Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Hook, Line, and Murder (The Sweet Tooth Murder Mystery) by GG Calpo. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!
Hook, Line, and Murder (The Sweet Tooth Murder Mystery) by GG Calpo
Hook, Line, and Murder (The Sweet Tooth Murder Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – New York
Publisher : Wild Rose Press
Publication date : February 9, 2026
Print length : 276 pages
Paperback
What does Meg, a retired kindergarten teacher, do when the killer of her husband and only child still walks free a year after dirt had covered their graves? Go rogue, of course!
When the detective responsible for Meg’s nightmares takes over the murder investigation of her former student, Meg hunts the killer down with help from her friends. Their cozy lunches at Sweet Buns Café turn into tactical meetings while these retired grade school teachers get themselves in trouble better suited to those in their twenties. And to put the icing on their cream scones, someone is after Meg. Is it the killer? Or has Meg uncovered secrets better left buried with her loved ones?
My Writing Journey – GG Calpo
Two years and ten months. How did I get here?
It started two years ago in April. Four in the morning, and I had given up on sleep. I sat by the pool and looked out at the golf course, wondering what could I possibly do to still this restlessness. Sleep was getting harder. No surprise there. My sister, diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer in 2019, was not doing well. And I had just lost another argument with her.
My only sister, Gina, was young, not even Medicare-eligible, when she found out she had lung cancer. She had so many dreams…plans…
Travel the world was one of them. Hard to do when her cancer had metastasized to her spine, blasting holes in it and making a walk around her kitchen something to celebrate. I advocated cruising and the use of a mobility scooter. But then, traveling the world had to shrink to the few ports reachable by cruise from New York or New Jersey.
Watch her grandchild grow into a young woman was another. My words dried up. Not something that happened often when you’re a lawyer. There was nothing I could say to her about that.
Write a children’s book was one I had to drag out of her. I pounced on it. Told her this was easy. Bought her a notebook. Asked her what her plot was, who the main character would be. Told her we have three art majors in the family. No worries on who’s doing the illustrations. Urged her to write it. Dictate it if holding a pen in her hand—she was old school—was too difficult.
But then, like I said, I lost the argument. And it made me incredibly sad. I really wanted my sister to write her book. In my heart of hearts, I thought if she wrote, she’d put bits and pieces of herself in her books. Then maybe I’d never lose her. I’d lost too many of my family, and I couldn’t face losing another. Selfish, I know.
But that morning, looking at the Spanish moss dangling, silvery-gray, off the trees while a pair of egrets winged their way to land gently on the green, I thought of something else. What if I wrote a book and put her in it? I got out of my chair and grabbed my laptop. Opened it, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Meagan Brightbook is a retired kindergarten teacher, beloved by the communities of Whitman’s Port, Sands Neck Point and The Village of Codling Bay, three north shore towns hugging the coast of Poet’s Bay by Long Island Sound. Parents fought to get their kids into her class. Flowers and chocolates sent to the principal were not unheard of. Followed up, not so subtly, by visits and casual one-on-one meetings at parent-teacher conferences. Meg got to see brothers and sisters grow up during her close to forty years of teaching. Just as my sister did.
Then, of course, I couldn’t have my sister—my bad, I meant Meg—solve crimes by herself. I surrounded her with friends from school. First came Barbara, the dreaded Caribbean-born principal of Post Elementary School. Then Stefan, the band and choir teacher sporting purple framed eyeglasses; followed by Liz, the fifth-grade teacher twirling her Star of David pendant; and finally Edna, the diminutive Filipino—drawing on my family’s roots—third-grade teacher. The gang got down to business, fully fleshed, from wherever they’d been hiding in the recesses of my brain.
At that point, the sun had risen, and golfers were on the course. My two Corgis started barking. I paused at the sound and said, might as well give my sister—Meg, I meant Meg—a pet. Cannoli joined the gang.
And because I was hurting, I thought, what if Meg had just lost her husband and son to a kayaking accident? And what if Meg insists it wasn’t an accident, but the detective ignores her? That would infuriate my sister—Meg, not my sister, Meg—for sure. She doesn’t take kindly to being dismissed. She’d show that so-and-so.
But where would the gang meet? They’re teachers. They like to talk, make lesson plans. I remembered my sister’s favorite café, the one we went to for coffee and cake…and talks. Sister talks, where nothing is off limits. The gang needed one of those. Sweet Buns Café was born.
And the stage was set.
The towns of Whitman’s Port, Sands Neck Point, and The Village of Codling Bay are fictional, but they’re inspired by real North Shore communities my sister loved. Sweet Buns is fictional as well, though I’m sure you’d find one on any Main Street. Meg isn’t a professional investigator, and she’s not out to teach Detective Storm a lesson—okay, maybe a small one. What propels Meg forward is her caring, her sense of family, her love of life, her curiosity and empathy. And she carries the rest of the gang along in her wake.
She carries me forward, too, and that feels like a gift.
My hope is that when readers reach the last page of Hook, Line, and Murder, they’ve grown fond of the gang and aren’t quite ready to say goodbye—and that it might even inspire them to pick up the phone and call someone they love.
About GG Calpo
GG Calpo is a retired lawyer and accountant who traded contracts and numbers for the far more enjoyable chaos of fictional crime. Now she writes cozy whodunits featuring warm-hearted golden-aged sleuths who’ve seen it all, heard it all, and will investigate a murder with zero hesitation. She loves stories where the stakes are personal, family, and friendships are paramount, with characters who refuse to follow the outline and endings that pull the rug out. When not plotting twisty crimes—on paper only, of course—she spends her time reading, crocheting blankets and sweaters for her five grandchildren, watching mystery TV shows, and taking long walks in her neighborhood. She lives in Central New Jersey with her husband and two corgis, Whiskey and Nugget. Visit her at www.ggcalpo.com.
Author Links
Website https://www.ggcalpo.com
Facebook https://facebook.com/gg.calpo
Instagram https://instagram.com/gg.calpo
GoodReads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/62170493.G_G_Calpo
Amazon https://amazon.com/author/gg.calpo
Enter the Giveaway
Hook Line, and Murder TOUR PARTICIPANTS
February 9 – Books1987 – SPOTLIGHT
February 10 – Jody’s Bookish Haven – SPOTLIGHT
February 11 – Salty Inspirations – CHARACTER GUEST POST
February 12 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
February 13 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – AUTHOR GUEST POST
February 14 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
February 15 – StoreyBook Reviews – CHARACTER GUEST POST
February 16 – Baroness Book Trove – SPOTLIGHT
February 17 – Cozy Up With Kathy – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
February 18 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT
February 19 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW
February 20 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – REVIEW
February 21 – Sarandipity’s – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
February 22 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
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