by Kate Dunbar, owner of The Cookie Cutter Bakery. It wouldn't be
too bad except the victim was murdered with her knife.
Gossip hints she is the killer. The majority of her customers must agree,
for her bakery sales fall drastically. If she is to keep the business from
crumbling, she needs to investigate.
But sleuthing is harder and more dangerous to Kate and those around her
than she thought. Luckily, she gets help from the town's zany songwriter and
his Scottie dog. Murder is no trifling matter.
Interview with Jo A. Hiestand
How did you
become involved with the subject or theme of your book?
Animals
and baking seemed a natural marriage because they are some things I
like. I've had cats since I was a child (I won't tell you how long
ago that was). Even though we lived in the suburbs, at various times
we had a chicken, a rabbit, hamsters, the usual bowls of goldfish
and guppies, a mudpuppy, and a pet skunk. Animals were a part of my
life, and when I left home after college I also had numerous cats.
It seemed natural to have an animal or two in my houses. I got the
idea to add the Scottie dog to "A Trifling Murder" when I
was about one-third of the way through writing the first draft. The
dog seemed an obvious addition due to the main subject of the story:
the birthday celebration of Scotland's national poet (don't know why
I didn't think of it at the offset) and the dog soon became a large
part of the storyline. I liked having an animal in the story so much
that I've put cats into the third book of that series ("A
Drizzle of Trouble", slated for a June 2022 release). Toward
the end of the book a slight problem arose with the protagonist's
bakery, though. Pets and a muffin/cookie bake shop didn't mix well,
so in the third book I changed Kate's business to one that caters to
dogs and cats. Having Kate own a bakery, whether for humans or
animals, was also a natural choice, and an easy one to write about
because I began baking in my childhood. Many decades later, I still
bake and have invented some cakes and muffins--and they are actually
edible!
What were your
goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you
achieved them?
I hoped to write an easy-going, light cozy
featuring a more mature protagonist and to have an animal as part of
the story. Kate Dunbar (the heroine) is forty and, as such, has some
life experiences that she uses in her current amateur sleuthing.
Since I wanted the Scottie dog to have a large part in the plot, I
plopped Agnes into several scenes. The dog even makes a vital
contribution toward the end. I think I managed it all well.
What was the
hardest part of writing this book?
Believe it or not, the
most difficult thing was writing about the Scottie dog, giving it
character, and portraying it as a real animal, not a cardboard or
cartoon creature. Although online articles gave me a good bit of
information about traits and such, I wanted first-hand knowledge. I
can write more convincingly if I've experienced a thing or have seen
it. I've never owned a Scottie, so I talked with a friend who has
had that breed. She gave me the information I needed, such as would
they attack someone, and what the dog's body language looks like
when its unearthing something buried.
What did you
enjoy most about writing this book?
There were a few, but
the most fun I had was writing about Harold Gibler. He's a zany
retried English professor who writes song lyrics and sings them to
public domain tunes. He writes songs for various occasions in the
town, such as Groundhog's Day and the Robert Burns Birthday
celebration that takes place in "A Trifling Murder." I
love his nutty personality but perhaps what I love the most is
writing the songs that I include in the book. I have no idea if they
reveal something about me, but I keep doing it!
Where there
alternate endings you considered?
Good question. To tell
you the truth, I did. I thought of having the killer escape in a car
and Kate following him (I use the pronoun only as a universal word,
not as a hint to the killer's real gender!). I thought of her
finding a clue to the person's whereabouts and then finding him. I
considered her being kidnapped and escaping just as the police
arrive. But I liked the ending I chose. It brings in the Scottie
again.
What genre of
books do you enjoy reading?
Classic mysteries are probably
my favorite. I like the puzzle and trying to solve the crime along
with the protagonist. I also love British history. Not historical
fiction. The real history. I especially am interested in the
Plantagenet and Tudor eras. I'm fascinated with the spy rings of
Walsingham and the Cecils, the intrigue at court. I love Scottish
history too, from that same era. In addition to these subjects, I
read a lot of WWII books: biographies of the key players, true
accounts of POW escapes, the French resistance, and the great women
spies of the Allies.
About the Author
Jo A. Hiestand grew up on regular doses of music, books, and Girl Scout
camping. She gravitated toward writing in her post-high school years and
finally did something sensible about it, graduating from Webster University
with a BA degree in English and departmental honors. She writes a British
mystery series (the McLaren Mysteries)—of which three books have
garnered the prestigious N.N. Light’s Book Heaven ‘Best Mystery
Novel’ three years straight. She also writes a Missouri-based cozy
mystery series (The Cookies & Kilts Mysteries, of which "A Trifling
Murder" is the second book) that is grounded in places associated with
her camping haunts. The camping is a thing of the past, for the most part,
but the music stayed with her in the form of playing guitar and harpsichord,
and singing in a folk group. Jo carves jack o’ lanterns badly and
sings loudly. She loves barbecue sauce and ice cream (separately, not
together), kilts (especially if men wear them), clouds and stormy skies, and
the music of G.F. Handel. You can usually find her pulling mystery plots out
of scenery—whether from photographs or the real thing.
Contact Links
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
Pinterest
Instagram
BookBub
Purchase Links
Amazon
B&N
Kobo
iTunes
1 comments:
Thank you for hosting my book today, and thanks for the interview.
Post a Comment