#Blogtour Death Plays a Part by Vivian Conroy @VivWrites

Today I would like to welcome you all to my stop on tour with Vivian Conroy and her latest book Death Plays a Part, (Cornish Castle Mystery, Book 1)

Death Plays a Part was just published by HQ Digital on 7th July, with the second book in the series, Rubies in the Roses due out in August 2017.

Vivian has written a lovely guest post about her love affair with the cozy mystery genre which I do hope you enjoy…

Book Info:

With high tide comes murder…

When her beloved London theatre closes for renovations, costume maker Guinevere is excited to start a job at Cornisea castle, a centuries-old keep on a small tidal island off the coast of Cornwall. Imagine a whole summer full of stories of hidden treasures, fab food and long walks with her perky dachshund Dolly.

But when a reenactment of a medieval trial in the castle dungeons ends in real-life murder, and accusations threaten the castle’s future, Guinevere and Dolly dig deep into the island community’s best-kept secrets to unmask the killer and save their Cornish summer.

The first book in the Cornish Castle Mystery series with the second instalment RUBIES IN THE ROSES coming August 2017!

Purchase Link ~ Death Plays a Part

There is no mystery like cozy mystery – my love affair with the genre

by Vivian Conroy

Once upon a time when I was just thirteen I picked a book from the shelf and lay down on my stomach, my favourite posture to read, and started to immerse myself in a world of clues and red herrings, wondering where it was all going and at the grand reveal thinking: yes, I could have figured this out if I had just paid better attention to all of the details.

From there on I read every Agatha Christie I could lay my hands on, and Poirot, Miss Marple and the fun couple Tommy and Tuppence took up residence on my shelves and in my mind (never been much of a fan of Ariadne Oliver!). I vividly remember the horror of the scorpion in Poirot’s cabin in Death On The Nile (one of my favourite reads overall), the creepiness of And Then There Were None (where I didn’t even dare sleep with the book beside my bed) and the psychological menace of conniving servants (After The Funeral), slightly odd village spinsters (Nemesis) and returning memories (Sleeping Murder). Agatha Christie is the queen of the subtle terror: no hacked off limbs or torture scenes, but the moment where a friendly face shows its true nature and changes into the hideous features of a coldblooded killer. On TV I adored Murder She Wrote (especially the episodes with charming Irish spy Michael Haggerty) and in recent years Death In Paradise. There’s nothing like the satisfaction when you can work it out and know who did it and how it was done. So it made total sense that I would go and write cozy mysteries of my own.

I love every bit of them: the feel-good setting (whether it’s the glamorous twenties or an idyllic small town), the quirky characters and the adorable pets. Because I write several series, I can one moment go all out writing a sinister psychologist (keep your eyes peeled for Fatal Masquerade coming in October), then again I dive into the world of priceless artefacts and devise my own goblet studded with diamonds and rubies whose whereabouts are about to unveiled (not long until Rubies In The Roses is released!).

I can live in a country house or a cute cottage or at a castle steeped in history with a bakery close by where delicious buns are freshly baked every day. I can hang out with the enigmatic Jake Dubois, half French reporter with a knack for the criminal, or motorcycling Oliver Bolingbrooke, nature filmer, reluctant heir to the castle and Daniel Craig lookalike. Yes, writing can be physically draining (after a few hours at a keyboard the muscles can be rather stiff and a good walk in order) but mentally it energizes me.

Thinking up new stories can make me incredibly excited, and visiting old favourites is like coming home. I often think back on that afternoon I picked my first Agatha Christie off the shelf and started reading. That’s where my love affair with the cozy mystery genre began and the seeds were planted for the dream I’m now living: people reading MY cozy mystery stories.

I hope that the mysteries I create bring that excitement and satisfaction I experienced myself and that my readers will fall in love all over again with a genre that provides the perfect escape.

Q4U: what was the first book you read that got you hooked on your favourite genre?

Comment or tweet me via @VivWrites!

About the Author:

Vivian Conroy writes the Cornish Castle Mysteries for HarperCollins, with Death Plays a Part releasing in July and Rubies in the Roses following in late August.

Her Lady Alkmene Mysteries, of which the first instalment A Proposal To Die For became an Amazon USA and Canada best seller in five categories, will continue with a new instalment in October, Fatal Masquerade, set at a Venetian style masked ball where every guest has a secret and some of these secrets prove lethal.

For all the latest bookish news, with plenty of dogs and desserts, follow Vivian on Twitter via @VivWrites.

You can also find her books on Goodreads, Library Thing, Book Bub and Fantastic Fiction.