No Mallets Intended Blog Party & Giveaway!

Who: Jaymie Leighton
From: No Mallets Intended
Series: Vintage Kitchen Mysteries
Released: November 4th, 2014

There's a strange wind blowing through Queensville, and I don't like it. Folks are bickering and arguing about the oddest things, especially at heritage society meetings! We're supposed to be planning the refurbishing of the former Dumpe House, now the Queensville Historic Manor, in time for the December festival we call Dickens Days.

I've always loved Dickens Days, and was excited a few years ago when I started to participate after I joined the heritage society. During the annual December festival we make much of Queensville's Victorian feel and connection to all things Victorian. This year should be even cooler, with the new historic home opening!

Or it would be if we could get moving on it! We can't even get people to agree on the right color to paint a parlor wall, much less what to do about the leaky plumbing.

It doesn't help that I don't like the writer they hired to whip up a pamphlet on the house, though I like the other guy who tried out for the job even less.

But... I wouldn't give up this task for anything, no matter what! I get to work on the kitchen all on my own, and you know what that means: more antique sales and junk shops and auctions! A Hoosier cabinet to hunt for, antique kitchen implements to catalog, including the largest collection of kitchen mallets I've ever seen!

It is kind of eerie to be out at the house alone late at night, though, even with Hoppy for company. The whole house creaks and moans, especially at his time of year, with a chill wind blowing up in the attic and outside, sending gusts of dead leaves scuttering around the property. I keep hearing noises, like somebody walking along the second floor hall. A more timid gal would have cut and run, but not me. There is nothing going on of a spectral nature, that I can guarantee you. I always look for the logical explanation, like the house is settling, or the furnace is kicking in. Or... is there actually someone up there, moving around? I hope not. What would they want in an old house anyway?

As long as no one gets murdered, I'll be good.

I'm trying to convince myself I'm not nervous, anyway. Are you susceptible to fits of the nerves when you hear strange sounds?

About No Mallets Intended

Jaymie Leighton is excited and a little nervous about her current big venture, completely redoing the kitchen at Dumpe House—now the Queensville Historic Manor—in time for the opening in late November. But the house is mired in controversy, a challenge to the heritage society’s right to own it, and questions about the author hired to write a pamphlet detailing the Dumpe family history and that of the house.

None of Jaymie’s business, so she keeps her head down and her focus on the exact color right for the kitchen, and assembling all the accouterments, including a Hoosier cabinet! She’s also got lots to think about in her personal life with Daniel acting a little odd, and her friend Heidi dragging her in to the trouble between her and her fiancé, Jaymie’s former boyfriend Joel.

But a late night whack on the head with one of the antique mallets Jaymie has been cataloging for the society and a dreadful murder right on the house’s doorstep draws her once again into murder and mayhem. Jaymie faces her most cunning and dangerous opponent yet, but with Hoppy and Valetta by her side and the police chief’s approval, she knows she will figure out whodunit before they do it again!

No Mallets Intended 

Release Party Giveaway!

I'm choosing among ALL who comment on this blog entry and giving away two great packages! 

Package 1 will have one set of audio CDs of the first three books of the Vintage Kitchen Mystery series, as well as a paperback copy of No Mallets Intended, a cozy mystery tote and pen. 

Package 2 will hold the tote, pen, a copy of No Mallets Intended, AND a hardback book entitled Something From the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America, a fascinating look at the way dinner preparation and serving changed in that decade. Both packages will have as a bonus a copy of Muffin But Murder, Book 2 of my Merry Muffin Mysteries!

So... comment to enter to win WITH some version of your email address! I will choose a first place to win Package 1, and second place to win Package 2. 

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