Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for  Claws for Concern (Maddie Sparks Mystery) by Lesley A. Diehl. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!

Claws for Concern (Maddie Sparks Mystery)

by Lesley A. Diehl

Claws for Concern (Maddie Sparks Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
3rd in Series
Setting – Upstate – New York
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Epicenter Press
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 14, 2025
Print length ‏ : ‎ 246 pages
Paperback

Maddie Sparks, senior amateur sleuth, sets aside her writing when her son, a defense attorney, is accused of murdering one of his clients, a high school friend and the woman the authorities believe murdered her estranged husband.

Although Maddie knows her son is innocent, she also suspects he is hiding something. Before she can confront him, he disappears during the first snowstorm of the season. When he reappears, he is shocked to discover his house has been torched. He confesses he and the murdered woman had been seeing each other.

Did the client kill her husband to be with Maddie’s son? To make sense of the murders and the arson, Maddie takes a close look at her son’s friends from high school. Do people change over time, or do they carry their past grievances into the present? In getting to know her son’s friends, she finds that teenage passion can sometimes lead to murder. It’s simply a matter of Maddie determining which friend is hiding a killer’s face.

Character Guest Post for Claws for Concern

Getting to Know Maddie’s Best Friend

By Lesley A. Diehl

My name is Jane Tremble and I am Maddie Spark’s best friend. We met less than a year ago, but we have so much in common that we have become best buds. For example, we’re both women beyond seventy, we have found the love of our lives in later years, we’re both snoopy and we agree on almost everything except whether I’m allowed to accompany Maddie and her beau, Zack, when they go sleuthing. I’m eager to become a part of their crime fighting team, but Maddie says I can’t take direction well. In my defense, I often have better ideas for how I can contribute to a situation than Maddie does. On our first sleuthing endeavor, she only remembers how I drove her car into a neighbor’s garbage can and their rose bushes. I know I had to do that to draw a sheriff deputy’s attention away from her. I have to remind her how well it worked.

Then there was the hot tub event. Maddie told me to stay in the car while she entered a house to look around. Remaining in the car was boring so I joined her in the house and found the owner had a lovely hot tub in a sunroom. It was too much to resist, so I leaned over the edge and fell in. As a good friend would do, she tried to prevent me from going all the way in, but fell in herself. I was a little surprised and Maddie was a lot angry. To make matters much, much worse, the county sheriff found us there, We could have been charged with breaking, entering and soaking, but that’s not so. I mean, we entered using a key, but we did get a bit of a soak. It was an adventure that ended unpleasantly because we had to ride home wrapped in towels, and it was winter. However, I can tell you the eventual outcome was wonderful because I enjoyed the soak so much, I bought a hot tub of my own this spring.

Maddie and I part ways on my choice of men. She found love in later life, so why can’t I? Darrel, the man I wanted to marry was someone I had known since high school days, so it’s not like I wasn’t aware of his faults. He came back into my life this past winter (read about our exciting courtship in Claws for Concern). I knew he was a ladies man, I knew he liked younger women. And yes, he had been in prison, he didn’t have a steady job and his only means of transportation was a Harley. It was thrilling to ride on the back of it. He offered to repair my ceilings and in exchange I allowed him to store his bike in my garage for the winter. Best of all he proposed to me. Me! Who had never married. I was so excited. Maddie had reservations. I understood her attitude toward Darrel because she made a bad marriage and worried that I would do the same. Despite her concerns, she altered one of her dresses as a beautiful wedding gown for me. Too bad I was not married in it. Oh, sigh. There are just so many complications in my life. 

I love gardening and am known in the region for my award-winning roses. Unfortunately, the beetles got ahead of me last year. I was determined not to let that happen again, but unfortunately someone (read Claws for Concern and you’ll discover who) destroyed them. Maddie has encouraged me to begin again with new bushes, and she has expressed an interest in gardening also. Right now, she only grows an abundance of weeds! I hope she has time to garden with me, but, of course, we must leave time for sleuthing. There’s never a lack of crimes around here. Strange for a small village, wouldn’t you say?

Until the next sleuthing adventure with Maddie and Zack, I will be out back sitting in my newest acquisition—a hot tub. Bring your suit and you can join me, Maddie and all our friends!

About Lesley A. Diehl

Cows, Lesley learned growing up on a farm, have a twisted sense of humor. They chased her when she herded them in for milking, and one ate the lovely red mitten her grandmother knitted for her. Determining that agriculture wasn’t a good career choice, instead, she uses her country roots and her training as a psychologist to concoct stories designed to make people laugh in the face of murder. Unusual protagonists appear in many of Lesley’s works, including Desdemona, the crime-fighting potbellied pig, a hobo turned county sheriff  and Lesley’s zany back-home-on-the-farm relatives (The Killer Wore Cranberry, all six anthologies). She is the author of several cozy mystery series (The Eve Appel Mysteries, Laura Murphy Mysteries, The Big Lake Murder Mysteries and her newest from Camel Press, Maddie Sparks Mysteries, featuring a senior sleuth and her rescue cat). Her cozy mysteries have won several Readers’ Favorite Awards and a short story Sleuthfest Award. Find out more at www.lesleyadiehl.com.

Author Links 

Website www.lesleyadiehl.com

Blog www.lesleyadiehl.com/blog

Facebook www.facebook.com/lesley.diehl.1

GoodReads www.goodreads.com/3414925.Lesley_A_Diehl

Amazon www.amazon.com/author/lesleydiehl

GoodReads www.goodreads.com/3414925.Lesley_A_Diehl

Purchase Links
Amazon      Barnes and Noble     Bookshop

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Claws for Concern TOUR PARTICIPANTS

November 3 – Sarah Can’t Stop Reading Books – REVIEW  

November 3 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

November 4 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT

November 5 – Jody’s Bookish Haven – SPOTLIGHT

November 5 – Sarandipity’s – AUTHOR GUEST POST

November 6 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT

November 6 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW

November 7 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – CHARACTER GUEST POST

November 7 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT

November 8 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – REVIEW

November 8 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT

November 9 – Wine Cellar Library – AUTHOR GUEST POST

November 9 – Cassidy’s Bookshelves – REVIEW

November 10 – Angel’s Book Nook – SPOTLIGHT

November 11 – @bibliophile_foodie – REVIEW  

November 11 – Ascroft, eh? – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

November 12 – Sneaky the Library Cat’s Blog – CHARACTER INTERVIEW

November 12 – Infinite House of Books – SPOTLIGHT

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