Blog Tour and giveaway , Wouldn't it be Deadly by D.E. Ireland

Happy Friday to you all! I'm thrilled to have with us today the lovely D.E. Ireland!! Wouldn't it be Deadly is out now! I got to read this book and I must say it was so good!

Two Lucky people will win a hard cover copy of this book! (leave a comment with email to be entered for a chance)

My Review:

I enjoyed this book and once I started there was so putting it down, the wit and humor were fantastic. The characters Eliza and Henry are so strong and memorable and with the witty banner you will be hooked from the start. With a great story line this whodunit will sweep you away to London where you will be involved in their lives and and a sleuth right along with them as they try to find out who the killer is.

WE OWE IT ALL TO TRIXIE

Like many Baby Boomers, we were introduced to the Trixie Belden mystery series at around the same age Trixie was in her first book The Secret of the Mansion. Certainly 13-year-old Trixie made a fine role model for those of us going through puberty and faced with the daunting prospect of middle school. Meg Mims and Sharon Pisacreta, the writing team of D.E. Ireland, are proud to count themselves long-time Trixie fans. And who knows? We might never have fallen in love with the mystery genre if we hadn’t been immersed for years in the adventures of Trixie and the Bob-White Club.

The series ran from 1948 to 1986, and includes thirty-nine books. Like a Boomer version of Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden was an intrepid amateur detective who taught us to be brave even if we were quaking with fear. Above all, she showed that it was important to uncover the truth – despite everyone else trying to convince you otherwise. Both of us briefly discuss our personal Trixie Belden favorites. Keep our Trixie recommendations in mind if you have young readers in the family. And for our fellow Trixie fans, check out the Trixie Belden Convention page on Facebook. There are annual summer camps too!

Sharon Pisacreta:  I only got to Book Fifteen in the series before I grew out of the target audience. But I devoured those first fifteen books eagerly, and reread them countless times. My clear favorite is The Mysterious Visitor, which focuses on the impostor in their midst. The impostor is the long-lost uncle of her friend Diana Lynch. Trixie is instantly wary of the unlikable Uncle Monty, who surfaces after the Lynch family has become wealthy. She also resents how he treats his lonely ‘niece’ Diana. There is a Hitchcock feel to this Trixie installment as she tries to prove that he’s not only a liar, but also a sinister and dangerous figure. Halloween, my favorite holiday, plays a role in this book, emphasizing that some people wear masks all year round. And I still recall the satisfaction Trixie and I both felt when she discovers the charred portraits thrown into the fireplace. By the way, the climax is one of the most exciting in the series.

Speaking of climaxes, the Trixie Belden books have some of the best ‘Black Moments’ I’ve ever read. The most memorable climax for me is in The Happy Valley Mystery where Trixie, Honey and Jim are trapped atop a barn roof as a flood rages around them. Night has fallen, the flood waters are rising quickly, and escape appears hopeless. They have been shouting for help, and all three are hoarse from trying to be heard over the storm’s fury. Then they hear a motorboat, along with their friends and fellow Bob-White Club members yelling for them. Unfortunately, the stranded kids are too hoarse to shout or scream back. All seems lost until Trixie takes a deep breath and breaks out in their trademark Bob-White whistle. I think even Agatha Christie would have been proud of this clever girl detective. I’m still proud of her. Good work, Trixie!

Meg Mims: I only lasted until Book 15 of the series too, though, jumping to Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and Josephine Tey. But I still remember my best friend gifting me The Secret of the Mansion for my summer birthday. The covers alone – with Trixie creeping along with a flashlight on the front, and the mysterious mansion on the back – made me want to read it right away. I had to wait until after we ate the melted ice cream and cake on our back yard picnic table, roller-skated in the heat until we sweated, tried to find shade for relief, gave up and went home. My siblings and I headed to the basement, where I delved into the book. Trixie was a tomboy, just like me. Check! With a pesky little brother, check! Loved horses and wanted to ride, check, check! And met a rich friend who’d just moved in next door – that’s where fantasy took over, but I didn’t mind. Golly, as Trixie would say, what an adventure, exploring a mansion and meeting a runaway boy. I had to get the next book! It took me months to save up my allowance, however. And by that time (in the days before Amazon), I could only find book 3, The Gatehouse Mystery –just as fabulous and with an amazing twist at the end. I even begged my mom to buy me the plain loafers Trixie and Honey wore instead of the penny or tassel style.

Along with the exciting climaxes mentioned by my writing partner, the Trixie Belden books also contain some great ‘twists and turns’. My favorite occurs in The Mysterious Code, where Trixie and Honey must prove The Bob-White Club is worthwhile and plan an antique show. That attracts criminals, however. Trixie and Honey spend hours crafting dolls, sewing aprons and other things to sell for charity. Since the friendly cop is out front, the girls stay late at night to price items. But they don’t expect the thieves to break through the shop’s back door. Unfortunately, the Bob-White whistle isn’t an option; with guns trained on the girls, they must pretend everything is fine when the boys arrive with the final antiques to display. Trixie uses the stick-figure code (they’d found earlier in the book) to write ‘SOS’ on price tags – and then dumps a bunch of tags in Jim’s coat pocket. All seems lost, with the thieves packing up everything and planning to kill the girls – until the police arrive in the nick of time. What a clever idea! I was delighted it worked, and admired Trixie for her quick thinking. Sherlock and Watson in girl form, around my age, check!

For certain we might never have learned how to plot out an adventurous tale, with plenty of twists and turns, a memorable ‘Black Moment’ and great endings for our Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins mystery series – if we hadn’t immersed ourselves in reading about Trixie Belden and her friends in the Bob-White Club.

D.E. Ireland (Sharon Pisacreta and Meg Mims)

​Our BIO:

D.E. Ireland is a team of award-winning authors, Meg Mims and Sharon Pisacreta. Long time friends, they decided to collaborate on this unique series based on George Bernard Shaw’s wonderfully witty play, Pygmalion. While they admit the lovely film My Fair Lady and its soundtrack proved to be inspiration, they are careful to stick to Shaw’s vision of the beloved characters from Eliza to Higgins to Pickering, Mrs. Pearce, Freddy Eynsford Hill and his family, while adding a slew of new characters they’ve dreamed up to flesh out their own version of events post-Pygmalion.

BUY LINKS for WOULDN'T IT BE DEADLY

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FInd us here:

www.deireland.com

www.deireland.com/blog

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