Interview
Who is Laurel Beacham and what does she do as one of the world’s premier art recovery experts?
Laurel Beacham’s total job objective is to recover stolen art. If she can catch the baddies, too, that’s wonderful. However, if it comes down to having to choose, art recovery triumphs for her every time–and she’ll use any means to meet her objective. Even out-thief the thieves.
Who is Kate McKenzie and what does it mean she’s an organization expert?
Kate McKenzie is a busy mother of two who finally able to plant some roots now that her formerly pro-hockey husband has retired from professional sports and become a hometown sports anchor at a radio station. But all those moves and all that chaos early in her married life has taught her more than a few ways to keep families and individuals on track and clutter free. Her girls (twins) are in elementary school, and she’s finally able to start her own business too, so with the help of her best friend and neighbor, Meg Berman, the pair are set to organize Hazelton, Vermont. And solve a few murders at the same time.
Who is Melissa Eller and why is she called Frugal Lissa?
Melissa Eller goes by Lissa unless she’s in trouble, but she goes by Frugal Lissa because that’s the name of the blog she publishes regularly to help all her subscribers save money and help stretch their family budgets. Unfortunately, she finds herself in big trouble when she discovers the body of a man who recently started a very public argument with her. She’s set up her business to meet her stay-at-home needs, but now she’s the police’s prime suspect, and she’s worried she’ll be working in the Big House if she can’t figure out whodunit before they slap the cuffs on her.
If Laurel, Kate, and Lissa were to meet would they get along?
Kate gets along well with Meg, even though their personalities are different–she connects with the way they are alike, and appreciates when Meg does (or says) things Kate can’t. So, I think she would have no problem doing the same with Laurel and Lissa. And Lissa is a lot like Meg, and uses her best friend, Abby, to keep her balanced, much like Kate does for Meg–so again, I think Lissa would work well with Kate. Laurel is used to Cassie trying to rein her in–though it seldom works, so she’s used to that personality, too, and makes me think all three women would like each other and get along as friends.
Could they work together to solve crimes?
Laurel is kind of a wild card, since she leaps first and looks later, and even Cassie in mom-mode can’t keep her in line. So, no, I think she would just drive Lissa and Kate crazy if they tried to work with her–and vice versa. I do, however, feel that Kate and Lissa could solve a crime successfully as a team, but I would expect Meg would make sure she played a role too.
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Melissa Eller looks for ways to save people money. She never wanted to find a dead body…
Especially since she and the victim argued in public the previous evening. And she kind of threatened him (all a big misunderstanding – really).
When would she learn to keep her big mouth shut?
Now, she’s suspect number one in the guy’s murder. Worse, the detective in charge of the case is someone Lissa made fun of in high school—because he made fun of her—and he holds more leverage than just the threat of getting her sent to detention. Her boys don’t need a mom in prison!
She should never have moved back home.
Who said small towns were safer?
Frugal Lissa Finds a Body is the first title in the new cozy Frugal Lissa Mysteries series from USA TODAY bestselling author Ritter Ames.
BONUS: Along with solving the crime, Lissa finds ways to save her blog subscribers money and shares those methods with readers. Also included are terrific family-friendly recipes.
This is a NEW cozy mystery series:
Book 1: Frugal Lissa Finds a Body
Book 2: Frugal Lissa Digs Up a Body (preorder soon)
Book 3: Frugal Lissa Hunts for a Body (coming soon)
And more to follow!
Preorder | Goodreads
Ritter Ames is the USA Today Bestselling author of the Organized Mysteries series and the Bodies of Art Mysteries series. When she’s not writing or brainstorming new mysteries Ritter is usually trying to get her favorite yellow Lab to stay out of the pond, or keep her grouchy black cat from trying to give the dog away on Freecycle. Ritter would love to live on a boat and write from far flung locations around the globe, but the dog would constantly have to be fished from the water, and her husband and cat would just complain endlessly about the dog’s smell, so staying on land seems to be the only good option to keep her sanity and not get sidetracked from writing.
Ritter tries to blog regularly at RitterAmes.com and subscribe there to get the latest news about upcoming releases, and inside scoops on her characters and series. She uses her Pinterest boards at www.pinterest.com/ritterames to capture great places and ideas she wants to use in both series. Go to her website to subscribe to her newsletter and get the first alert about new books in her series.