A Crafty Collage of Crime
Series: An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery #11
Author: Lois Winston
Genre: Cozy Crafts and Hobbies Mystery
Setting: New Jersey and Tennessee
Release Date: June 16, 2023
Pages: 258
Format(s): ebook, hardcover
Summary:
Wherever crafts editor and reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack goes, murder and mayhem follow. Her honeymoon is no exception. She and new husband, photojournalist (and possible spy) Zachary Barnes, are enjoying a walk in the Tennessee woods when they stumble upon a body on the side of a creek. The dead man is the husband of one of the three sisters who own the winery and guest cottages where Anastasia and Zack are vacationing.
When the local sheriff sets his sights on the widow as the prime suspect, her sisters close ranks around her. The three siblings are true-crime junkies, and thanks to a podcaster who has produced an unauthorized series about her, Anastasia’s reputation for solving murders has preceded her to the bucolic hamlet. The sisters plead for her help in finding the real killer. As Anastasia learns more about the women and their business, a host of suspects emerge, including several relatives, a relentless land developer, and even the sisters themselves.
Meanwhile, Anastasia becomes obsessed with discovering the podcaster’s identity. Along with knowing about Anastasia’s life as a reluctant amateur sleuth, the podcaster has divulged details of Anastasia’s personal life. Someone has betrayed Anastasia’s trust, and she’s out to discover the identity of the culprit.
Craft project included.
Excerpt
“How did I not know about that podcast?” I asked Zack after the sisters had checked us in and shown us to our guest cottage.
Our accommodations consisted of one large room with a king-size bed, a sitting area with two overstuffed chairs with matching ottomans, and an attached bathroom, complete with clawfoot tub.
The décor was quintessential Southern Living. Comfortable, inviting, and inspired by nature in both its color palette and the decorative elements scattered around the room, many of which, according to a framed sign on the dresser, were for sale in the gift shop. A large collage that incorporated old wine labels, photographs, and newspaper articles hung over the bed. If I wasn’t currently so annoyed, I would have enjoyed studying the collage rather than giving it little more than a cursory glance.
“Maybe I should Google myself more often, but you’d think someone would have known a true-crime podcaster was blabbing about me all over cyberspace.”
Zack dropped an armful of T-shirts into a dresser drawer and turned to face me. “Such as?”
“I don’t know.” Frustrated, I threw my arms up, then slapped my thighs. “Someone had to know. Tino? Spader? Ledbetter? All of them?”
Tino Martinelli worked in cyber-security. I once thought he was trying to kill me. I was dead wrong. Pun intended. The guy had had my back on more than one occasion and had become a dear friend.
Detective Samuel Spader worked Union County Homicide, and Agent Aloysius Ledbetter was with the FBI. My reluctant amateur sleuthing had brought me in close contact with both men far more times than any normal law-abiding citizen would have cause to interact with law enforcement.
“How is this not an invasion of my privacy?” I asked, pacing along the hardwood floor from one end of the room to the other and back again.
“I don’t know. Maybe it is, but I’m not a lawyer.”
I stopped short and stared at him. “You think I should call a lawyer?”
He placed his hands on my shoulders and in a soothing tone said, “Why don’t we first listen to the podcast before jumping to any conclusions?”
Why hadn’t I thought of that? I inhaled deeply, then slowly released the air in my lungs in an attempt at manifesting a calming breath. It didn’t help much. I’ve never been very good at the Zen thing. But Zack was right. Maybe this was all a nothing burger. Although, I failed to conjure up any scenario where such a possibility seemed feasible.
“When we drove in, I noticed a dirt path with a sign indicating the creek and a walking trail,” he said.
“So?”
He grabbed his camera and pulled a set of earbuds from his pocket. “Let’s take a stroll and listen to what this Sleuth Sayer has to say about you.”
Zack handed me one of the earbuds and placed the other in his ear. Then he found the podcast on his phone. As we headed toward the path, a few bars of music played before a woman began to speak.
An old African proverb states it takes a village to raise a child. Sometimes, though, it takes one woman’s courage and determination to protect the people of that village from those who would do them harm.
I tried to identify the narrator’s voice, but I couldn’t think of anyone I knew who spoke in a rich dulcet British accent.
Throughout our country and the world, unremarkable women are doing remarkable things—solving crimes and bringing the perpetrators to justice, often with little or no recognition of their accomplishments.
In fiction these women are called amateur sleuths, but there are many of them walking among us, unsung heroines with no law enforcement training who find themselves in unusual situations where they’re spurred into action.
I’ve made it my mission to tell the world about these courageous modern-day Miss Marples. I am the Sleuth Sayer, and this is Season One of The Sleuth Sayer Podcast.
Another group of chords followed before the narrator continued.
The Crafty Sleuth, Episode One. Our story begins not quite two years ago in Westfield, New Jersey, a quiet suburban commuter town outside of New York City, where one woman’s world is unexpectedly turned upside down when her husband suddenly dies, and she discovers the secrets he’s hidden from her throughout their marriage. One day Anastasia Pollack is living a typical middle-class life as a mother and magazine editor; the next day she’s not only a widow but the prime suspect in the murder of one of her coworkers. And what a murder it was!
When I stopped short and reached for Zack’s arm, he paused the podcast. “Had enough already?”
I couldn’t answer. I stood frozen in my tracks. Through a break in the trees and dense shrubbery, at the bottom of a steep slope, I saw a body sprawled along the edge of the creek.
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 Copies of A Crafty Collage of Crime (An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery) by Lois Winston eBook or Paperback (U.S. only)
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