Book Tour and Giveaway- Murder Out of Tune by Lesley Cookman

I am delighted to have the Lovely Lesley Cookman here today. Her new book Murder out of Tune is out and it is so good. Leave a comment and email for a chance to win a copy of it. 

Murder Out of Tune
by Lesley Cookman

I really liked the setting of this book, as I love reading about the English countryside. This is a book that is filled with quirky characters who dialogue had me laughing at times…
~ Melina’s Book Blog

Murder Out of Tune – A Libby Sarjeant Murder Mystery
• Cozy Mystery – 270 pages
• Publisher: Accent Press (September 30, 2014)
ASIN: B00O35YUQI

Synopsis:

The fourteenth book in the Libby Sarjeant series of British murder mysteries which features a retired actress as the female sleuth and are based in the picturesque village of Steeple Martin.

 A member of a local ukulele group is found dead in Steeple Martin’s churchyard. Libby’s first reaction is relief that the victim isn’t anyone she knows. She and the usual suspects have other things to occupy them as they are gearing up for a Christmas concert and pantomime in the Oast Theatre but when Libby’s cousin gets romantically involved with a man in whom the police are taking an interest, she can’t help asking a few questions – and getting into trouble…

My review:

A great cast of characters and a story line so good you won't want it to end. Libby and her friends are back to help solve a murder of one of the members in the ukulele group. As they get ready for Christmas and all that it holds a murder isn't what they expected. Now on the case to find out who did it this crafty whodunit will have you stuck in the book until the end. 

 Guest Post:

The English Murder Mystery is alive and well!

The fourteenth book in my Libby Sarjeant Mystery series came out as an ebook last month, together with an ebook only short story for Christmas. This genre has been my favourite since I began reading my  parents’ books at the age of nine, but I was frequently told it was no longer popular, but my publisher took a chance on me – before the first book was complete – and suggested it be the first in the series. How right they were.

Subsequently, the self publishing boom has seen many people following suit, and some are good enough to have been picked up by traditional publishers like mine. So the genre is far from dying.

In the United States, although authors there are also told “the market’s not what it was” there is a healthy industry in the “Themed Cozy”. Quilting mysteries, bookshop mysteries, coffee shop mysteries, all types of culinary mysteries, cat mysteries, dog mysteries – the list goes on. I gather that they are not all of each author’s own choosing, rather they are suggested – characters and all – in some cases, which I wouldn’t like at all. But all of them are in the tradition of the Golden Age British Detective stories, the best known of which, of course, are by Agatha Christie, although I prefer her contemporaries, Margery Allingham, Dorothy L Sayers, Ngaio Marsh and the wonderful Anglophile Carter Dickson/John Dickson Carr.

Luckily for us, with the advent of the ebook, all these great names are now easily available to download, and specialist publishers are obtaining the rights of all the backlists. Their sales prove that there is, indeed, a market for this type of crime novel, which is what they all thought they were writing – just Crime. It is only latterly that we have been categorised into Noir, Police Procedural, Historical and, of course, the dreaded Cozy.

So when I began my first Libby Sarjeant book, Murder In Steeple Martin, I was just writing Crime, the sort of book I wanted read. I loved the village settings and closed communities of those old books, and I wanted to do the same, although my characters have far more aids to detection these days, with their electronic devices and access to the internet. And it soon became apparent that other people wanted to read them, too, and shortly I had a solid fan base, most of whom know the books and characters better than I do!

So here’s to the English Murder Mystery – may it live forever!

About This Author

A former actor, model and freelance journalist, Lesley Cookman lives on the Kent coast in the UK, has four musicians as children, two small grandchildren and two cats, Lady Godiva and Gloria. All 14 of her Libby Sarjeant books have reached number one in their genre charts on Amazon UK.

http://www.lesleycookman.co.uk/
http://lesleycookman.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/news
https://www.facebook.com/SteepleMartinMysteries?fref=ts
Twitter@LesleyCookman

Purchase Links

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