Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Seams Like the Perfect Crime (An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery) by Lois Winston. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!
Seams Like the Perfect Crime (An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery)
by Lois Winston
Seams Like the Perfect Crime (An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
14th in the Series
Setting – New Jersey
Independently Published (February 4, 2025)
Print length : 285 pages
When staffing shortages continue to hamper the Union County homicide squad, Detective Sam Spader once again turns to his secret weapon, reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack. How can she and husband Zack Barnes refuse when the victim is their new neighbor?
Revolutionary War reenactor Barry Sumner had the odd habit of spending hours mowing a small patch of packed dirt and weeds until his mower ran out of gas. He’d then guzzle beer on his front porch until he passed out. That’s where Anastasia’s son Nick discovers his body three days after the victim and his family moved into the newly built mini-McMansion across the street.
After a melee breaks out at the viewing, Spader zeroes in on the widow as his prime suspect. However, Anastasia has her doubts. There are other possible suspects, including a woman who’d had an affair with the victim, his ex-wife, the man overseeing the widow’s trust fund, a drug dealer, and the reenactors who were blackmailing the widow and victim.
When another reenactor is murdered, Spader suspects they’re dealing with a serial killer, but Anastasia wonders if the killer is attempting to misdirect the investigation. As she narrows down the suspects, will she jeopardize her own life to learn the truth?
Craft projects included.
Author Guest Post:
Fur Babies and Feathery Ones
By Lois Winston
It’s pretty much a universal truth that cozy readers love their fur babies, both in their lives and in the books they read. Some cozy mysteries include dogs, some include cats, and some include both dogs and cats. Occasionally you’ll find a cozy that features an exotic pet, with or without the prerequisite dog or cat. My Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series includes a dog, a cat, and a Shakespeare-quoting African Grey parrot.
I’m a cozy mystery author without a fur baby keeping me company as I peck away on my keyboard. It’s not that I don’t like fur babies; it’s because I have allergies. Bad allergies to just about anything with fur or feathers that you can pet, cuddle, or nuzzle. Tropical fish are probably safe, but do they really qualify as pets? Debatable. They’re neither cuddly nor petable. If it has fur or feathers, I need to steer clear.
However, Anastasia Pollack, my reluctant amateur sleuth, makes up for my pet-free status. Along with her two teenage sons, she shares her home with her communist mother-in-law Lucille and Lucille’s French bulldog Manifesto, named for the communist treatise. (Feel free to execute an eye roll!)
Flora Periwinkle Sudberry Ramirez Scoffield Goldberg O’Keefe Tuttnauer, Anastasia’s much-married mother, crashes at Anastasia’s home between husbands and is always accompanied by her corpulent Persian cat, Catherine the Great. Flora claims descent from Russian nobility, hence the cat’s name. She and her pet also share a huge sense of entitlement where both human and feline believe the world revolves around them and their needs. As you can imagine, sparks constantly fly, not only between the commie and the self-proclaimed Russian princess but also between their four-legged counterparts.
However, beginning in Revenge of the Crafty Corpse, the third book in the series, when Manifesto aided Anastasia in catching a killer, I decided the dog deserved some character growth and a story arc of his own. By Guilty as Framed, the eleventh book in the series, Manifesto has come into his own and found a new best friend, much to the chagrin of Anastasia’s mother-in-law.
Rounding out the menagerie is Ralph, the previously mentioned Shakespeare-quoting parrot. Anastasia inherited him from her great-aunt Penelope Periwinkle. She would have preferred her aunt’s cameo collection because cameos don’t require feeding, watering, and cage cleaning. When you’re a cash-strapped single-parent trying to dig yourself out of the massive debt your husband surprised you with after he slipped his mortal coil, the last thing you need is additional responsibilities and another mouth to feed.
However, Ralph is no ordinary parrot. Having spent most of his long life with Professor Penelope, both in and out of university lecture halls, he’s quite the Shakespearean scholar in his own right. Although African Greys are known to have exceptional intelligence and huge vocabularies, Ralph completely out-parrots the other members of his species with his ability to quote situation-appropriate asides from the Bard of Avon’s many plays.
Is this possible? Even though I’ve read up on the species, I’m no parrot expert. It doesn’t matter, though. I write fiction – humorous fiction – no matter the body count. If readers can suspend their disbelief enough to accept a protagonist who stumbles across more dead bodies than the average homicide detective in an entire law enforcement career, why not a Shakespeare-quoting parrot?
Cage cleaning aside, Ralph has proven his worth. With his magnificent wingspan and swooping prowess, he’s become a staunch defender of the two-legged residents of Casa Pollack. He’s even held his own against a Boston mob boss. Besides, unlike a certain canine, he’s potty-trained, requiring no walks in rain, sleet, or snow at the break of dawn or in the dead of night.
Given the assorted murder and mayhem I regularly dump on Anastasia, Ralph is also good for providing comic relief, especially when unsuspecting characters first hear him recite a few lines from one of Shakespeare’s plays. If there were acting parts written for Shakespeare-spouting parrots, Ralph could wipe out Anastasia’s staggering debt before you could say, “All the world’s a stage.”
Of the three pets who vie for attention in Anastasia’s world, Ralph is top dog, even if he is a parrot. He’s also developed quite the bromance with photojournalist Zachary Barnes, who entered Anastasia’s life when she rented him the apartment over her garage in Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in the series. Over the course of fourteen novels and three novellas, Anastasia and Zack’s relationship has segued from one of business to romance.
However, there are still some things Anastasia doesn’t know about Zack. Even though she suspects the photojournalism is a cover for his real job with one of the government alphabet agencies, he claims she has an overactive imagination. Ralph might know the truth, but so far, he’s not squawking.
About Lois Winston
USA Today and Amazon bestselling author Lois Winston began her award-winning writing career with Talk Gertie to Me, a humorous fish-out-of-water novel about a small-town girl going off to the big city and the mother who had other ideas. That was followed by the romantic suspense Love, Lies and a Double Shot of Deception.
Then Lois’s writing segued unexpectedly into the world of humorous amateur sleuth mysteries, thanks to a conversation her agent had with an editor looking for craft-themed mysteries. In her day job, Lois was an award-winning craft and needlework designer, and although she’d never written a mystery—or had even thought about writing a mystery—her agent decided she was the perfect person to pen a series for this editor.
Thus, was born the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, which Kirkus Reviews dubbed “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” The series now includes fourteen novels and three novellas. Lois also writes the Empty Nest Mysteries and has written several standalone mystery novellas. Other publishing credits include romance, chick lit, and romantic suspense novels, a series of romance short stories, a children’s chapter book, and a nonfiction book on writing, inspired by her twelve years working as an associate at a literary agency.
Author Links
Website: http://www.loiswinston.com
Newsletter sign-up: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/dc9t0bjl00
Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog: www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com
Booklover’s Bench: https://bookloversbench.com
The Stiletto Gang: https://www.thestilettogang.com
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/Anasleuth
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/722763.Lois_Winston
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/lois-winston
Purchase Links
Amazon Kobo Barnes & Noble Apple Books
Enter the Giveaway
Seams Like the Perfect Crime TOUR PARTICIPANTS
February 4 – Jody’s Bookish Haven – SPOTLIGHT
February 4 – Ascroft, eh? – AUTHOR GUEST POST
February 5 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
February 5 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
February 6 – Cinnamon, Sugar, and a Little Bit of Murder – REVIEW, RECIPE
February 6 – Baroness Book Trove – SPOTLIGHT
February 7 – Reading, Writing & Stitch-Metic – CRAFT POST
February 7 – Eskimo Princess Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
February 8 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – RECIPE POST
February 8 – Ruff Drafts – SPOTLIGHT
February 9 – Cozy Up With Kathy – CHARACTER GUEST POST
February 9 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
February 10 – Elizabeth McKenna – Author – SPOTLIGHT
February 11 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – AUTHOR GUEST POST
February 12 – Novels Alive – REVIEW
February 13 – Jane Reads – CHARACTER GUEST POST
February 14 – Deal Sharing Aunt – AUTHOR GUEST POST
February 15 – Frugal Freelancer – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
February 16 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – SPOTLIGHT
February 17 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
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Thanks so much for featuring Seams Like the Perfect Crime on your blog today, Christy!
You’re welcome!
Sounds great, I like the cover.
Talk about having colorful secondary characters; Lois, your French bulldog and Shakespeare- quoting parrot likely both take the cake. What a blast- I had a smile on my face for the whole time while reading the pet-centered character arc details. What a hoot!
Thanks Pam! I have a lot of fun writing those scenes. I’m glad you enjoyed the post.
Thanks, Rita! I was very happy with the cover.