It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like … Murder
Why the most wonderful time of the year is prime time for murder.
In my first book, Murder on the First Day of Christmas, Santa gets stabbed with an icicle, prompting several people to ask, “Working through a little holiday rage there, Billie?”
My answer, “Aren’t we all?”
Oh, I know. The holidays are supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year, right? Yet tensions can run high. We set unrealistic expectations for the season. We overindulge in eating, drinking and merry making. We bring family together. Each of these can be a holiday equivalent of my aunt’s tofu cheesecake: a recipe for disaster.
Luckily, that which does not kill us in real life makes a to-die-for Christmas cozy.
The inherent tension between silver bells and bullet holes, merriment and murder creates the perfect escape from the holiday hustle and bustle. Agatha Christie revisited this theme again and again with Hercule Poirot's Christmas (a.k.a. Murder for Christmas), The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding and A Christmas Tragedy.
Other authors who’ve put their characters through a Noel from hell include Lee Harris (The Christmas Night Murder) Mary Higgins Clark (All Through the Night), Charlotte MacLeod (Rest Ye Merry), Marian Babson (The Twelve Deaths of Christmas) and Donna Andrews (Six Geese A-Slaying)… just to name a few.
In Murder on the First Day of Christmas, Chloe and her mother Amanda decorate houses for clients who spend $30,000 and up (way up) on their holiday décor. I used to write a monthly decorating column where I interviewed an interior designer whose clients did the same thing. It sparked the idea that such over-the-top festivities could very well have a flip side: jealousy, one-upsmanship, a need to keep up a perfect façade in front of all your friends. I knew I wanted my first novel set against such a glittery backdrop, and have my characters racing to figure out who slayed Santa.
Spoiler Alert: It wasn’t the REAL Santa Claus that gets killed in Murder on the First Day of Christmas. Just someone dressed up like one so he can hand out naughty little presents to people who have naughty little secrets. Stuff like that can get you killed any time of the year.
Which brings up an important point.
Don’t wait till you’re snowed in to check out a holiday-themed mystery. These books make wonderful rainy day reads, too. Just fix a cup of cocoa, curl up on the couch and crack open a good book. A Christmas cozy is a gift you can give yourself all year.
Links to books
About Murder on the First Day of Christmas:
Finding a severed hand at a client’s house might throw lesser decorators off their games. But Chloe Carstairs and her mother, Amanda, won’t let a little thing like murder keep them from decking the halls. With a body under the partridge’s pear tree and a dead Santa in a sleigh, they have to crack the case before the killer strikes again – this time much too close to home.
Filled with laugh-out-loud humor, romance and a delightfully difficult mother-daughter relationship, this new series from Billie Thomas offers a fast-paced caper as these two southern ladies try to keep their very merry Christmas from turning into the Noel from hell.
About Billie Thomas:
Billie Thomas is the pseudonym of a Birmingham-based author. After the real Billie passed away unexpectedly at the end of 2011, getting Murder on the First Day of Christmas, the first of a series, revised and published was her daughter’s top priority as a way to honor the mom who had given her a lifelong love of books.
In her real life, Ms. Thomas writes within the advertising industry and is a founding member of the writing collective, IndieVisible. She is currently working on the second Chloe Carstairs Mystery, Murder in a Two-Seater.
Connect with Billie Thomas and her protagonist Chloe Carstairs at:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6877693.Billie_Thomas
There is a tour wide giveaway for Kindle books, a Kindle Touch and gift cards. There are four prize packages for authors Victoria Hamilton, Lucy Burdette, Billie Thomas, and Marie Moore.
The prizes are -
Prize 1 (US/Canada only)
* a Kindle Touch
* a $15 Amazon.com giftcard
Prize 2 (International)
* a Kindle copy of Topped Chef and Bowled Over
* a $15 Book Depository giftcard
Prize 3 (International)
* a Kindle copy of Murder on the First Day of Christmas & Game Drive
* a $15 Amazon.com giftcard
Prize 4 (US/Canada)
* your choice of a cozy mystery paperbacks (up to $25 in value)
To enter:
1. Fill in the form here.
2. There is no requirement to follow any of the blogs participating, but we hope you will support these amazing blogs by following them. They do a great job, many of whom host for us every month.
3. Giveaway ends on May 15, 2013 at midnight and the winners will be contacted via email.
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There is a tour wide giveaway for Kindle books, a Kindle Touch and gift cards. There are four prize packages for authors Victoria Hamilton, Lucy Burdette, Billie Thomas, and Marie Moore.
The prizes are -
Prize 1 (US/Canada only)
* a Kindle Touch
* a $15 Amazon.com giftcard
Prize 2 (International)
* a Kindle copy of Topped Chef and Bowled Over
* a $15 Book Depository giftcard
Prize 3 (International)
* a Kindle copy of Murder on the First Day of Christmas & Game Drive
* a $15 Amazon.com giftcard
Prize 4 (US/Canada)
* your choice of a cozy mystery paperbacks (up to $25 in value)
To enter:
1. Fill in the form here.
2. There is no requirement to follow any of the blogs participating, but we hope you will support these amazing blogs by following them. They do a great job, many of whom host for us every month.
3. Giveaway ends on May 15, 2013 at midnight and the winners will be contacted via email.
3 comments:
Great post for a great read.
I always enjoy holiday cozies!
This sounds good and the perfect mystery for July to cool things off! LOL
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