Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Murder Is No Picnic (A Cape Cod Foodie Mystery) by Amy Pershing. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!
Murder Is No Picnic (A Cape Cod Foodie Mystery)
by Amy Pershing
Murder Is No Picnic (A Cape Cod Foodie Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
3rd in Series
Setting – Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Publisher : Berkley (June 7, 2022)
Mass Market Paperback : 336 pages
The Fourth of July is coming, and for professional food lover Samantha Barnes, it’s all about the picnic. Okay, and the fireworks. And the parade. But mostly the picnic. What could be better than a DIY clambake followed by the best blueberry buckle in the world? Sam has finally found the perfect recipe in the kitchen of Clara Foster, famed cookbook author and retired restaurateur, and she’s thrilled when Clara agrees to a buckle baking lesson.
But when Clara dies in a house fire blamed on carelessness in the kitchen, Sam doesn’t believe it. Unfortunately, her doubts set in motion an investigation pointing to the new owner of Clara’s legendary restaurant—and a cousin of Sam’s harbormaster boyfriend. So, in between researching the Cape’s best lobster rolls and planning her clambake, Sam needs to find Clara’s killer before the fireworks really start….
Character Guest Post
Character Interview: Samantha Barnes (aka the Cape Cod Foodie)
Welcome, Samantha Barnes. Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Sure. My name is Sam Barnes and I am, for better or worse (often worse, I have to warn you) I am the Cape Cod Foodie, the very enthusiastic restaurant reviewer and very reluctant star of the Cape Cod Foodie videos for the local paper, Cape Cod Clarion. You may recognize me from a couple of super embarrassing YouTube videos. Also, at six feet one and a half inches I’m pretty hard to miss.
Ooh, do tell us about those YouTube videos…
Well, there was that first one, where some helpful passerby posted a very unfortunate video they’d taken with their cell phone of me, Samantha Barnes, up-and-coming New York chef, mixing it up with my rather volatile chef husband in a kind of chefs’ fencing match. Let me tell you, once that video hit YouTube, I almost instantaneously became Samantha Barnes ex-chef. Then there was the famous “Santa Claus is dead!” video. That was a big hit. I could go on and on.
So if you were a New York chef, how did you end up back where you grew up, on Cape Cod?
See Samantha Barnes ex-chef above. So, out of a marriage (good) and out of a job (bad), when I found I’d inherited my Aunt Ida’s falling down house on the Cape, I reluctantly retreated home to Fair Harbor. There my old friend and now publisher of the Clarion, Krista Baker, gave me the Cape Cod Foodie job.
And how’s life the Cape working out for you?
Much better than I ever dreamed. I’m figuring out my rather complicated relationship with the world’s hottest harbormaster, Jason Captiva. (He’s a great kisser.) And I’m very fond of my posse
of just-slightly-odd friends. The afore-mentioned falling-down house is not falling down anymore, though it’s still a work in progress. And the ginormous puppy that I inherited along with the house is now a ginormous dog named Diogi (as in D-O-G, get it?). He is a total love.
So all good then?
Well, here’s the kicker. Ever since I came back to the Cape, I seem to have a propensity for falling over dead bodies. I kid you not. I’ve been falling over dead bodies right and left.
Tell us about that…
Okay, here goes. In the first Cape Cod Foodie mystery, A SIDE OF MURDER, I managed to find a body floating in a pond outside the very first restaurant I reviewed. I was convinced this was a murder, though the local constabulary disagreed. But did that stop me from trying to find out whodunnit on my own? It did not.
You’d think in the second mystery, AN EGGNOG TO DIE FOR, the sleuthing could be put on hold, it being the holidays and all. But you’d be wrong. I mean, what’s a girl to do when she just happens to stumble over the lifeless body of the town’s Santa Claus? (Thus engendering the viral “Santa Clause is dead” YouTube video.) And now, in MURDER IS NO PICNIC, my search for the world’s best blueberry buckle is turning into a search for a killer…
So can’t somebody else solve this mystery? Why you this time?
That’s what I asked myself as well. I mean, when I found the World’s Best Blueberry Buckle in the kitchen of Clara Foster, famed cookbook author and retired restaurateur, I was thrilled when she agreed to show me how to make it. But then Clara died in a house fire blamed on carelessness in the kitchen, and I just didn’t believe it. Unfortunately, my doubts set in motion an investigation pointing to Jason’s favorite cousin, which does not bode well for our complicated relationship. So, of course, in between researching the Cape’s best lobster rolls and planning my Fourth of July BYOL (Bring Your Own Lobster) clambake, I need to find Clara’s killer before the fireworks really start….
About Amy Pershing
Amy Pershing, who spent every summer of her childhood on Cape Cod, was an editor, a restaurant reviewer and a journalist before writing the Cape Cod Foodie mysteries, including A Side of Murder — which Elizabeth Gilbert called “the freshest, funniest mystery I have ever read” — and An Eggnog to Die For — which Kirkus Reviews gave a starred review, saying, “A delightful sleuth, a complex mystery, and lovingly described cuisine: a winner for both foodies and mystery mavens.” The third book in the series, Murder Is No Picnic, also received a starred review from Kirkus, which wrote: “A clever, empathetic and totally believable heroine sets this fine cozy above the competition.”
Author Links
Website: AmyPershingAuthor.com
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Purchase Links
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Murder is No Picnic TOUR PARTICIPANTS
June 7 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
June 8 – Hearts & Scribbles – SPOTLIGHT
June 8 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – CHARACTER GUEST POST
June 9 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
June 9 – Novels Alive – REVIEW – SPOTLIGHT
June 10 – Reading, Writing & Stitch-Metic – SPOTLIGHT
June 10 – Books a Plenty Book Reviews – REVIEW, CHARACTER INTERVIEW
June 11 – #BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog – SPOTLIGHT
June 11 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
June 12 – Lisa Ks Book Review – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
June 13 – Diane Reviews Books – GUEST POST
June 13 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
June 14 – The Mystery Section – GUEST POST
June 14 – My Reading Journeys – REVIEW
June 15 – Just Another Teen Reading Books – CHARACTER GUEST POST
June 15 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW
June 16 – The Avid Reader – REVIEW
June 16 – I Read What You Write – SPOTLIGHT
June 17 – Ascroft, eh? – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
June 17 – Books to the Ceiling – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
June 18 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
June 19 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW
June 20 – My Journey Back – RECIPE POST
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Thanks for having Sam visit your Cozy Corner, Christy!
You’re welcome! Thanks for stopping by today!
What a wonderful interview! Can’t wait to read your book.
This is a new author and series for me to read. I’d love to get started with it.
cute cover