Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Sticks and Stones and a Bag of Bones: A Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mystery by Heather Weidner. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!
Sticks and Stones and a Bag of Bones: A Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mystery
by Heather Weidner
Sticks and Stones and a Bag of Bones:
A Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mystery
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – Virginia
Level Best Books (January 17, 2023)
Print length : 277 pages
When a beat-up suitcase full of bones washes up by the pier, the residents of the quaint resort town of Mermaid Bay are whipped into a hurricane-sized frenzy over the gruesome find in the middle of their Christmas in July festivities. The holly jolly mood retreats like the tide with everyone wondering who was in the suitcase.
Christmas shoppe owner, Jade Hicks, wades into the fracas when voodoo dolls and mysterious notes and posters about impending doom start popping up all over town, threatening to destroy the economy of a community that lives and dies by tourist dollars. Then tensions crest when the prickly bookstore owner is found strangled to death with a string of holiday lights.
Jade and her French bulldog Chloe, have to solve the crime before anyone else gets hurt and her business and the festival are forever tainted.
Sticks and Stones and a Bag of Bones is the first in the Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mysteries cozy series.
My review of Sticks and Stones and a Bag of Bones
I absolutely loved Sticks and Stones and a Bag of Bones! It’s the first book in a brand new cozy mystery series by Heather Weidner called the Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mysteries. The series takes place in Mermaid Bay, Virginia which is a small town with lots of eclectic small businesses. The main character, Jade Hicks, runs ‘Tis the Season, a shop dedicated to Christmas, of course! It’s not just a tiny place either; it has different rooms with different themes and lots of Christmas trees filled with themed decorations. I love Christmas, and I want to live in this make believe store!
In fact, I’d love to live in a place like Mermaid Bay. It’s by the ocean; it has that small town vibe that I love in cozy mystery books; there are characters (though much younger than I!) with whom I could be friends. Basically it has a lot going for it. Like many small towns, there are those (both residents and non) who would love to buy up blocks of small businesses to make way for big box stores; or, if they’re on the beach, build condos! As you can imagine, it causes issues and may or may not play a part in the murder mystery. Solving mysteries would just be another plus in my reasons for wanting to live in Mermaid Bay. If you’re a cozy mystery lover, you know you want to solve mysteries too!
Sticks and Stones and A Bag of Bones is filled with several characters I’ve already grown to love, and there are those that I’m looking forward to getting to know better. I do hope (hint to Heather!) that the teen(s) who work for Jade stay in the series. They keep the “older” employees young and entertained. Jade’s new friend, Amy, is delightful too! She’s got a way of taking things that are not fun and making them fun. Of course, food is pretty much always involved.
There are plenty of clues, red herrings, and suspenseful moments that make Sticks and Stones and a Bag of Bones a page-turning read. I like being surprised and unable to uncover the killer until near the end of the cozies I read. This one fits the bill. Like I said, you’ll find lots of characters who jump on and off of your list of suspects.
If you love starting cozy mystery series with book one, read this! Sticks and Stones and a Bag of Bones has so many of the elements that make a cozy mystery enjoyable: a diverse batch of characters, an adorable small town, a dog and a cat, and a perplexing mystery. I highly recommend that you read this charming cozy mystery!
Jade Hicks from STICKS AND STONES AND A BAG OF BONES by Heather Weidner
Hi, y’all. I’m Jade Hicks, and I own ‘Tis the Season, a Christmas store in the beach town of Mermaid Bay, Virginia. My grandmother opened the store about thirty years ago in a converted beach cottage. Each themed room has decorations, and at last count, there are 300 trees in each room of the store. My spunky French bulldog Chloe comes to work with me every day. She thinks she’s head of security, but Neville the Devil Cat, the store’s chief mouser, has other ideas.
Chloe, the French bulldog
Neville, the devil cat
All was going well. This week, Chloe and I headed out for our morning walk on the sand when all chaos broke loose. A beat-up suitcase full of bones washed up by Suggs’s pier, and the residents of my quaint little town were whipped into a hurricane-sized frenzy over the gruesome find in the middle of our Christmas in July festivities. The holly jolly mood retreated like the tide with everyone wondering who was in the suitcase, and the town’s gossip grapevine revved up into overdrive.
I thought that the bag of bones was the worst that could happen during our Christmas in July festivities. Everyone had worked so hard on the events to bring tourists to town. Boy, was I wrong. A fracas broke out when voodoo dolls and mysterious notes and posters about impending doom start popping up all over town, threatening to destroy our tourism trade. Every business in a beach community lives and dies by tourist dollars.
Then something really horrible happened. I found my friend, the town’s prickly bookstore owner, strangled to death with a string of holiday lights behind the hotdog shack. I had to figure out what happened before anyone else got hurt (or worse) and our town’s reputation is ruined.
Sticks and Stones and a Bag of Bones is the first in the Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mysteries cozy series. Jade and the gang will also appear in Twinkle Twinkle Au Revoir (2024) and A Tisket A Tasket, Not Another Casket (2025).
About Heather Weidner
Through the years, Heather Weidner has been a cop’s kid, technical writer, editor, college professor, software tester, and IT manager. She writes the Delanie Fitzgerald Mysteries, The Jules Keene Glamping Mysteries, and The Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mysteries.
Her short stories appear in the Virginia is for Mysteries series, 50 Shades of Cabernet, Deadly Southern Charm, and Murder by the Glass.
She is a member of Sisters in Crime – Central Virginia, Sisters in Crime – Chessie, Guppies, International Thriller Writers, and James River Writers.
Originally from Virginia Beach, Heather has been a mystery fan since Scooby-Doo and Nancy Drew. She lives in Central Virginia with her husband and a pair of Jack Russell terriers.
Author Links
Website and Blog: http://www.heatherweidner.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeatherWeidner1
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeatherWeidnerAuthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heather_mystery_writer/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8121854.Heather_Weidner
Amazon Authors: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00HOYR0MQ
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/HeatherBWeidner/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-weidner-0064b233?trk=hp-identity-name
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/heather-weidner-d6430278-c5c9-4b10-b911-340828fc7003
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@heather_weidner_author
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyBjyB0zz-M1DaM-rU1bXGA?view_as=subscriber
Purchase Link – Amazon
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Sticks and Stones and A Bag of Bones TOUR PARTICIPANTS
February 15 – Literary Gold – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
February 15 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
February 16 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – REVIEW, CHARACTER GUEST POST
February 16 – Read Your Writes Book Reviews – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
February 17 – Ascroft, eh? – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
February 17 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT
February 17 – Novels Alive – REVIEW
February 18 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
February 18 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
February 19 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW, AUTHOR INTERVIEW
February 20 – I’m Into Books – REVIEW, RECIPE
February 21 – Ruff Drafts – AUTHOR GUEST POST
February 22 – The Book Decoder – REVIEW
February 23 – Mochas, Mysteries and Meows – CHARACTER GUEST POST
February 24 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – SPOTLIGHT
February 25 – The Book Decoder – AUTHOR GUEST POST
February 25 – Lisa Ks Book Reviews – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
February 26 – #BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee – SPOTLIGHT
February 27 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
February 28 – Melina’s Book Blog – REVIEW
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I like this book’s cover and title!
Thank you so much for letting me visit with the Mermaid Bay gang!
You’re welcome! I’m ready for more!