Guest Post (and a Giveaway!): Diane Kelly & The Little Shop of Murders

Please join me in welcoming author Diane Kelly to the blog today to talk about her story in the cozy mystery anthology, The Little Shop of Murders!

THE LITTLE SHOP OF MURDERS (Collected Cozy Mysteries)
AUTHORS: Millie Ravensworth, ACF Bookens, Geraldine Byrne, Rachel McLean, Diane Kelly, Nikki Knight, London Lovett, Lise McClendon, Flora McGowan, Kathryn Mykel, J. New, Eryn Scott, Debbie Young, Victoria Tait, and Carlene O’Connor
GENRE: Cozy Mystery Anthology
PUBLISHER: Pigeon Park Press
RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2023
PAGES: 328

Book shops, boutiques and small businesses are the lifeblood of small towns but what secrets lie behind those pretty display windows and in the alleyways behind these charming streets?

Step inside for a personal retail experience like no other!

‘The Little Shop of Murders’ collects together fifteen superb cozy mysteries written by some of the finest authors in the genre.

All author and publisher profits from the sale of this book go to children’s charities, helping those most in need.

Stories include:

Don’t Toy with Me by Diane Kelly
A Man With No Imagination by Millie Ravensworth
The Forget-Me-Not Antiques Mystery by Victoria Tait
It Was Our Song by Nikki Knight
Always and Furever by Eryn Scott
Wild Irish Dreams by Lise McClendon
Architect of a Murder by Carlene O’Connor
Blooms and Blackmail by London Lovett
Secondhand Murder by J. New
The Lady of the House by Flora McGowan
Requiem for a Violin by Geraldine Byrne
Nightly Nuisance by Kathryn Mykel
The Gift of Dragons by ACF Bookens
Nowhere to Hide by Debbie Young
Murder in the Bookshop by Rachel McLean

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Nostalgia and Cozy Mysteries

by Diane Kelly, author of The Little Shop of Murders

One of the many things I love about cozy mysteries is the nostalgic element. Though most of the stories are purportedly set in current day, they often take place in the types of shops that flourished decades ago on small-town Main Streets, but that exist today only in rare places. There’s a comfort in the yesteryear feel of the settings, and in the polite and considerate manner in which the characters generally interact with each other. The pace of life is often slower in a cozy than it is in today’s real world, and the more relaxed tempo harkens back to a time before the term “multitasking” was invented. Oh, to go back! The themes are often nostalgic, too, incorporating what used to be a way of life but which are now hobbies, such as yarn work, sewing, vegetable gardening, or baking from scratch.

With my love of nostalgia, it’s no surprise that my story in the anthology, “Don’t Toy With Me”, is set in a classic toy shop in an old-fashioned business district in a small town. None of the toys sold in the shop needs batteries or uses electricity. The dollhouses, wooden train sets, alphabet blocks, stick horses, and slide whistles are wonderfully timeless, as enjoyed by children now as they were a century ago.

My sense of nostalgia is evident in my House Flipper mystery series as well. Carpenter Whitney Whitaker and her cousin Buck breathe new life into old houses and buildings that might otherwise have been lost to a wrecking ball. In my Mountain Lodge Mysteries, innkeeper Misty Murphy buys a log-cabin-style mountain lodge built decades earlier. She stayed in the lodge on family vacations when she was a child, so the lodge holds a special place in her heart and her memories. My Southern Homebrew moonshine series is similarly nostalgic. Making homemade whiskey was a tradition that Irish and Scottish immigrants brought with them when they resettled in the southeast United States centuries ago. While large commercial manufacturers have dominated the liquor market in recent decades, small-batch craft operations are all the rage now, much as they were during the Prohibition era. My modern-day moonshiner, Hattie Hayes, uses an old family recipe to make her fruit-flavored ‘shine. Hints of nostalgia pop up in the window dressing of my books as well. You’ll see muscle cars regularly appear in my stories, and model trains find their way into my stories on occasion, too. In my Death and Taxes series, my federal agent’s boss still sports an outdated beehive hairdo and wears attire from the 1960’s, including go-go boots. I had such a blast dressing her for her scenes.

Are you a fan of nostalgia? What are some of your favorite nostalgic things? Do you have a favorite book or book series with nostalgic elements?

I love to connect with readers! Find me at my Author Diane Kelly page on Facebook, or on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and TikTok at @DianeKellyBooks. More about me and my books at www.DianeKelly.com

Diane Kelly writes funny stories that feature feisty female lead characters and their furry, four-footed friends. Diane is the author of over three dozen novels and novellas, including the Death & Taxes white-collar crime series, the Paw Enforcement K-9 series, the House Flipper cozy mystery series, the Busted female motorcycle cop series, the Southern Homebrew moonshine series, and the Mountain Lodge Mysteries series. Find Diane online at DianeKelly.com, on Twitter and Instagram @DianeKellyBooks, and on Facebook at her Author Diane Kelly page.

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This giveaway is hosted by Great Escapes, not RimSP
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What about you? What makes you want to read The Little Shop of Murders by Diane Kelly & the other participating cozy mystery authors? Are you a fan of nostalgia? What are some of your favorite nostalgic things? Do you have a favorite book or book series with nostalgic elements?