Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Something Shady at Sunshine Haven (The Accidental Detective) by Kris Bock. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!
Something Shady at Sunshine Haven (The Accidental Detective)
by Kris Bock
Something Shady at Sunshine Haven (The Accidental Detective)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – Arizona
Tule Publishing (April 7, 2022)
Paperback : 324 pages
She’s pursued the most dangerous news stories around the world. But can she survive going home?
Injured in a bombing, war correspondent Kate Tessler returns to her hometown in Arizona to recover. For the first time in her life, she’s starting to feel her age of nearly fifty despite living like a teenager again: staying in her childhood bedroom with only a cat for company, trying to understand why her sister resents her so much, and running into people who still refer to her as Kitty. The hardest part? Seeing her once-sharp and witty mother stuck in an Alzheimer’s unit.
When an old friend asks her to investigate suspicious deaths at the nursing home, Kate limps into action. Is a self-appointed “Angel of Mercy” killing patients to end their suffering? Are family members hastening their inheritance? Is an employee extorting money and removing the witnesses? Kate uses her journalism skills to track clues, but the puzzle pieces simply won’t fit.
If Kate can’t uncover the truth quickly, her mother could be next on the killer’s list.
Guest post
Find out more about the author:
Did you want to be a writer as a child?
I really had no idea what I wanted to do. My mom thought I would have to be a librarian, since my main interest was reading. In high school, I got interested in photography, so I went to college for that. If I hadn’t gotten into the one art school I applied to, I might have trained to be an EMT. I got interested in emergency medicine when I was in junior ski patrol in high school.
What inspired you to start writing? How did that lead you here?
Studying photography made me realize I didn’t want to be a professional photographer after all. I enjoyed writing for the school paper, so I went for a master’s degree in Professional Writing and Publishing. After grad school, I looked for work as a magazine editor.
Between sending out resumes, I wrote my first novel, a middle grade adventure called The Well of Sacrifice. I loved books such as Julie of the Wolves and Island of the Blue Dolphins growing up and wanted to do a similar young adventure story. The novel is set in Mayan times, inspired by a summer I spent traveling through Mexico and Central America.
Astonishingly, I sold the book! It’s even still in print over twenty years later. This gave me the mistaken impression that having a writing career wasn’t so hard. Wrong! Still, I’ve managed to make a career of writing by focusing on educational publishing.
Around 2008, I started writing romantic suspense novels for adults. For example, Desert Gold follows the hunt for a long-lost treasure in the New Mexico desert. Then I wrote a contemporary sweet romance series featuring the customers and staff at a cat café. Finally I turned to this mystery series.
So I have over 100 published books now, but that includes fiction and nonfiction, for children and adults. The variety keeps me interested! I write for children as Chris Eboch and M. M. Eboch and for adults as Kris Bock.
Do you start with the plot or the characters?
It varies. For my Accidental Detective mystery series, I started with a character who is trying to reinvent her life as she turns 50. She spent 30 years as a war correspondent, so she’s pretty fearless, but that doesn’t always help her with the challenges of aging. She’s dealing with elderly parents who have health problems, a resentful sister, her own lack of retirement planning, and a body that doesn’t recover as quickly as it used to. These challenges provide humor as she narrates her attempts to solve local mysteries and build a new life.
For some of my other novels, plot came first. My romantic mystery, What We Found, was inspired by finding the body of a murder victim while hiking in the woods. True story! (Learn more here.)
What do you like to do when you are not writing?
I live in a small town in central New Mexico with my husband and our ferrets. I am a full-time writer, and my home office looks out on nature, complete with distracting wildlife such as roadrunners and foxes. I spend a lot of time reading, and I also like hiking, taking walks with friends, archery, and occasional low-key crafting where I don’t actually have to know what I’m doing.
What are you working on now?
The next three Accidental Detective books are written and edited, and I hope to write more. However, at the moment I’m working on a cowboy series about a ranch family that wins the lottery.
About Kris Bock
Kris Bock writes novels of mystery, suspense, and romance, many with outdoor adventures and Southwestern landscapes. Get a free Accidental Detective short story and bonus material when you sign up for her newsletter. You’ll also get a free 30-page sweet romance set in the world of the Furrever Friends cat café and a printable copy of the recipes mentioned in the cat café novels
Kris is also writing a series with her brother, scriptwriter Douglas J Eboch, who wrote the original screenplay for the movie Sweet Home Alabama. Follow the crazy antics of Melanie, Jake, and their friends a decade before the events of the movie. Sign up for our romantic comedy newsletter and get Felony Melanie Destroys the Moonshiner’s Cabin. Or find the books on Amazon US or All E-book retailers
Find Kris:
Amazon US Author page or Amazon UK page.
Purchase Links
Amazon Kindle – Amazon Kindle UK
Enter the giveaway
Something Shady at Sunshine Haven Tour Participants
May 24 – Cozy Up With Kathy – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
May 24 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
May 25 – Ruff Drafts – SPOTLIGHT WITH EXCERPT
May 25 – Island Confidential – SPOTLIGHT
May 26 – Brooke Blogs – SPOTLIGHT
May 26 – Books a Plenty Book Reviews – REVIEW
May 27 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT WITH EXCERPT
May 27 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – SPOTLGHT
May 28 – #BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog – SPOTLIGHT
May 28 – Reading Is My SuperPower – REVIEW
May 29 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT WITH EXCERPT
May 30 – Novels Alive – SPOTLIGHT
May 31 – Mysteries with Character – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
May 31 – The Mystery Section – SPOTLIGHT WITH EXCERPT
June 1 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – GUEST POST
June 2 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT WITH EXCERPT
June 2 – Rebecca M Douglass, Author – REVIEW, GUEST POST
June 3 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
June 3 – I Read What You Write – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
June 4 – fundinmental – SPOTLIGHT
June 4 – Cassidy’s Bookshelves – CHARACTER GUEST POST
June 5 – Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers – SPOTLIGHT
June 5 – StoreyBook Reviews – REVIEW
June 6 – Socrates Book Reviews – REVIEW
June 6 – Novels Alive – REVIEW
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Thanks for stopping by!
As a nurse and having had a Mom spend 2 years in Assisted Living, this cozy mystery is right up my alley. I love that 50 year old Kate is part of team asking the hard questions to get to the bottom of this dilemma. It is a matter of life and death to solve the mystery.
This sounds interesting.