I have a new Berkley series coming out in October. This is a perfect debut time, since
the book, too, begins in October. While Iβve written books set in every season, I
usually like to start a series in the fall, because that season, for me, is the most
vibrant and full of possibility.
We are now experiencing cooler days and nights; weβre putting warmer covers on the beds
and digging out our fall and winter clothes. Weβre drinking warmer beverages and taking
invigorating walks. Something about this weather fills me with ideas and a sense of
mystery. Perhaps the gray days make me think of Conan-Doyleβs gloomy moors or
Shakespeareβs moody heath, or of Christieβs St. Mary Mead in the rain.
Whatever the reason, my mind always goes to a story set in the fall. So in my new
book,
THE BIG
CHILI, Lilah Drake is driving through Pine Haven, Illinois, delivering a big pot of
chili to a woman at a local church, who pays Lilah for the food and for the right to
claim it was her own creation. Pine Haven is bright with autumn leaves and chilly air,
and Lilah too feels invigorated by the season change, as does her faithful companion
Mick, a chocolate Labrador who happens to be Lilahβs best friend.
Fitzgeraldβs Nick Carraway famously said, in
THE GREAT GATSBY, that the warm
months were invigorating to him because βI had the familiar conviction that life was
beginning over again with the summer.β For Lilah, it is just the opposite, and she
truly comes alive when the weather grows cool and stimulates her sleuthing mind.
Another advantage of cool weather is that we are more likely to want to find someone to
help keep us warm. Lilah has been unlucky in love, but there is someone in Pine Haven
that she finds very attractive, although sheβs relatively certain her feelings are
unrequited. Still, the cool, romantic, Halloween-lit streets of Pine Haven encourage
her to hope that things might change, and that something surprising might wait just
around a shadowy corner.
Julia Buckley is a Chicago mystery author whose career started in 2006 with the
publication of THE DARK BACKWARD. Since then her work has appeared on Kindle in the
Madeline Mann series and the novel THE GHOSTS OF LOVELY WOMEN. Her new series from
Berkley Prime Crime will begin with THE BIG CHILI, to be released in October of 2015.
She is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the Romance
Writers of America, along with the Chicago Writer's Association. In addition, she has
worked with the same writer's group since 2000.
Julia has taught high school English for twenty-seven years; she lives near Chicago
with her husband, two sons, and three cats.
Contact Julia's Agent, Kim Lionetti, at Bookends Literary, or e-mail Julia directly at
julishka@sbcglobal.net.
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First in a delicious new mystery series filled with casseroles, confidences, and
killers...
Lilah Drakeβs Covered Dish business discreetly provides the residents of Pine Haven,
Illinois, with delicious, fresh-cooked meals they can claim they cooked themselves. But
when one of her clandestine concoctions is used to poison a local woman, Lilah finds
herself in a pot-load of troubleβ¦
After dreaming for years of owning her own catering company, Lilah has made a start
into the food world through her Covered Dish business, covertly cooking for her
neighbors who donβt have the time or skill to do so themselves, and allowing them to
claim her culinary creations as their own. While her clientele is strong, their
continued happiness depends on no one finding out whoβs really behind the apron.
So when someone drops dead at a church Bingo night moments after eating chili that
Lilah made for a client, the anonymous chef finds herself getting stirred into a
cauldron of secrets, lies, and murderβand going toe to toe with a very determined and
very attractive detective. To keep her clients coming back and her business under
wraps, Lilah will have to chop down the list of suspects fast, because this spicy
killer has acquired a taste for homicideβ¦
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