I’ve been dreaming of this series for almost a decade, ever since I first set foot a friend’s farm in the Fayette County area, where I’ve been a visitor for years.  I am thrilled to announce that KILLER JAM, the first in a new cozy mystery series, will be released by Thomas & Mercer on July 28! The book features ex-Houston reporter Lucy Resnick (Natalie Barnes’ college roommate), and is set in bucolic Central Texas.  Here’s the blurb…

When Houston reporter Lucy Resnick cashes in her retirement to buy her grandmother’s farm in Buttercup, Texas, she’s looking forward to a simple life as a homesteader. But Lucy has barely finished putting up her first batch of Killer Dewberry Jam when an oil exploration truck rolls up to the farm and announces plans to replace her broccoli patch with an oil derrick. Two days later, Nettie Kocurek, the woman who ordered the drilling, turns up dead at the Founders’ Day Festival with a bratwurst skewer through her heart and one of Lucy’s jam jars beside her…and the sheriff fingers Lucy as the prime suspect.

Horrified, Lucy begins to talk to Nettie’s neighbors, but the more she gets to know the townspeople, the more she realizes she’s not the only one who had a beef with Nettie. Can she clear her name, or will her dream life turn into a nightmare?

I hope you have as much fun with Lucy as I did.  I’m currently hard at work on the sequel, FATAL FROST, which is tentatively scheduled for October of 2016.