Sand Trapped: Cara Mia Delgatto Mystery Series by Joanna Campbell Slan

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Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Sand Trapped: Cara Mia Delgatto Mystery Series by Joanna Campbell Slan. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!

If you love warm-hearted, clean books, that feature female amateur sleuths, fur babies, family, and friends, you’ll love this charming DIY/recycling/upcycling series set on the Southeast Coast of Florida.

Sand Trapped: Cara Mia Delgatto Mystery Series

by Joanna Campbell Slan

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Sand Trapped: Cara Mia Delgatto Mystery Series
Cozy Mystery
6th in Series
Publisher: Spot On Publishing (May 16, 2021)
Paperback: 292 pages

First they warned Jocelyn Johnson.

Then they ticketed Jocelyn Johnson.

Then someone murdered Jocelyn Johnson.

And Cara Mia Delgatto was looking for a lost ball when found Jocelyn “JJ” Johnson face down in a sand trap. Gave a whole new meaning to “take a drop.”

It wasn’t a surprise. The neighbors hated JJ for the reckless way she drove her golf cart. Sure, she lived on the grounds of a swanky golf club, and yes, she had tons of money, but JJ ruined flowerbeds, terrorized grandkids, and made a nuisance of herself.

Except…except…she’s quiet now. Lying there in the dirt at Hole #6. Someone bashed in JJ’s head. (Who would risk ruining an expensive Homna golf club like that?)

Cara doesn’t want to get involved. But when Gerta Hunsickler is named the prime suspect, and Gerta’s husband is so angry at his wife that he’s starting divorce proceedings, Cara can’t sit on her hands. She knows what it’s like to be unfairly accused. So she promises to take a swing at it and see if she can hit a long drive down the fairway of justice!

Meanwhile, back at The Treasure Chest, Cara’s friends are busy creating fabulous and fun Mother’s Day gifts. There are two brides-to-be working for Cara, and their two mothers-in-law-to-be have decided not to play nice. Can you say, “Mama’s boy” ten times really fast? I thought you could.

Guest Post

My Three Rules for the Cara Mia Delgatto Mystery Series

By Joanna Campbell Slan

Each book I write challenges me in new and unexpected ways. For example, Sand Trapped: Book #6 in the Cara Mia Delgatto Mystery Series revolves around a murder on a golf course. This makes perfect sense because the Sunshine State is the Golf Capital of the World, and this series is set on the Treasure Coast of Florida. Since I’m not a golfer, I needed to do research about various aspects of golfing and, oddly, about the construction of golf carts.

Thank goodness for Google! I was able to quickly look up the most popular brand of carts and find a diagram of their construction. Google also supplied the rules of golf, in particular those I needed for when my protagonist, Cara Mia, and her friend, Aurora Hamilton, discover a dead body in a sand trap.

Speaking of rules, I have my own set of “rules” for my different series. These are features that each book in that particular series will include. The inclusions help me come up with interesting material to keep the books fresh. And yes, I also have to admit that the rules are my way of indulging my passion for research…within limits.

Rule #1: Every Cara Mia Delgatto book will feature an item or two that’s an antique or collectable. For this book, I chose birdcages. When I visited China, I saw people hanging their birdcages outside on sunny days. That got me wondering and my fingers went tap-tap-tap. Soon I learned that ever since the Qing dynasty in China (1644 A.D.), bird-keeping has been a hobby for men of the elite class. Today it’s common for people to take their birds for a “walk” and carry the cages to local parks. There the owners sit around and chat about their pets.

Rule #2: Each book will feature a little known fact about the terrain or history of Florida. In Sand Trapped, Cara Mia takes friends to visit the Blowing Rocks Preserve, a 73-acre nature conservancy. During high tide, water is forced through stone formations, causing plumes to spray 50 feet in the air. The rocks are about 2.5 million years old. They formed during the Pleistocene Epoch as coral reefs broke down and rebuilt into limestone. The tiny pools of water at the base of the formations are perfect for observing sea life. If you examine the rocks carefully, you can see exposed fossils.

Rule #3: Every book will have at least one or two crafty DIY items. Because Cara Mia owns a shop called The Treasure Chest, she’s always looking for inexpensive and unique merchandise. In Sand Trapped, one of her vendors makes coiled baskets out of rope covered with colored calico. Curious? Want to make a basket like this yourself? Here’s a link: How to Make a Coiled Fabric Bowl.

Needless to say, I love what I do. Adding these fun features to the Cara Mia Delgatto Mystery Series makes writing them a lot of fun!

About Joanna Campbell Slan

“Our best friend, our next-door neighbor, and ourselves with just a touch of the outrageous.” That’s how RT Book Review describes Joanna’s protagonist, Kiki Lowenstein. The truth is that’s a pretty good description of Joanna Campbell Slan as well.

Joanna is a New York Times Bestselling, USA Today Bestselling, and Amazon Bestselling author as well as a woman prone to frequent bursts of crafting frenzy, leaving her with burns from her hot glue gun and paint on her clothes. And the mess? Let’s not even go there.

Otherwise, Joanna’s a productive author with more than 80 written projects to her credit. Her non-fiction work includes how to books, a college textbook for public speakers, and books of personal essays (think Chicken Soup for the Soul).

Currently, she writes five fiction series: The Kiki Lowenstein Mystery Series (Agatha Award Finalist, contemporary, St. Louis setting, crafting), the Cara Mia Delgatto Mystery Series (contemporary, Florida setting, DIY, and recycling), the Jane Eyre Chronicles (Daphne du Maurier Award Winner, 1830s England, based on Charlotte Brontë’s classic), the Sherlock Holmes Fantasy Thrillers (late 1800s, based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s books), and the Zen Cozy Mystery Series (launch 2021).

A former TV talk show host, college teacher, and public relations specialist, Joanna was one of the early Chicken Soup for the Soul contributors. She won a Silver Anvil for her work on the original FarmAid concert to benefit farmers.

In her ongoing quest never to see snow again, Joanna lives with her husband and their Havanese puppy, Jax, on an island off the coast of Florida. You can email her at jcslan@joannaslan.com or visit her website at https://linktr.ee/jcslan