Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Mistletoe, Mutts, and Murder (Samantha Davies Mysteries) by S.A. Kazlo. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!
Mistletoe, Mutts, and Murder (Samantha Davies Mysteries) by S.A. Kazlo
Mistletoe, Mutts, and Murder (Samantha Davies Mysteries)
Cozy Mystery
6th in Series
Setting – The series takes place in Wings Falls, New York, a small town in upstate New York about 45 minutes north of Albany
Publisher : Gemma Halliday Publishing (December 3, 2024)
Digital ~250 Pages
Christmas is coming and children’s book author, Samantha Davies, and her lovable dachshund, Porkchop, are caught up in the holiday festivities in beautiful upstate New York. Sam’s parents, Chuck and Barbara, who have been enjoying their retired life in sunny Florida, have flown into Wings Falls to spend the holidays with Sam and meet her new boyfriend, Detective Hank Johnson. Sam is also busy hosting this year’s Christmas party for the Loopy Ladies, Sam’s rug hooking group.
The Loopy Ladies know how to party and are enjoying an evening eating, drinking, and making merry… until Santa crashes the party. Unfortunately, this Santa is Sam’s next-door neighbor who her parents have had a long-running feud with. When not playing the local mall’s not-so-jolly old St. Nick, Leo Sayers is a newspaper reporter, and he announces to the group that he’s written a damning article accusing Sam’s dad and his close friend, Herb Feinstein, of some very shady dealings in their past. To preserve peace on earth—and among the Loopy Ladies—Chuck and Herb escort Leo from the party.
Only, not long after being sent on his way, Santa is found dead—lying in the snow, run over by a plastic reindeer, with a string of Christmas lights around his neck! Are Sam’s father and Herb now on the naughty list? If Sam can’t prove them innocent of murdering Santa, she’s afraid their stockings will contain handcuffs and a one-way ticket to prison this year!
Character Guest Post
Hi, Samantha Davies here, but everyone calls me Sam. I’m a single woman in her mid-fifties and dog mom to my adorable reddish-brown dachshund, Porkchop. We live in upstate New York in a small town, Wing Falls. It is surrounded by the Adirondack Mountains and is only fifteen minutes from Lake George, a beautiful thirty-two-mile-long lake.
I’m a children’s book author. My first book, Porkchop the Wonder Dog, has just launched. It’s about the super doggie adventures on an adorable doxie. Hmmm, do you think I was inspired by my own Porkie? Maybe. Porkchop and I are busy working out tails off promoting it. My main income, though, comes from the Do Drop Inn Funeral Parlor that my ex-George and I co-own. I’m more of a silent partner, since it was my inheritance from an uncle that enabled us to purchase the Do Drop twenty-five years ago. It allowed George to achieve his dream of owning his own funeral parlor, Silly me.
Yep, silly me. When I thought he was doing late night body pickups, he was doing the bump fuzzies with one very warm body—our business’s secretary.
Anyway, fast forward and I now have a very handsome and as my cousin, Candie Parker-Hogan would say, “hunky” boyfriend, Hank Johnson. Hank is the lead detective in the Wings Falls Police Department. Wings Falls lured him away from Albany PD. He wanted a slower pace of life than what the big city offered. Little did he know that murder would follow him to a small town in upstate New York. In fact, that is how we met, over a dead body.
Dead bodies and my involvement with them—that is the only bone of contention, between Hank and me. For some reason I keep stumbling over them. Either I or someone close to me is usually involved and being the soft-hearted person I am, I can’t refuse a plea to help prove that person innocent. It doesn’t make Hank very happy when he says I “keep sticking my pretty little nose” into his investigations. Not only that, when I’m trying to prove someone I care about innocent I have to put up with my kindergarten nemesis, Sergeant Joe Peters. It wasn’t my fault that he used the sand box as his personal potty. I mean who wants to play in a pee-soaked sand box. So, I reported him to the teacher, big deal. As a result, he has now taken to calling me a “murder magnet”.
To escape from all things murder I relax, along with my cousin, Candie Parker-Hogan, rug hooking. We belong to a group of fellow hookers, the Loopy Ladies, and meet Monday mornings to hook, eat and gossip.
My dear cousin Candie, and I are not just related but are also best friends. She was raised by our grandparents on their farm in Hainted Hollar, Tennessee after her parents were killed in a car accident. Since neither of us had siblings, my parents sent me south every summer so we could keep each other company. As I look back on those memories, they were some of the best of my childhood—days spent racing through Memaw and Grandpop Parker’s fields, fishing in their pond and hanging out in the barn’s hay loft. Not a care in the world.
Candie often calls me an “old soul” because of my music preferences. I love Elvis and Roy Orbison. You can throw in a Donnie Osmond, too.
The one regret our Memaw Parker had, my lack of culinary skills. Try as she might I never got the mastery of the kitchen. Frozen pizza is my specialty. Thank heavens Hank doesn’t seem to mind.
Much to Porkchop’s and my good fortune, after my divorce my parents signed over the brick rancher I was raised in. They said they were tired of the snowy winters and followed their friends, Herb and Marge Feinstein, south to sunny Florida where they could enjoy cocktails on their lanai.
When I’m not stumbling over dead bodies, I spend my mornings at my desk writing future episodes of Porkchop the Wonder Dog. The evenings are hopefully spent with Porkchop curled up on his bed and Hank and me snuggling on my sofa, he with a Trail’s Head beer, me with a glass of Riesling. I hope your evenings are just as wonderful.
About S.A. Kazlo
Syrl, a retired teacher, lives in upstate New York with her husband and two lively dachshunds. She writes the Samantha Davies Mystery series, featuring Samantha Davies and her loveable dachshund, Porkchop. When not writing she is busy hooking, rug hooking that is, and enjoying her family. Her newest book, number six in the series is, Mistletoe, Mutts and Murder.
Author Links
Website – https://www.sakazlo.com/
Blog – https://www.sakazlo.com/blog
Twitter-@sakazlo
Instagram- sakazlo
Facebook- sakazlo
Linkedin- sakazlo
Purchase Links – Amazon – B&N – Smashwords – Kobo
Enter the Giveaway
Mistletoe, Mutts, and Murder TOUR PARTICIPANTS
December 2 – Sarah Can’t Stop Reading Books – REVIEW
December 2 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
December 3 – Jody’s Bookish Haven – REVIEW
December 3 – Baroness Book Trove – SPOTLIGHT
December 4 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT
December 4 – Novels Alive – REVIEW
December 5 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – CHARACTER GUEST POST
December 5 – Frugal Freelancer – SPOTLIGHT
December 6 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
December 7 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
December 8 – Cozy Up With Kathy – CHARACTER GUEST POST
December 9 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
December 10 – StoreyBook Reviews – CHARACTER GUEST POST
December 11 – Sneaky the Library Cat’s blog – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
December 12 – Ascroft, eh? – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
December 13 – View from the Birdhouse – REVIEW
December 14 – Cassidy’s Bookshelves – SPOTLIGHT
December 14 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – SPOTLIGHT
December 15 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – CHARACTER GUEST POST
Have you signed up to be a Tour Host?
Click Here to Find Details and Sign Up Today!
Want to Book a Tour?
Click Here
Sounds like a great read.
I hope you enjoy it. Syrl
This sounds like a fun Yuletide mystery that I will enjoy reading!