Crime and Parchment: A Rare Books Cozy Mystery by Daphne Silver | Author Post

Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Crime and Parchment: A Rare Books Cozy Mystery by Daphne Silver. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!

Crime and Parchment: A Rare Books Cozy Mystery

by Daphne Silver

Crime and Parchment: A Rare Books Cozy Mystery
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – Fictional town of Rose Mallow, Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay
Level Best Books (November 21, 2023)
Print length ‏ : ‎ 226 pages

Rare books librarian Juniper Blume knows this much… an ancient Celtic manuscript shouldn’t be in a Maryland cemetery. But that’s exactly what her brother-in-law claims.

Last year, Juniper saw the 1,200-year-old Book of Kells in Ireland. She learned how their bejeweled covers were stolen centuries ago, never to be seen again. So how could they have ended up in Rose Mallow, a small Chesapeake Bay town? Being Jewish, the Book of Kells might not be her sacred text, but as a rare books librarian, the ancient book is still sacred to her, making it important to Juniper to find out the truth.

Rose Mallow is the same place where Juniper used to summer with her sister Azalea and their grandmother Zinnia, known as Nana Z. Ever since Nana Z passed away, Juniper’s avoided returning, but her curiosity is greater than her grief, so she heads down in her vintage convertible with her rescue dog Clover.

Juniper discovers that her sister Azalea has transformed their grandmother’s Queen Anne style mansion into the Wildflower Inn, backing up to the Chesapeake Bay. Although Juniper isn’t much of a cook, Azalea has kept their grandmother’s legacy alive, filling the house with the smells of East European Jewish treats, like sweet kugels and tzimmes cake. Will coming back here feel like returning home or fill Juniper with a deeper sorrow? Can she apologize to her sister for not being there when she was needed most?

Crime and Parchment Book Excerpt

My 1965, robin’s egg blue convertible backfired as I parked in front of the Wildflower Inn. The noise set off Clover barking in the backseat. Not exactly the quiet homecoming I’d hoped for. I jumped out of my Karmann-Ghia – or “KG” as I’d nicknamed her – to check under the hood, hoping I wouldn’t need to get the roadster serviced yet again. No idea where that money would come from.

A screaming, ranting madwoman poured out of a neighboring house. Maybe in her late seventies, she brandished a large umbrella. I dropped the hood to find the umbrella pointing at me. Clover – all twenty pounds of him – jumped out and started growling.

“Easy, boy,” I said.

“You shoot something off, Missy? Here to cause trouble? Because I’m on the board of the Friends of the Rose Mallow Police.” the woman said. She wore a perfectly fitted Mamie Eisenhower pink skirt suit with enormous pearls – straight out of the 1950s. Her white bouffant billowed around her head. She reminded me of a researcher I’d helped earlier that day at the Library of Congress. That woman had been a murder mystery author looking for books about early detectives. This woman looked like she wanted to murder someone – namely me.

Guest Post from Author Daphne Silver

I’ve always been a writer. When I was in third grade, I started a time-traveling story called
“Walking Through the Attic of Time,” where, much like in The Chronicles of Narnia books, a special place transported my friends and I to a whole other world. In this case, we were thrown back in time hundreds of years where we made new friends. Granted, the story didn’t go much further, but it created a love for exploring new worlds – ones that I dreamed of and wanted to share with others.

Growing up, I remained interested in storytelling and history, so much so that I ended up working in several museums, including The Jewish Museum of Maryland and Historic London Town and Gardens, among others. Interested in untold true stories, I published three local histories under my legal name, including The Jewish Community of Baltimore (Arcadia Publishing, 2008), Wicked Baltimore: Charm City Sin and Scandal (History Press, 2011), and Wild Women of Maryland: Grit and Gumption in the Free State (History Press, 2015). However, I never lost my childhood interest in imagination. I still wanted to create my own story.

I thought about what interested me in my museum work: historic homes and the lives of people who came through them, the touch and feel of an artifact, vintage clothing and cars, and the beauty and history of the Chesapeake Bay. I started taking daytrips in my mind to a beautiful Queen Anne’s style house overlooking the Bay. This mansion was over a hundred year’s old, having been passed down in the family. Now it was an inn, where new faces could enter and new stories could be created.

Along the way I met two sisters with botanical names: Juniper and Azalea Blume. While Azalea ran the inn, Juniper was the somewhat lost soul, who had spent years traveling, trying to figure out her path. She certainly never imagined that she’d find herself by returning home. Yet, she had discovered how books – especially old ones, rare ones – could unlock discovery and travel from anywhere. She could transport herself through a book, just as I had as a child.

On the one hand, it took years for Crime and Parchment to unfold. I tried writing it several times. Sometimes from one sister’s point of view, and sometimes from the other. It never felt quite right. I grew frustrated and uncertain if I should continue. Yet, I kept being curious about this other world and where it might go.

Then in 2016, I had my son. I didn’t intend to take a break from writing, but there’s only so much energy left after caring for a newborn, especially when you’re also working during the day. I worried that my story might truly disappear on me.

It was several years later that I caught up with a friend who was working on own book. She had two kids of her own, a full-time job, and was going through a divorce. By this point, my son was getting ready to enter kindergarten. After talking with her, I realized that I should try writing again.

This time, my story flooded out of me. Writing the first draft was done in less than two months. Everything I had been daydreaming about was still inside of me, and now it burst forth. I couldn’t wait to find out what happened with Juniper and Azalea, the Wildflower Inn, and of course, finding books and bodies where they didn’t belong. I loved following them on their journey and felt honored to transcribe their tale.

I loved writing Crime and Parchment. I hope you enjoy reading it and exploring alongside Juniper and Azalea. Thank you!

About Daphne Silver

Daphne Silver is the author of the Rare Books Cozy Mystery series. She’s worked more than twenty years in museums and has the great fortune of being married to a librarian. When she’s not writing, she’s drawing and painting. She lives in Maryland with her family. Although she’s not much of a baker, she won’t ever turn down a sweet lokshen kugel.

Author Links

Website www.daphnesilver.com

Facebook www.facebook.com/daphnesilverbooks

Instagram www.instagram.com/daphnesilverbooks 

GoodReads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/45491307.Daphne_Silver 

Purchase Link – Amazon 

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Crime and Parchment TOUR PARTICIPANTS

November 22 – Novels Alive – REVIEW

November 22 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – AUTHOR GUEST POST

November 23 – Thanksgiving U.S.

November 24 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW

November 24 – Mystery, Thrillers, and Suspense – SPOTLIGHT

November 24 – fundinmental – SPOTLIGHT

November 25 – Ruff Drafts – RECIPE

November 25 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

November 26 – #BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee – SPOTLIGHT

November 26 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT

November 27 – Cozy Up With Kathy – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

November 27 – Reading Is My SuperPower – REVIEW

November 28 – My Reading Journeys – CHARACTER GUEST POST

November 28 – StoreyBook Reviews – AUTHOR GUEST POST

November 28 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

November 29 – Literary Gold – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

November 29 – Lady Hawkeye – SPOTLIGHT

November 30 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT

November 30 – Diane’s Book Journal – SPOTLIGHT

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