Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for The Holiday Photo Murder: A Robyn Cavanagh Mystery by Jeanne Quigley. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!
The Holiday Photo Murder: A Robyn Cavanagh Mystery
by Jeanne Quigley
The Holiday Photo Murder: A Robyn Cavanagh Mystery
Cozy Mystery
3rd in Series
Setting – New York
Independently Published (November 11, 2025)
Print length : 272 pages
Portrait Photographer Robyn Cavanagh has had a busy fall season taking a record number of client photos for holiday cards. She’s ready for a quiet December to do her own Christmas preparations, but she has one more job to close the year. It’s the best gift of the season: taking photographs at wealthy Natalie Hoffmann’s holiday party.
Excited to be the official photographer at the party held at the publisher’s estate overlooking the majestic Hudson River, Robyn hopes the event will win her new clients. Everyone will want to forget the evening, however, after Natalie’s companion, Russell Nowak, is found dead in the garden.
Who among the guests wanted the successful businessman dead? While everyone counts down to Christmas, Robyn’s wish list is filled with suspects. She teams with her friend Will Vonderlin to catch the killer and restore her holiday spirit in time to enjoy the festive season.
Interview with Author Jeanne Quigley
Thanks for taking the time to share a bit about yourself with my readers and me!
Tell us a little about yourself. I’m a lifelong resident of New York’s beautiful Hudson Valley. I love New York and am proud to feature the state in both my Veronica Walsh series (set in the Adirondacks) and Robyn Cavanagh Mysteries, which take place in the fictional Garland, a town along the Hudson River.
In college I majored in Sociology and English. English makes sense for an author, though at the time I chose the major I had no thought of being a writer. I’ve grown to realize that what drew me to Sociology—the study of groups and social relationships—is the same thing that attracts me to writing, particularly the cozy mystery genre. I get to revisit my fictional town again and again, and in each new book focus on a different group within the town and how they interact, what “rules” they have and how they break them.
I’ve worked in the music industry and spent seventeen years in an educational publisher’s purchasing department until the company outsourced our jobs. Now I work for an agency in my home county’s government.
How long have you been writing? I’ve enjoyed writing my whole life. In elementary school, I loved the story-writing assignments, and in my junior year of college I took a short fiction writing class. The writing was always for pleasure, not with a career in mind.
Did you always want to be an author? What made you choose the cozy mystery genre?
Despite the satisfaction writing gave me in my school days, I never dreamed of being a “serious” writer until one day in the 1990s when I suddenly had an idea (clichéd, terrible!) for a story and had to write it. It was an out-of-the-blue call that never wavered or faded, despite many rejections and several terrible stories. I discovered the cozy genre in the mid-2000s after an agent, in a rejection letter, referred to my story as a cozy mystery. I wasn’t familiar with the genre, so I went to my town library and checked out one of Mary Daheim’s Bed and Breakfast cozies and a Hannah Swensen book by Joanne Fluke. I was instantly hooked! I had found my comfort zone as a writer and reader.
Do you prefer to read cozy mystery books, or do you have another favorite genre? What are you reading now? Cozies are my favorite genre, but I also enjoy the work of Anne Tyler, Elizabeth Berg, Alexander McCall Smith, Ann Patchett, and Elizabeth Strout. Nonfiction appeals to me, particularly books on productivity (Cal Newport is a favorite) and brain health. That sounds weird, but brain health is critical, and I’m fascinated by how my brain is “wired. “I highly recommend Matthew Walker’s Why We Sleep on how important sleep is for our brains and bodies.
I like to read cozies “in season,” so Linda Reilly’s You Feta Watch Out is next on my reading list. The book is one in Linda’s terrific Grilled Cheese Mystery series. A must for cozy lovers!
Do you have a favorite place to write? I don’t have a particular spot, but wherever I sit down to write must be quiet and free of distraction. That means I often write longhand, because there’s a whole lot of distraction on my laptop. Words also flow better when I write with a pen or pencil than type on a keyboard. I write in several places: my dining table, the kitchen counter, and the living room couch. If I arrive early for my job, I’ll write in my car for a few minutes before going inside to work.
What’s on your desk (if you write at one!)? My dining table is my “official” desk. It’s where I keep my laptop, a couple of pen/pencil cups, and papers related to writing, finances, bills, etc… There are a couple of legal pads with ideas/outline/scenes for the book I’m currently working on and papers with notes for the guest posts I’m writing for The Holiday Photo Murder blog tour. There are also the five boxes of Christmas cards I bought at the end of October. I really need to get started early on them. I always say that, and I never do. Maybe this year…
What is the first book you remember reading as a child? What was one of your favorite books you read as a child? I don’t remember the first book I read; but I treasured my copy of The House at Pooh Corner and loved getting lost in the Hundred Acre Wood with Winnie and his friends. I also read the Bobbsey Twins books and still have my set of the purple spine edition of the series.
Do you like audiobooks, physical books, or e-books better? Why? Physical books! I like holding a book, the feel of turning the pages, the colors of the cover image, even the scent of a new book. I can easily go back to sections to refresh my memory of a story. My mind drifts when I listen to audiobooks and reading an e-book doesn’t offer the same enjoyment. Though I love that readers have so many options. They can listen to an audiobook in the car, read a physical book at home on their couch, and pack an e-book loaded with several stories in their vacation suitcase.
If you had the opportunity to live anywhere in the world for a year while writing a book that took place in that same setting, where would you choose? This is a difficult question for a hardcore homebody with a long history of travel sickness! But if the opportunity presented itself, I’d go to Ireland. My maternal grandmother was born and raised in County Mayo, and both of my grandfathers had roots in Ireland. Perhaps my portrait photographer/sleuth Robyn Cavanagh will be hired to take photos of the Emerald Isle for a travel book, and she’s caught up in a murder investigation.
What or who has influenced you the most as a writer? Mary Daheim. Her Bed and Breakfast series introduced me to the cozy genre. I love the humor in Mrs. Daheim’s writing and appreciate that the main characters of her two mystery series—Judith Flynn and Emma Lord—are practicing Catholics, as I am too. That the characters attend Mass at least once in every book made a deep impression on me. I’m proud to follow Mrs. Daheim’s lead; my sleuths Veronica Walsh and Robyn Cavanagh are Catholics who regularly attend Mass.
Do you have any author friends who support you while you’re writing? Do you belong to any writing groups? I don’t belong to a writing group, but my late agent, Dawn Dowdle, had a Facebook group for her authors. The group still active, and though I’m a quiet member, I learn a lot from what the other authors post.
I also have a librarian friend, Nancy, who has been a major supporter of my work since my debut, All Things Murder, in 2014. Nancy leads the mystery-reading group at our library and has a deep knowledge of the genre. I value Nancy’s encouragement and am grateful for her generosity.
Finally, what are you working on now? Can you tell us a bit about it? I’m working on the fifth Veronica Walsh mystery. Veronica was my “first” amateur sleuth, and I always savor my time spent writing a story starring her and her friends in Barton, New York. I won’t share the book title or particulars of the plot, but I’ll give you a hint in the form of a question: Have you ever met a person who shared your name, or the name of a loved one? If you have, I hope that person didn’t end up dead.
Thank you again for taking the time to answer my questions! Thank you for inviting me to your blog! Happy holidays, everyone!
About Jeanne Quigley
Jeanne Quigley is the author of the Veronica Walsh Mysteries and the Robyn Cavanagh Mysteries. Unlike her fictional sleuths, she has never been a soap opera star, accountant, or professional photographer, but she has worked in the music industry, for an educational publisher, and in a county agency. She lives in New York’s historic Hudson Valley.
Author Links
Website www.jeannequigley.wordpress.com
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/jeannemquigley
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/jeannequigleyauthor/
Purchase Links: Amazon Barnes & Noble Kobo Apple
Enter the giveaway
The Holiday Photo Murder TOUR PARTICIPANTS
November 12 – Ascroft, eh? – AUTHOR GUEST POST
November 12 – fundimental – SPOTLIGHT
November 13 – Jody’s Bookish Haven – SPOTLIGHT
November 13 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT
November 14 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT
November 14 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
November 15 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – SPOTLIGHT
November 15 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – SPOTLIGHT
November 16 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
November 17 – Sarandipity’s – CHARACTER GUEST POST
November 17 – @bibliophile_foodie – REVIEW
November 18 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW
November 18 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
November 19 – FUONLYKNEW – REVIEW
November 20 – Baroness Book Trove – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
November 20 – Salty Inspirations – AUTHOR GUEST POST
November 21 – Sarah Can’t Stop Reading Books – REVIEW
November 21 – Novels Alive – REVIEW
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