Irene's in Texas--whooppee!

 

Here it is! The cover to the forthcoming Irene Deep in Texas Trouble, fourth in my Irene in Chicago Culinary Mysteries.

Irene Deep in Texas Trouble is all about love and romance—and murder! Fred Erisman thinks it’s the best Irene saga so far.

It’s Christmas in Texas. Henny’s best friend, Charlie, is marrying the love of her life, rich and spoiled Rick Scott, and Henny is to cater the wedding supper. Irene and Chance are spending the holiday with Henny’s family, and Irene steps in as Henny’s sous chef. When there’s a sensational murder at the supper, Irene is the prime suspect. Things are complicated by a wild set of characters and events—a mysterious stranger, threatening notes, a runaway couple, and a kidnapping. But Henny persists—and learns that there are all kind of couples in this world.

Come on down to Texas and wander the historic Fort Worth stockyards, watch a rodeo, learn about a new competitive sport, and eat some Texas food. While Irene detests most of the Texas menu, you’ll probably like it. Recipes included.

A note on Irene’s changing face: readers have pointed out that the Irene on the cover of the first book, Saving Irene, looks older than subsequent covers. In the first book of course, she loses her husband to murder, sours on Chicago, and flees to France. By the second book, she has established her save in Peyrolles-en-Provence and sweets into Chicago to cater Henny’s wedding—or so she thinks. She’s more self-confident, settled.

But ah, the third book: Irene is a woman in love. You can see it on her face, in her smile. And in this book? She is a woman well loved, secure enough to be a bit demanding, a bit manipulative. See it in her eyes?

 

 Thanks to designer Amy Balamut for terrific covers!

 

Waiting all summer for this day

August 15, 2017

Today is the day I’ve been waiting all summer for—cover reveal of my new novel, Pigface and the Perfect Dog (an Oak Grove Mystery). It’s my first full-length novel in over a year, and the first time I have revisited the college town of Oak Grove since The Perfect Coed was published three years ago.

Kudos to Sherry Wachter for the great cover, which I think matches the cover of The Perfect Coed in style and color. I’ve itched to share it with you for weeks, but when you sign up for a cover reveal, you’re pretty much bound to that date. So today’s reveal can be found at

http://readeropolis.blogspot.com/2017/08/coming-soon-pigface-and-perfect-dog-oak.html

English professor Susan Hogan and her partner, Jake Phillips, chief of campus security, return in this cozy mystery with an edge. Susan thinks she’s about to meet her maker when she confronts a rifle-carrying man, who looks like a pig, in a grocery store. Jake investigates the body of a young college student, shot in the back and found in an empty pasture. Aunt Jenny showers love on the new puppy a young man from the grocery gave her, but she feels she must get rid of that heavy collar.

 Trouble in Oak Grove begins with open-carry protestors in the grocery store and leads to a shooting, breaking and entering, threats, a chase, an attempted kidnapping, and a clandestine trip to the woods late at night. Will Susan Hogan land in trouble…or the hospital…again? Will Susan and Jake survive this as a couple? Susan is still prickly but she learns some lessons about life, love, and herself in this second Oak Grove Mystery.

Reader reaction to The Perfect Coed thrilled me.

Susan is a prickly character, and she doesn’t put up with any guff from her male colleagues, the cops, or even Jake. Aunt Jenny is funny and a great cook. I have a feeling all these characters will be returning for a sequel, so you’ll want to pick this one up now before you get behind. You won’t regret it.

—Bill Crider, mystery author

Few mysteries open with a single paragraph of eye-popping intrigue, but The Perfect Coed is full of such moments and its introduction is apt warning that readers will rapidly become involved in something far from mundane or predictable: “Susan Hogan drove around Oak Grove, Texas for two days before she realized there was a dead body in the trunk of her car. And it was another three days before she knew that someone was trying to kill her.”

—D. Donovan, Senior eBook Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

Pigface, as I affectionately call this new novel, is available for pre-order on Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Pigface-Perfect-Dog-Mystery-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B073VSDKMH/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1502833947&sr=1-1&keywords=pigface+and+the+perfect+dog in both paperback and ebook form. It will be available September 7.

For those in the Fort Worth area, there’ll be a launch party September 21, 5:00 -7:00 p.m., at the Wine Haus, 1628 Park Place Avenue. Cash bar, snacks will be offered, and fun will definitely be had. Ya’ll come celebrate with me, please. Many of you will get an evite soon; if you don’t hear by September 11, please let me know. Questions, comments? Write me at j.alter@tcu.edu.

Cover reveal--drum roll, please

How do you like it? I think it's smashing. Many thanks to Kim Jacobs, publisher of Turquoise Morning Press, who designed it. She tells me she's noticed mysteries are going big and bold in their covers. Here's the blurb that will be on the back of the book--and, yes, in spite of the dragon image, this is another Kelly O'Connell Mystery set in Fairmount, where there are no dragons except on Ms. Lorna's silk dressing gowns. At one point or another, almost everyone in the book is pretending to be something they aren't--hence the title. But I'll let you figure out the deceptions for yourself. Could be that a dragon in the historic Fairmount Historical District is part of the deception itself.

A woman desperately seeking her biological mother, a televangelist determined to thwart that search, a hired hit man, and in the midst of it all, a reclusive diva who wears Chinese silk gowns and collects antique Chinese porcelain. Kelly has gotten herself involved in a dangerous emotional tangle this time, and Mike doesn’t tell her to back off, even when events take them from Fort Worth to San Antonio.

I hope you feel, as I do, that it's fun to be back in Kelly's world with her loyal and sometimes wacky extended family, her husband Mike who is devoted but loses patience with her, and her two growing daughters. As a reviewer said of another Kelly book, "You could meet these people in the grocery store."

And more praise for the last Kelly book, Danger Comes Home: "Author Judy Alter brings a colorful cast of characters alive scene after scene. Alter's love of cooking and infatuation with old Craftsman homes permeates the story like a dash of just the right spice in your favorite dish.
Deception in Strange Places will be available as an e-book July 31, with print to follow. Don't worry--I'll be reminding you.

 

Cover reveal

If you're on Facebook you probably saw this yesterday but I want to make sure everyone sees the cover for my October release, The Perfect Coed. This will be my first self-published novel, and I'm both excited and nervous. This is not in the Kelly O'Connell or Blue Plate series but a new stand-alone. Who knows? The editor who worked on it said to me, "Oh, I hope there will be more about these people." So there may be. But for now, here it is:

You'll notice the perfect coed has a bit of an edge to her, and that fits the story perfectly. A little bit of history--this is the first mystery I ever wrote. It's based on stories I heard not about coeds but about doctor's wives, when I was one of the latter. Believe me, I never was part of such shenanigans and, as far as I know, neither were any of the wives I knew. But the story stuck in my mind and grew.
When I first wrote it, an agent tried to market it to no avail. She wanted me to write romance, so I'm not sure how diligent her efforts were. But believe me, though there is a relationship in this, it's no romance.
Since then I've rewritten, revised, rewritten again. And now I'm ready, with trembling heart, to offer it to the world--next October. It will be published simultaneously in trade paperback and e-book, and I'm hoping enough of you who have read my other mystery series will want to try it. It's a bit darker and edgier than my other mysteries.
I'm also marketing way ahead of time soliciting advance reviews, hoping to get some attention amidst the great pond of new mysteries that are published every month.
Many thanks to those who helped me with this one: Mary Dulle and Lourdes Venard, who edited; Lynn Stanzione who did the smashing cover; and Jenn Zacek, who formatted it. After that I'm on my own, with a wing and a prayer.
Meantime, don't miss the fifth Kelly O'Connell Mystery, Deception in Strange Places, due as an e-book July 31, with print to follow. As soon as I have the cover, I'll post it. And I'm hard at work at the sixth in the series.