Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for A Study in Chocolate (Bean to Bar Mysteries) by Amber Royer. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!
A Study in Chocolate (Bean to Bar Mysteries)
by Amber Royer
A Study in Chocolate (Bean to Bar Mysteries)
Cozy Mystery
5th in Series
Golden Tip Press (January 17, 2023)
Print length : 289 pages
Felicity Koerber’s bean to bar chocolate shop on Galveston’s historic Strand is expanding, as it has become a gathering spot for the community, despite having been the scene of multiple murders. Artists she met while doing a chocolate sculpture are now working out of the shop. So when Felicity is invited to tea by an eccentric art collector, she’s intrigued, especially when she gets asked to pose for a portrait done with chocolate on chocolate. Only, where there is a murder the next day at the same historic house where the tea was held, one of Felicity’s artist friends becomes the main suspect.
When the killer threatens that, unless Felicity unravels the murder, one of her two love interests will be the next victim, she finds herself unwittingly at the center of a puzzle, with a Sherlock Holmes obsessed murderer who wants to be the next Moriarty – and wants to cast Felicity as Sherlock.
Felicity starts finding unexpected connects between her friends and acquaintances, and has to deal with the idea that someone who knows her is a murderer. At the same time, she has to keep her business running, despite construction dust and unruly customers – and an unexpected order for thousands of truffles.
Satchmo the retired police dog turned therapy dog returns to help her sniff out a few clues, and the kidnapping of Ruffles, the quirky artist’s cat, helps lead Felicity into the puzzle. Can Felicity solve it in time to protect the people she cares about from becoming additional victims?
Author guest post
A Study in Chocolate is the fifth book in the Bean to Bar Mysteries. Throughout the series, I’ve been highlighting different things I like about Galveston Island. I first visited the historic homes that are open for tours when I was a kid, and something about the experience has always stuck with me. After all, the 1900 hurricane had leveled much of the island – but somehow some of the houses made it through. You can still tour half a dozen of them. So I decided to use a historic home as a major setting in A Study in Chocolate.
Each of these homes represent a slice of history, and I didn’t want to confuse such personal fact with fiction in the minds of readers. I felt I had to design a fictional house to put my characters in, rather than having murder take place at a real one. I decided to incorporate some of the most fun elements from homes I’ve toured in the real world – but also some of the fictional tropes that go along with old houses.
I actually have a minor in interior design from my undergrad days, and my husband is a CAD designer working with civil engineers. I feel like that has contributed to my eye for graphic arts and design in general. It’s also made me a big fan of architectural detail. Jake and I live in Dallas now (though we both grew up in Southeast Texas, not far from Galveston), and sometimes we just go downtown to photograph architectural detail on some of the buildings – both modern and historic.
In the book, I have the house being a hodgepodge of historical styles, in part inspired by a documentary I watched on a home that had been added on to by different family members over time. I also played with how architects can use perspective, giving the house the name Wobble House.
I had even more fun with the fictional side. Of course the house had to creak and make unexplained noises. It had to have a huge ballroom and study – but I contrasted that by putting in modern appliances and technology.
I’ve always loved the whole secret-passage thing, a la Clue. So you know I had to include it, but I wanted to do it in a way that would speak specifically to Galveston’s history. It took me a while to figure out what a secret passage would be for on an island, but I managed it (though it would be too many spoilers to tell you how).
I’ve always believed that settings shouldn’t feel random. (The common writerly advice that you hear is: if you could set the story in a different place and it wouldn’t change anything about the story, then you aren’t using setting effectively.) What, though, is the point of setting a story in a historic home unless something happened there in the past? I wound up inventing a backstory for the house, almost like it was another character. And to make the setting even more a part of the story, I tied events that had happened in the house in the past to characters peopling the story in the present. I feel like that added another layer to the mystery.
If you have the chance, I hope you visit Galveston Island and take a tour of the real historic homes. In the meantime, enjoy my interpretation in A Study in Chocolate.
About Amber Royer
Amber Royer writes the CHOCOVERSE comic telenovela-style foodie-inspired space opera series, and the BEAN TO BAR MYSTERIES. She is also the author of STORY LIKE A JOURNALIST: A WORKBOOK FOR NOVELISTS, which boils down her writing knowledge into an actionable plan involving over 100 worksheets to build a comprehensive story plan for your novel. She blogs about creative writing techniques and all things chocolate at www.amberroyer.com. She also teaches creative writing and is an author coach. If you are very nice to her, she might make you cupcakes. Chocolate cupcakes, of course.
Author Links
Website: http://www.amberroyer.com
Blog: http://amberroyer.com/blog/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amberroyerauthor/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Amber.Royer.Author/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoA_29HV2nPmRnox9LPVanw
Twitter: https://twitter.com/amber_royer
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Amber-Royer/e/B00PFV4CGM
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8144619.Amber_Royer
Purchase Links – Amazon – B&N – Kobo
Enter the giveaway
A Study in Chocolate TOUR PARTICIPANTS
January 16 – Literary Gold – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
January 16 – My Reading Journeys – REVIEW
January 17 – Cinnamon, Sugar, and a Little Bit of Murder – REVIEW, RECIPE
January 17 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
January 18 – Mochas, Mysteries and Meows – CHARACTER GUEST POST
January 19 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
January 19 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – AUTHOR GUEST POST
January 20 – I’m Into Books – SPOTLIGHT
January 20 – The Mystery Review Crew – AUTHOR GUEST POST
January 21 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT, EXCERPT
January 21 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – SPOTLIGHT
January 22 – Cozy Up With Kathy – CHARACTER GUEST POST
January 22 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
January 23 – Lady Hawkeye – SPOTLIGHT
January 24 – Ascroft, eh? – AUTHOR GUEST POST
January 25 – #BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog – SPOTLIGHT
January 26 – Sneaky the library Cat’s Blog – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
January 27 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
January 28 – Mystery Thrillers and Romantic Suspense Reviews – SPOTLIGHT, EXCERPT
January 28 – My Journey Back – SPOTLIGHT
January 29 – Girl with Pen – SPOTLIGHT
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Thanks for letting me share! Setting my books in Galveston has given me so many reasons to explore a place that I love.
You’re welcome! Thanks for the great post!
Sounds like a good read.
This looks like a fun read and I love the chocolate theme
This looks like a fun book. Thanks for the giveaway!
Thank you for this chance. I love the book cover.
Good luck with your new book.