Seams Like the Perfect Crime by Lois Winston ~ Spotlight

Posted February 6, 2025 by karenbaron in Blog Tour, Contest - Giveaway, Spotlight / 1 Comment

Seams Like the Perfect Crime

Series: Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery #14

Author: Lois Winston

Genre: Cozy Crafts and Hobbies Mystery

Setting: New Jersey

Release Date: February 4, 2025, by Independently Published

Pages: 285

Summary:

When staffing shortages continue to hamper the Union County homicide squad, Detective Sam Spader once again turns to his secret weapon, reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack. How can she and husband Zack Barnes refuse when the victim is their new neighbor?

Revolutionary War reenactor Barry Sumner had the odd habit of spending hours mowing a small patch of packed dirt and weeds until his mower ran out of gas. He’d then guzzle beer on his front porch until he passed out. That’s where Anastasia’s son Nick discovers his body three days after the victim and his family moved into the newly built mini-McMansion across the street.

After a melee breaks out at the viewing, Spader zeroes in on the widow as his prime suspect. However, Anastasia has her doubts. There are other possible suspects, including a woman who’d had an affair with the victim, his ex-wife, the man overseeing the widow’s trust fund, a drug dealer, and the reenactors who were blackmailing the widow and victim.

When another reenactor is murdered, Spader suspects they’re dealing with a serial killer, but Anastasia wonders if the killer is attempting to misdirect the investigation. As she narrows down the suspects, will she jeopardize her own life to learn the truth?

Craft projects included.

Excerpt

Mama birds boot their little tweeters out of the nest as soon as they learn to fly, hanging around only long enough to make sure the wee ones learn to fend for themselves. However, as I stood on the sidewalk, watching my oldest son walk off into the next chapter of his life, my eyes filled with tears. A sense of abandonment washed over me, as if the cosmos had flipped the script, and I was the one forced from the protective nest.

I choked back a hiccupping shudder. Zack looped an arm over my shoulders and drew me into a side hug. He planted a kiss on my temple and said, “He’ll be fine.”

The rational side of my brain agreed, not that it seemed to matter. Besides, I wasn’t the only person currently battling emotion upheaval.

“What about him?” I whispered, nodding toward the third adult making up our parental threesome. Shane Lambert appeared even more distraught than I was. I had Zack, who had bonded with Alex and Nick, becoming their de facto dad from nearly the moment the three had met. As a single parent, Shane had no one besides his daughter Sophie, no significant other to offer a hug and remind him that his child was now an adult and that he’d done an excellent job of raising her. That she’d be okay. More than okay. Thanks to him.

Of course, Zack had given the same speech to me countless times during the last few weeks. At times like this, though, even the most rational parent can become an irrational basket case.

Zack followed my gaze. “You will both be fine,” he said, his free hand patting Shane on the back. “And so will Alex and Sophie.”

With Alex and Sophie Lambert attending the same college, we had rented a super-sized SUV to transport the bolting offspring and their multitude of boxes to Cambridge, Massachusetts. The kids were now moved into their rooms, but whether unable or unwilling to let go of that last apron string, Shane and I had made one excuse after another to delay our departure as long as possible.

Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries

About the Author

USA Today and Amazon bestselling author Lois Winston began her award-winning writing career with Talk Gertie to Me, a humorous fish-out-of-water novel about a small-town girl going off to the big city and the mother who had other ideas. That was followed by the romantic suspense Love, Lies, and a Double Shot of Deception.

Then Lois’s writing segued unexpectantly into the world of humorous amateur sleuth mysteries, thanks to a conversation her agent had with an editor looking for craft-themed mysteries. In her day job, Lois was an award-winning craft and needlework designer, and although she’d never written a mystery—or had even thought about writing a mystery—her agent decided she was the perfect person to pen a series for this editor. Thus, was born the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, which Kirkus Reviews dubbed “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” The series now includes eleven novels and three novellas. Lois also writes the Empty Nest Mysteries, currently at two novels, and one book so far in her Mom Squad Capers series.

To date, Lois has published twenty novels, five novellas, several short stories, one children’s chapter book, and one nonfiction book on writing, inspired by her twelve years working as an associate at a literary agency.

Giveaway

Prize: 3 Paperbacks (US only) or ebooks, winner’s choice (ebooks only for Canadian winners)

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