Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Guilty as Framed (An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery) by Lois Winston. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!
Guilty as Framed (An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery)
by Lois Winston
Guilty as Framed (An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
11th in Series
Setting – New Jersey
Independently Published (September 6, 2022)
Print length : 263 pages
When an elderly man shows up at the home of reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack, she’s drawn into the unsolved mystery of the greatest art heist in history.
Boston mob boss Cormac Murphy has recently been released from prison. He refuses to believe Anastasia’s assertion that the man he’s looking for doesn’t live at her address and attempts to muscle his way into her home. His efforts are thwarted by Anastasia’s fiancé Zack Barnes.
A week later, a stolen SUV containing a dead body appears in Anastasia’s driveway. Anastasia believes Murphy is sending her a message. It’s only the first in a series of alarming incidents, including a mugging, a break-in, another murder, and the discovery of a cache of jewelry and an etching from the largest museum burglary in history.
But will Anastasia solve the mystery behind these shocking events before she falls victim to a couple of desperate thugs who will stop at nothing to get what they want?
Crafts projects included.
Crafting the Crafty Sleuth
By Lois Winston
Anastasia Pollack, the reluctant amateur sleuth of my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, is the crafts editor at a women’s magazine sold at supermarket checkout counters. The projects featured in American Woman need to be quick, easy, and inexpensive but still look like something created by Martha Stewart or Joanna Gaines. Not an easy task. Then again, nothing about Anastasia’s life has been easy since her husband dropped dead at a casino in Las Vegas and left her deep in debt with his bookie breathing down her neck and her ornery communist mother-in-law as a permanent resident.
When I was asked to write a crafting-themed cozy mystery series, I first researched other crafting-themed cozy mysteries. I found that all featured a specific craft—such as quilting, knitting, embroidery, scrapbooking, or beadwork—and either centered around a crafter, a group of crafters, or a craft shop. All had craft projects or tips included in the books. My series is a departure from these other series. By making Anastasia a crafts editor, it enabled me to feature different crafts in each book.
In Guilty as Framed, the eleventh book in the series (there are also three mini-mystery novellas), I chose decorative frames for the craft. This was a logical choice given that the plot revolves around the still unsolved art heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardiner Museum in Boston. Ever since the paintings were stolen in 1990, the museum has hung empty frames in place of the stolen artworks.
Today, I thought I’d offer the readers of Christy’s Cozy Corner a craft project not featured in any of the books, at least not so far. With summer nearly over, many of you probably spent some time collecting seashells at the beach (or down the shore, as we say in New Jersey.) Or you have a bag, box, or bin of seashells from previous vacations. Seashell jars are an extremely quick and easy craft that will fulfill many of your gift giving needs for the upcoming holiday season. They can be filled with anything, depending on the size jar you use. I like to whip up bath salts and place them in a basket with decorative soaps and a guest towel, but you should use your imagination and tailor the items in your jars to the people on your gift list.
Seashell Jars
Materials: glass jars with screw-on lids (available at craft stores,) hot glue gun and glue sticks or clear Gorilla Glue, decorative shells, jar filler (bath salts or beads, makeup sponges, cotton balls, cotton swabs, tea bags, spools of thread, buttons, thumbtacks, candy, hair ribbons, scrunchies, bobby pins, paper clips, postage stamps, other seashells, etc.)
Arrange an assortment of shells on the jar lid. When you’re happy with the arrangement, glue the shells in place. After the glue dries, fill the jars. It’s as simple as that!
Bonus Bath Salts Recipe
If you’d like to make your own bath salts, here’s an easy recipe.
Materials: 3 cups Epsom salts, 2 cups sea salt, 1/2-ounce essential oil, 1 cup baking soda (optional — baking soda will soften the skin and condition the water), wire whisk, airtight glass containers (such as Mason jars).
Whisk salts together well in a glass or metal bowl. Add essential oil and continue to whisk together. Whisk in baking soda, if desired.
Spoon bath salts into jars. Seal tightly.
About Lois Winston
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
Author Links
Website: www.loiswinston.com
Newsletter sign-up: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/r2e9v1
Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog: www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/anasleuth
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Anasleuth
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/722763.Lois_Winston
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/lois-winston
Purchase Links – Amazon – Nook – Kobo – iBookstore
Enter the giveaway
Guilty as Framed TOUR PARTICIPANTS
September 12 – Jane Reads – CHARACTER GUEST POST
September 12 – #BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog – SPOTLIGHT
September 13 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – CRAFT POST
September 13 – My Reading Journeys – REVIEW
September 14 – Elizabeth McKenna – Author – SPOTLIGHT
September 14 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
September 15 – Mysteries with Character – REVIEW
September 15 – The Mystery Section – SPOTLIGHT
September 16 – I Read What You Write – GUEST POST
September 16 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
September 17 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
September 18 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
September 19 – Literary Gold – SPOTLIGHT
September 20 – Baroness Book Trove – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
September 21 – My Journey Back – CHARACTER GUEST POST
September 21 – Novels Alive – SPOTLIGHT
September 22 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT
September 22 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – GUEST POST
September 23 – Ascroft, eh? – GUEST POST
September 24 – I’m All About Books – SPOTLIGHT
September 25 – Lady Hawkeye – GUEST POST
Have you signed up to be a Tour Host?
Christy, thank you for hosting me on your blog today!
You’re welcome! Thanks for stopping!
I would love to win a print copy of Guilty as Framed (An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery) by Lois Winston!