Guest Post (and a Giveaway!): Abigail Keam & Murder Under a Full Moon

Posted June 28, 2021 by meezcarrie in Abigail Keam, Author Interview, cozy mystery, giveaway, historical, mystery/suspense / 13 Comments

Please join me in welcoming author Abigail Keam to the blog today to talk about her new 1930s historical cozy mystery, Murder Under a Full Moon! Even though I recently moved away from Kentucky, my home of 30 years, I still have a soft spot for Kentucky authors & love sharing about them here. Happy Release Day, Abigail!

MURDER UNDER A FULL MOON
SERIES: A Mona Moon Mystery #7
GENRE: Historical Cozy Mystery
PUBLISHER: Worker Bee Press
RELEASE DATE: June 28, 2021
PAGES: 264

Mona Moon goes to Washington D.C. to have lunch at the White House with Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States. While in Washington, Mona wants to take in the sights but her visit is marred by the violent death of two men who were trying to procure copper contracts with Moon Enterprises. Mona is then approached by American agents to spy for the government. Mona wants no part of that as “gentlewomen do not read other’s mail.” Mona soon realizes that she and Moon Enterprises are thrust upon the world stage of countries vying for power whether she likes it or not. All Mona wants to do is run Moon Enterprises and marry Lord Farley, but events make that impossible. Mona must make a choice. Does she fulfill her duty to her country and forget Lord Farley? Or does she forge ahead and place her country in jeopardy by selling copper to whoever wants it? It looks like 1934 is going to be a challenging year for Mona.

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by Abigail Keam, author of Murder Under a Full Moon

I love history. I love reading and writing about it. In my 1930s Mona Moon Mysteries I weave in real people and events into the plot, and take care to get the history, clothing, language, and food right. I always learn something new which adds depth to the story and characters. I start Murder Under A Full Moon with Mona Moon having lunch in the White House with Eleanor Roosevelt and her first cousin, Alice Roosevelt Longworth.

There was a saying in 1930s Washington D.C. – “Eat before you go to the White House.” That was because the First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, hired a cook by the name of Henrietta Nesbitt, who was charged with producing nutritious meals for five and ten cents a meal per person. The White House menus were then reproduced in newspapers and magazines for homemakers to copy. Now, even during the Great Depression, cooking at five or ten cents per person would be difficult and not very tasty.

I looked up a White House menu and used it for the opening chapter where Miss Mona is dining with Eleanor Roosevelt and finds the meal unappealing, but doesn’t want to offend Mrs. Roosevelt. They discuss the current events of the day, which I hope gives the reader insight into their timeline. My intention is to illustrate to the reader how dire things were in the United States while providing some comic relief at the same time.

I use Alice Roosevelt to accomplish the comic relief in Murder Under A Full Moon as she was known to say outrageous things in real life. She once said of her father, President Theodore Roosevelt, “He wants to be the bride at every wedding, the child at every christening, and the corpse at every funeral.”

Her most famous quip was “Oh, sit next to me. You talk about everyone!”

After the lunch with Eleanor Roosevelt, Mona finds herself embroiled in murder and mayhem.

Oh, the White House luncheon menu?

Cold clear soup accompanied by bread/butter sandwiches. Iced tea or water to drink.

So you see why you must eat before you go to the White House.

Abigail Keam is an award-winning and Amazon best-selling author who writes the Mona Moon Mysteries—1930s rags to riches mystery series, which takes place on a Bluegrass horse farm. She also writes the Josiah Reynolds Mystery Series about a Southern beekeeper turned amateur female sleuth living in a mid-century home on the Palisades cliffs in the Bluegrass. Her first mystery novel, Death By A HoneyBee, won the 2010 Gold Medal Award for Women’s Lit from Readers’ Favorite and was a Finalist of the USA BOOK NEWS-Best Books List of 2011..

Death By Drowning the 2011 Gold Medal Award for Best Mystery Sleuth from Readers’ Favorite and also was placed on the USA BOOK NEWS-Best Books List of 2011 as a Finalist.

Murder Under A Blue Moon was a Top Ten Mystery Read Must by Kings River Life Magazine for 2019.

She is also an award-winning beekeeper who has won 16 honey awards at the Kentucky State Fair including the Barbara Horn Award, which is given to beekeepers who rate a perfect 100 in a honey competition.

A strong supporter of farmers’ markets and local food economy, Miss Abigail has taken her knowledge of beekeeping to create a fictional beekeeping protagonist, Josiah Reynolds, who solves mysteries in the Bluegrass. While Miss Abigail’s novels are for enjoyment, she discusses the importance of a local, sustainable food economy and land management for honeybees and other creatures.

She currently lives on the Palisades bordering the Kentucky River in a metal house with her husband and various critters. She still has honeybees.

Abigail Keam is offering an ebook copy of Murder Under a Full Moon to TWO of my readers! (Open internationally but void where prohibited by law or logistics.) This giveaway is subject to Reading Is My SuperPower’s giveaway policies which can be found here. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.

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What about you? What makes you want to read Murder Under a Full Moon by Abigail Keam?