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Lavender Toes (A Cold Cream Murder Mystery)
by Barbara Silkstone

About Lavender Toes

Lavender Toes (A Cold Cream Murder Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
5th in Series
Independently Published (December 1, 2019)
Paperback: 174 pages
ISBN-10: 1712435833
ISBN-13: 978-1712435830
Digital ASIN: B0821NHR9V

Someone dear to Olive is found dead—toes up and barefooted—in Digby’s Bees lavender field. Olive and Lizzy team up with WonderDog to find the killer. Digby’s hives are home to the wondrous Soprano bees. The little buzzers are the source of the secret ingredient that powers their Nonna’s Cold Cream—a fountain of youth in a jar.

Finding the killer becomes more of a challenge as the gals protect Digby’s bees from a determined land developer who wants the beekeeper’s farm. The clock ticks as saving the honeybees becomes every bit as important as finding the cousin-killer.

While Olive and Lizzy buzz about, Grams, nonagenarian ace reporter for the Silverfish Gazette, takes on the story of a diamond heist in nearby Sarasota. Can the gals protect Grams from another near catastrophe or can the feisty lady handle it alone?

Help the Cold Cream gals solve the mystery of the Lavender Toes while once again bailing Grams out of trouble. And what about those bees?

Every book comes with a recipe for a homemade beauty product.

Character Guest Post

My name is Olive Peroni. I come from a long line of accomplished Italian-American Peroni women. I graduated from NYU with a PhD in family counseling. The ink was barely dry on my business cards when my first client found me. Myron Meyers was part of a family, but not the kind I expected.

Myron claimed to be a retired mobster suffering from guilt. He entered my office and my life wearing tan-colored silk trousers wrinkled like an old Shar-Pei. He fiddled with a gold coin nestled in the white chest hairs peeking from two open buttons. He was amusing in a Scorsese way and because he made me laugh, I agreed to treat what I thought were delusions.

The octogenarian scared away any normal patients I might have had. Our client-therapist relationship lasted for roughly three years, when I got the sad news my grandmother had gone to the big spaghetti dinner in the sky.

Nonna’s passing gave me an excuse to step away from Myron for what I thought would be a few weeks. I would go to Florida to settle Nonna’s estate, put her beachfront condo on the market, and return. Little did I know that I was about to begin a new chapter in my life.

Realtor Lizzy Kelly came to list my grandmother’s condo on the beach. In her endearing way, she flitted from a real estate transaction to a gabfest. The perky gal convinced me to join her for lunch at Crabby Nancy’s Fried Fish restaurant, one of Starfish Cove’s most popular hangouts. We laughed our way through crispy fish platters, blissfully unaware of what the next few hours would bring.

Did you ever encounter someone whom on your first meeting felt like an old friend?

Lizzy and I soon discovered we shared the same sense of humor and the same mischievous outlook.

After lunch she invited me to her cottage on the beach to see her seventy-six finches. I didn’t believe she had that many tiny birds flying loose in her house. The finches were real. So was Lizzy’s odd-looking hound, WonderDog.

A threatening message written in lip-gloss on Lizzy’s dressing table mirror was the first hint of things to come. By the time she returned me to Nonna’s condo we discovered the thumping noise coming from the trunk of her car was a dead body. We’ve been tripping over bodies ever since.

Along with her condo Nonna left me the secret recipes for her cold creams. Lizzy and I are now partners in a sweet little shop across from the Starfish Cove beach. Our magical cream is popular with women who spend too much time in the sun. We even have celebrity sponsor but that’s another story.

So far my doctorate in psychology has come in handy. I wrangled my way into an unpaid position as a profiler for the Starfish Cove Police Department. As much as Officer Kal Miranda resisted, we discovered I have a gift for getting at the truth.

Lizzy and I, along with her Grams get in some tight situations. I’m not real coordinated—more like a klutz. I’m not about to carry any weapons and definitely no pepper spray. My trigger finger has a tendency to slip. I arm myself with a can of hairspray—looks innocent but it’s a real deterrent.

Sorry to run but I have a suspect to profile. Something about a makeover? Meantime check out this excerpt. It’ll give you an idea of how we operate.

I almost forgot to mention, every one of our capers comes with a recipe for a DIY beauty product!

Don’t forget to comment to enter the drawing for one of two “Save the Bees” sweatshirts and other goodies. Saving the bees is part of our latest COLD CREAM MURDERS adventure ~ LAVENDER TOES.

Short excerpt illustrating the use of creative weapons:

I crab-scrambled along the floor. Skirting the kitchen door I looked for a weapon. The killer would soon break through, and when he did, I’d need the element of surprise.

My can of hairspray sat on the kitchen table.

I switched to a duck-walk. Keeping low I grabbed the can and then waddled back to hide behind the door. My plan was to jump out and spritz him in the eyes before he could shoot us. After that? Not so sure.

Grams and Mary speed-crept next to the table. Grams grabbed her candlestick and Mary snatched a can of kidney beans sitting on the counter.

The front door burst open, initiating the sound of spinning marbles and crunching glass. Thug-One yelled, “Compham! Mouseliver, Rinshipposh!” He hit the floor with a thud so loud it vibrated from the parlor to the kitchen sending pots rattling.

COLD CREAM MURDERS Bundle link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MDWGHYV

Author of the Florence Nightingale Comedy Mystery Series: The Giggling Corpse, The Killer Corset, and The Cheeky Corner, Barbara Silkstone is also the creator of the best selling Mister Darcy series of comedic mysteries ~ 9 Books plus 10 Regency novels and novellas, all with a light, humorous touch. She is also the author of the Wendy Darlin Comedy Mysteries – 5 Cozy Romantic Adventures reviewers describe as Nick and Nora Charles meet Lara Croft. Plus standalone cozies based on fairy tales: The Secret Diary of Alice in Wonderland and Zo White and the Seven Morphs.

Most books are available in paperback and audio!

Barbara Silkstone’s Amazon Author’s page

http://www.amazon.com/Barbara-Silkstone/e/B0047L8A8W

About Barbara Silkstone

Barbara Silkstone‘s most current series is COLD CREAM MURDERS ~ GLOSSY LIPS, SMOKEY EYES ~SOAP ON A ROPE. Coming this fall Book 5 in the series: LAVENDER TOES. This series will have at least 6 books when complete. The adventures take place in the imaginary burg of Starfish Cove, Florida ~ a place near and dear to Silkstone’s hometown of Redington Beach on the Gulf of Mexico just north of St. Petersburg, Florida.

Barbara currently lives in Central Florida with her eccentric kitty who adores Liam Neeson and chasing lizards (the cat, not Barbara) 🙂

Silkstone is the best-selling author of both Regency Pride and Prejudice variations, including the popular the MISTER DARCY SERIES OF COMEDIC MYSTERIES ~ PRIDE AND PREJUDICE contemporary variations. All her books are light-hearted adventures based on Jane Austen’s timeless tales of love denied and love discovered. “Feel good” tales to warm your heart.

She is also the author of the Wendy Darlin Comedy Mystery series. Five coffee-snorting tales that combine Cozy with outrageous adventures.

Plus a mixed bag of standalone cozy comedy mysteries: Zo White and the Seven Morphs, Cold Case Morphs, The Secret Diary of Alice in Wonderland … and more.

Author Links –

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/Barbara-Silkstone-Author-156097004489447/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/barbsilkstone

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