Hey, lovelies! It gives me great pleasure today to host Jo A. Hiestand and her new book, “Related By Murder”! For other stops on her Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of the images in this post.
Be sure to make it to the end of this post to enter to win a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card!!! Also, come back daily to interact with Jo and to increase your chances of winning!
This eBook is on SALE during the book tour for ONLY $0.99!!! See below for more details.
Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you lots of luck in this fabulous giveaway!
Related By
Murder
by Jo A. Hiestand
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GENRE: British Mystery
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BLURB:
From the moment ex-police detective Michael McLaren arrives at his friend’s house, he’s plunged into a nightmare of a case. Two men, hanged a year apart, each killed on a Good Friday. A barrister. A solicitor. Related careers. Related by murder. Related motives?
Pottery shards, a torn newspaper article, and biscuits are found in each man’s pocket. What do they signify? And the blackmail letters Melanie receives… Are they related to the murders, or are they separate, terrifying in their own way?
Professions, calendar date, McLaren’s attack. Could it all be entwined? Or is the motive for murder something else, something so secret that keeping it is worth attempting a third one?
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EXCERPT ONE:
McLaren had been there during the daylight hours on his previous visit. Now, at night, the place was eerie, mystical. The circle—one hundred yards in circumference—had originally held forty stones, but now just thirty-three remained. None were upright. Still, if he used his imagination he could easily conjure up the feeling of ancient cultures.
He walked farther into the circle, the grass damp and clinging to his boots, the odors of sodden soil and sheep droppings mixing with wet stones. A small puddle, most likely left from the evening’s rain, glittered from the moonlight that seemed trapped within the dark water, and he stepped around it. A bit farther on, he came to what he hoped would be a good vantage point. He knelt behind one of the taller stones, though none of them were more than a yard tall. From this perspective not only was he hidden if anyone approached from the lane, but also distanced enough from the entrance so no one would suspect he was there.
Minutes passed. The wind picked up, stirring the dampness in the air and pushing it into McLaren’s bones. Or at least that’s how it felt. Even his sweatshirt felt incredibly thin and unequal to keeping him warm. He chastised himself for not wearing his jacket, and rubbed his arms.
A barn owl soared silently overhead, its ghostly-white feathers oddly appropriate in this strange-feeling landscape. It’s appropriate, McLaren thought, watching the bird sail over a copse of trees. We’re both out hunting.
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BOOK TRAILER:
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GUEST POST:
Some of My Favorite Items in My Office:
What a fun topic! Wow, where to begin… The space contains so many special things… My office is basically three of my worlds combined into one: writing/books, English police stuff, and music. It’s a fairly large room, intended to be the master bedroom, but it has a cozy feel because I’ve filled it with many favorite items. The main thing that is obvious on entering the room is the five bookcases crammed with reference books--writing, police procedure, British wildlife and maps and British towns, a British dictionary, and books on topics such as poison, guns, British slang, and British customs. Besides being essential to my English mystery novel writing, they are fun to browse through, especially the maps!
Another item I especially like is a photo of the internationally known folk group The McCalmans and me, taken at my parent’s house. That hangs on the wall above my computer. I acted as their St Louis agent once, setting up two weeks of singing venues in the area. In addition to the Macs, I have a photo of two of my English police friends.
What else… I have something fairly unique, I think…at least for an office. I made a 4’x4’ wall hanging of tartan fabric squares. I used tartans of six of the sixteen Scottish clans to which I’m related, and sewed them together in a diagonal pattern. That was a work of love as well as fun. It occupies the space above one bookcase. Opposite that is a large poster of The New World Renaissance Band—all the members signed it for me.
A second poster I treasure is of a two-piano concert three years ago (gosh, how time flies!). The program included the world premier of a four-movement piece of ‘character sketches and scenes’ from my McLaren mystery book Arrested Flight. Robert Chamberlin, a nationally-known composer, read the book and wrote the companion music. Needless to say, I was very excited!
Another favorite thing in my office is my Write Spite doll. It’s a “voodoo” doll, eleven inches tall by nine inches wide. Two straight pins are included with it! My friend made it for me ages ago when I kept getting rejection slips from publishers, the idea being that I’d print the publisher’s name on slips of paper and pin them to the “voodoo” doll and frown at it! Of course it’s a joke, but it was a great frustration reliever, as you can imagine! What a hoot that little doll is. Luckily, I don’t use it anymore for its intended purpose, but it’s still fun to look at besides making me laugh.
These are all wonderful items, but perhaps the things that mean the most to me are my two English police hats. I have a Bobby helmet and an inspector’s hat. They’re real. I got them on different trips to Britain. The hat I got from an inspector I was interviewing in Buxton, England. No, he didn’t take it off his head; it was an old one he had (still nice looking, but it was outdated due to a new design for the hat and therefore not officially wearable). So, he gave it to me. Getting that thing home in my luggage, without squishing it, was a feat, but I managed it. The Bobby helmet is new. A detective sergeant gave that to me when I visited him in Derbyshire, a ‘Welcome to England and the wonderful world of police’ gift. Now, normally I’m not much of a blow-my-own-horn person, but I should get an award for getting that into my suitcase and toting it back to the States! (Secret: I donated a bunch of my clothes to Oxfam to make space for the helmet. I still wonder how the recipient of the University of Kentucky jacket liked it: it had the UK logo on the front!)
That’s about it, I guess. I do have more beloved items in the room, and they all mean something very special, but they probably wouldn’t be interesting to talk about…assuming, of course, that the above-mentioned items were interesting to read about!
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AUTHOR BIO:
I grew up reading Dumas, Twain, duMaurier, Dickens and the Brontes. I loved the atmosphere of those books. Add the Basil Rathbone-Nigel Bruce movies and the moods of 1940s/50s movies like Brief Encounter, Night Must Fall, and The Thirty-Nine Steps, and I knew I wanted to write mysteries, and the books had to be set in Britain. That was a must even though I knew only what I’d seen in the movies and read in the novels. But the British pull was tenacious. Three years ago I discovered that I have literally centuries and centuries of English, Scottish and Welsh ancestry. Do genes mean anything?
My first visit to England was during my college years and that cemented my joy of Things British. Since then, I’ve been lured back nearly a dozen times, and lived there for a year during my professional folksinging stint.
What do I write? Well, at the moment, I write two British mystery series: the McLaren Mysteries and the Peak District Mysteries. The McLaren novels feature ex-police detective Michael McLaren, who investigates cold case murders on his own. The Peak District books feature a different British custom/tradition that is the backbone of each book’s plot. These are a combo cozy/police procedural, and members of the Derbyshire Constabulary CID Murder team work these cases.
I combined my love of writing, mysteries, music, and board games by co-inventing a mystery-solving treasure-hunting game, P.I.R.A.T.E.S.
I founded the Greater St. Louis Chapter of the international mystery writers/readers organization Sisters in Crime, serving as its first president.
In 2001, I graduated from Webster University with a BA degree in English and departmental honors. I live in the St. Louis, MO area with my cat, Tennyson, and way too many kilts.
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CONNECT WITH JO:
Website:
Blog:
https://www.johiestand.com/blog
Newsletter:
https://www.johiestand.com/contact
Email:
johiestand@gmail.com
Facebook Fan Page:
https://www.facebook.com/Britmysteries
Facebook Personal Page:
https://www.facebook.com/jo.hiestand.3
Twitter:
https://www.twitter.com/JoHiestand
Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/johiestand
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/joahiestand
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/MysteryAuthorinSTL
BookBub Author Page:
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/jo-a-hiestand
BookBub Book Page:
https://www.bookbub.com/books/hide-and-seek-the-mclaren-mysteries-book-12-by-jo-a-hiestand
Goodreads Author Page:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/635131.Jo_A_Hiestand
Goodreads Book Page:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54485512-hide-and-seek
Amazon Author Page:
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BOOK BUY LINKS & BOOK SALE INFO:
**The Related By Murder eBook is on SALE during the book tour for ONLY $0.99!!!**
Amazon Kindle eBook:
Amazon Paperback:
Barnes and Noble Nook eBook:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/related-by-murder-jo-a-hiestand/1138862009
Kobo eBook:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/related-by-murder
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GIVEAWAY INFO:
Jo will be awarding a $20 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.
a Rafflecopter giveaway**This post contains
affiliate links and if clicked and a purchase is made, I may receive a small
commission to help support this blog.
This does not cost you anything, it just helps pay for all those awesome
giveaways on here**
Jo ~ Good morning! Welcome back! It is ALWAYS a pleasure to have you here! Congrats on your latest new book and good luck on the book tour! :)
ReplyDeleteAlly! It's always a pleasure and an honor that you host me. Thanks so much for the post -- I appreciate it!
DeleteThanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteHi, Rita. Thanks for stopping by Ally's site. Good luck with the raffle drawing!
ReplyDeleteI love Jo A. Hiest and her books. Thanks for sharing the photos of your office. I love the hats.
ReplyDeleteMy goodness, Audrey! Such a nice comment. Thank you. I wish you luck with the raffle drawing!
ReplyDeleteGreat post - thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by, Victoria. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI'll sign off now. Thank you again, Ally, for hosting my new book. This was fun! And good luck to everyone with the raffle drawing!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great read.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sherry. Good luck with the drawing!
ReplyDeleteI love music and think it's very cool that the composer wrote music for your book.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the contest.