Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for One of You (Tower District Mysteries) by Lorie Lewis Ham. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!
One of You (Tower District Mysteries) by Lorie Lewis Ham
One of You (Tower District Mysteries)
Mystery
2nd in Series
Setting – The Tower District of Fresno, CA
Publisher : Mystery Rat’s Books (June 4, 2024)
Paperback : 278 pages
With her life on the California Coast behind her, Roxi Carlucci is beginning to feel at home in the Tower District—the cultural oasis of Fresno, CA—where she now lives with her cousin P.I. Stephen Carlucci, her pet rat Merlin, a Pit Bull named Watson, and a black cat named Dan. She has a new entertainment podcast, works as a part-time P.I., and is helping local bookstore owner Clark Halliwell put on the first-ever Tower Halloween Mysteryfest! The brutal summer heat is gone and has been replaced by the dense tule fog—perfect for Halloween!
She just wishes everyone would stop calling her the “Jessica Fletcher” of the Tower District simply because she found a dead body when she first arrived. But when one of the Mysteryfest authors is found dead, she fears she jinxed herself! The Carlucci’s are hired to find the killer before they strike again. Will Mysteryfest turn into a murder fest? How is the local gossip website back, and what does it know about the death of Roxi’s parents?
Check out One of You on Mysteryrat’s Maze Podcast https://mysteryratsmaze.
Character Guest Post
I Am Not Jessica Fletcher!
By Lorie Lewis Ham written as main character Roxi Carlucci
I can’t believe I have been in Fresno for three months already! Thank goodness the brutal heat has passed, though now I have to deal with the dense Tule fog, which can make you feel like you are in London instead of Fresno, California.
While I wasn’t thrilled about moving to Fresno, I am thankful to be living in the Tower District with my cousin, P.I. Stephen Carlucci. It is the arts and entertainment district of Fresno and I love it here. But don’t tell Stephen I said that lol—I made a pretty big fuss when I had to move to Fresno from my lovely little coastal town of Ayr three months ago. I was a children’s book author and ran a pocket pet animal rescue (hamsters, guinea pigs, and pet rats), and then my publisher dropped my books and my roommate got married and moved out. I had no job and couldn’t pay the mortgage anymore. Stephen was kind enough to let me move into his spare room until I could figure my life out.
I will never forget the day I packed up my old life and headed to my new one. I had in Stephen’s car with me the things that mattered most—my Sherlock Holmes collection, the copy of The Once and Future King that my dad had given me before he died, my replica of Excalibur, and my pet rat Merlin.
It was way too hot when I moved here to use my bike very often, which is my only mode of transportation other than relying on others. But now it’s not too bad and it gives me a chance to really enjoy this area. Everything in the Tower makes you feel like you have stepped back in time! I love the old homes and buildings here.
Back to the fog, it may be hard to drive in, but it’s perfect for the Halloween season which is what it is now. Halloween is my favorite time of the year, even better than Christmas. The best word I can think of to describe Halloween is magical. From what I have been told, Halloween in the Tower District is awesome so I can’t wait. There is a pet parade where pets dress up in costumes, zombie pub crawls, and this year there will be the Halloween Mysteryfest put on by my new friend Clark Halliwell, who is a local playwright, Book Tuber (he reviews books on YouTube), and bookstore owner.
I have been helping Clark with the preparations for Mysteryfest, and promoting it on my new entertainment podcast Tower Talk. Hopefully, it will all go smoothly and my best friend, local reporter Lucas Shum, didn’t jinx us with his talk of murder at lunch today. When I first arrived in the Tower District, I volunteered to be part of the crew for a local community theatre production and someone was murdered, now Lucas is calling me “Jessica Fletcher”, which would be fine if it was about my writing (I used to write children’s books) instead of people being murdered. I told him in no uncertain terms that the only murder this time was going to be on the page! Mysteryfest includes several events with local mystery writers.
The writers we have coming for Mysteryfest are amazing and I can’t wait to meet them all! I’m sure I will be fangirling when I meet them. We have the Queen of Cozies Marilyn Bradford (I’m a huge fan), Erasmo Lopez—who makes me think of a Latino Walt Longmire—he writes a Latinx P.I. series, Brandon Winchester who writes a mystery/horror series and I have been told is very handsome and charming, Ian Green who writers a gay mystery series—he is the newbie of the bunch so haven’t tried his books yet, Leila Blackwell who writes a supernatural mystery series, and then Makoto Nakamura who writes a mystery manga. I have been reading a lot of manga lately so I’m really excited about that one too.
There’s also going to be a couple of Edgar Allan Poe plays that Clark adapted. One is The Murders in the Rue Morgue, and the other is a one-man show about Poe—popular local actor Nathan Gilmore will be playing Poe. Nathan is another new friend that I look forward to getting to know better but he is probably the busiest person I’ve ever met. There will also be a showing of some classic mystery movies. Oh, and I almost forgot, there will be a big final event at a local cemetery! Can’t get more Halloween than that.
This is going to be the best Halloween ever! Just so long as no one dies…oh geez, now Lucas has me thinking about that too.
Book Excerpt
Prologue-
I’m back! Did you miss me? Boy, do I have some juicy gossip! Spotted: A whole lot of trouble coming your way! Murder, did you say? Why, of course, there will be murder!
When I typed “The End” I knew it was just the beginning. They would never expect the trouble I have in store for them! Some surprises are worth waiting for, and some are deadly.
About Lorie Lewis Ham
Lorie Lewis Ham lives in Reedley, California and has been writing ever since she was a child. Her first song and poem were published when she was 13, and she has gone on to publish many articles, short stories, and poems throughout the years, as well as write for a local newspaper, and publish 7 mystery novels. For the past 14 years, Lorie has been the editor-in-chief and publisher of Kings River Life Magazine, and she produces Mysteryrat’s Maze Podcast, where you can hear an excerpt of her book One of Us, the first in a new series called The Tower District Mysteries. Book 2, One of You, will be out in June of 2024. You can learn more about Lorie and her writing on her website mysteryrat.com and find her on Facebook, and Instagram @krlmagazine & @lorielewishamauthor.
Author Links
- Website https://www.mysteryrat.com/
- Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lorielewishamauthor/
- Facebook https://www.facebook.com/lorie.ham
- GoodReads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21694525.Lorie_Lewis_Ham
- BookBub https://www.bookbub.com/profile/lorie-lewis-ha
Purchase Links – Amazon Barnes and Noble Kobo
Universal Buy Link https://books2read.com/u/m0eWAy
Enter the giveaway
One of You TOUR PARTICIPANTS
July 18 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
July 18 – Sarah Can’t Stop Reading Books – REVIEW
July 18 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – CHARACTER GUEST POST
July 19 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT
July 19 – Lady Hawkeye – SPOTLIGHT
July 20 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – AUTHOR GUEST POST
July 20 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – AUTHOR GUEST POST
July 21 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
July 22 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
July 22 – Christa Reads and Writes – REVIEW
July 23 – Literary Gold – SPOTLIGHT
July 23 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
July 24 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
July 25 – Sneaky the Library Cat’s Blog – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
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Thanks so much for having me here today!
You’re welcome! Thanks for stopping!
Sounds like a great read. Adding to my TBR list.
This looks like a great novel. Thanks for sharing.
Roxi sounds like a lot of fun. And what a clever way to poke fun of the Jessica Fletcher trope of often finding dead bodies. Definitely not something I would want to be associated with. Roxi and I agree on that.
Thanks to all of you for stopping by I hope you read and enjoy “One of You”!
Sounds like a really good read.
Thanks!
Sounds intriguing
Thanks!