Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Tuesday Trash and Trouble: Friday Night Mystery Club Series by Joanna Campbell Slan. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!
Tuesday Trash and Trouble: Friday Night Mystery Club Series
by Joanna Campbell Slan
Tuesday Trash and Trouble: Friday Night Mystery Club Series
Cozy Mystery
3rd in Series
Setting – Illinois
Spot On Publishing (October 10, 2022)
Paperback : 332 pages
Set in 1986, Joanna Campbell Slan’s latest cozy mystery—Tuesday Trash and Trouble–features a down-on-her-luck divorcée whose passion for solving crimes lands her in the arms of a secretive cowboy–and the cross-hairs of a vengeful killer.
The year is 1986, the place is…pitiful. It’s Decatur, Illinois, known for high unemployment, striking unions, the pervasive stink of soybean processing, and seven railroad crossings at one intersection.
A wrong turn along life’s marital highway has left Catherine “Cragan” Collins stuck in Decatur. With a mountain of post-divorce bills to pay, Cragan takes a job selling high-priced newspaper advertising. If she’s lucky, her commissions will cover the cost of her grandmother’s stay in a nearby retirement home.
After the divorce, Cragan swears off men, but she’s a sucker for a guy in a nice suit. She falls hard for a man who publicly snubs her. On the rebound, she accepts an invitation from Ross Gentry, a quiet hunk who favors pearl snaps and cowboy boots. Cragan reasons that her heart is safe, because she and Ross come from two different worlds. But one night in his arms might be enough to prove her wrong.
Without warning, everything blows up in Cragan’s face. Her boss threatens to take away her accounts, a friend’s little sister is kidnapped, and an overnight guest is shot. Cragan’s best friend, Pru, is accused of attempted murder. After all, Pru’s gun was used in the crime.
Cragan calls an emergency meeting of the Friday Night Mystery Club. These mystery-loving career women are a group of smart cookies. Can their combined talents prove that Pru is innocent? And will they find an answer in time to save Cragan from the wrath of a vengeful shooter?
It takes a club to solve a mystery!
Character Guest Post:
It’s No Mystery Why We Love Mysteries
Character Post by Cragan Collins of The Friday Night Mystery Club series
(written by Joanna Campbell Slan)
Hey there—Nice to meet you! I’m Cragan Collins, the unofficial/official organizer of The Friday Night Mystery Club. Our group started as a way to avoid the inevitable depression that comes when you don’t have a date on Friday Night and you can’t stand sitting home by yourself. Once my five friends and I discovered our shared love of reading mysteries, the question of what to do became obvious. Oh sure, we could eat, drink wine, and tell sad stories about our pitiful lives, but whining (as opposed to wining) gets old. We wanted some cheap thrills, a nice diversion, and we wanted the bad guys to get their just deserves. I think that secretly all five of us felt downtrodden and marginalized by society. Not that any of us would admit it, but it was true.
Pru, our resident exotic dancer, loudly protested that she was not being exploited. No, she told us. She was exploiting the men who showed up at the gentleman’s club to watch her undress on stage. (Hmmm. Maybe. Maybe not.)
The oldest of our group, my co-worker Winnie, lived with her mother. But not by choice. Not really. Her three brothers insisted that as the only girl in the family, it was her responsibility to take care of dear-old-domineering Mom.
Rosie, a young mother, told her son Julio repeatedly that his father loved him. Honest! But she never told Julio why the two of them had to run away from Mexico under the cover of night. Nor did Rosie explain why Julio’s father never once tried to contact them after they settled in Central Illinois.
As a Black woman, Zee dealt daily with a double-dose of prejudice. She did her boss’s job at the bank where she worked. Not that the bank’s board of directors would ever admit who was really running the show. To them, she was a glorified secretary. Riii-ght.
And again, I’m Catherine Cragan Collins, but everyone calls me Cragan. My mother told me I was lucky to find a “great catch” like Tim Collins. She encouraged me to help him with his college courses. She stuck up for Tim when he ran up enormous debts and cheated on me. When I finally found the courage to divorce Tim, Mom said, “You’re making a big mistake. Mark my words, you’ll be alone for the rest of your life.”
Is it any wonder that the five of us turned to the pages of mysteries for solace? Those books promised us that good will prevail…eventually. So each week, we raise a glass of wine to The Friday Night Mystery Club–and whine no more!
About Joanna Campbell Slan
Joanna is a New York Times Bestselling, USA Today Bestselling, and Amazon Bestselling author as well as a woman prone to frequent bursts of crafting frenzy, leaving her with burns from her hot glue gun and paint on her clothes. And the mess? Let’s not even go there.
Otherwise, Joanna’s a productive author with more than 80 written projects to her credit. Her non-fiction work includes how to books, a college textbook for public speakers, and books of personal essays (think Chicken Soup for the Soul).
Currently, she writes six fiction series: The Kiki Lowenstein Mystery Series (Agatha Award Finalist, contemporary, St. Louis setting, crafting), the Cara Mia Delgatto Mystery Series (contemporary, Florida setting, DIY, and recycling), the Jane Eyre Chronicles (Daphne du Maurier Award Winner, 1830s England, based on Charlotte Brontë’s classic), the Sherlock Holmes Fantasy Thrillers (late 1800s, based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s books), the Tai Chi Mystery Series (featuring a mature female amateur sleuth!) and the Friday Night Mystery Series (set in Decatur, IL in 1986 with a spunky female heroine.)
A former TV talk show host, college teacher, and public relations specialist, Joanna was one of the early Chicken Soup for the Soul contributors. She won a Silver Anvil for her work on the original FarmAid concert to benefit farmers.
In her ongoing quest never to see snow again, Joanna lives with her husband and their Havanese puppy, Jax, on an island off the coast of Florida. You can email her at jc****@jo********.com or visit her website at https://linktr.ee/jcslan
Author Links
- Newsletter sign-up: https://joannacampbellslan.com/
- Street Team sign up: https://joannacampbellslan.com/
- Website — https://joannacampbellslan.com/
- Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/JoannaCampbellSlan
- Facebook Group — https://www.facebook.com/groups/1602372550058785
- Twitter — https://twitter.com/JoannaSlan
- Amazon Author Page — https://amzn.to/3IUPbfF
- Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/JCSlan/
- Goodreads — https://www.goodreads.com/joannacampbellslan
- Bookbub — https://www.bookbub.com/profile/joanna-campbell-slan
- LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/JoannaSlan
- Pinterest — https://www.pinterest.com/joannaslan/
Purchase Link – Amazon
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Tuesday Trash and Trouble TOUR PARTICIPANTS
February 27 – Literary Gold – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
February 27 – Jane Reads – CHARACTER GUEST POST
February 27 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
February 28 – #BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee – SPOTLIGHT
March 1 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
March 1 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
March 2 – Novels Alive – REVIEW – SPOTLIGHT
March 2 – StoreyBook Reviews – AUTHOR GUEST POST
March 2 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
March 3 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT
March 3 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – CHARACTER GUEST POST
March 4 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
March 4 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – AUTHOR GUEST POST
March 5 – I’m Into Books – AUTHOR GUEST POST
March 5 – Cassidy’s Bookshelves – SPOTLIGHT
March 5 – Books a Plenty Book Reviews – REVIEW, CHARACTER GUEST POST
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Thanks for sharing!
I love to read a good cozy.
I have read and enjoyed books by Joanna Campbell Slan.