 Check out the books you can read for free with Kindle Unlimited (or purchase) and enter the $25 giveaway! New books every day on Nov 11-14 and 18, drawing on the 19th. The first book in my 7-book Guardian Witch fantasy series is featured on the 13th. 
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 The Dead Hath No Fury (Viscount Ware mystery book #5) Released July 9, 2025 When Sherry, Lucien’s friend and fellow agent, asks him to investigate his half-brother’s death and to take Lady Anne along to support the widow, Lucien didn’t expect to find the inquiry so complicated. The brother was a bookish blue-stocking, not the likely type to collect enemies. Yet, Lucien uncovers a surprising number of recent events that might have resulted in deep-seated anger and deadly violence—a crooked card game, a forbidden “pistols at dawn,” a disputed berry patch, a horse swindle, and a blackmailer’s attempt to discredit the Crown. Even the widow and the local magistrate are under Lady Anne’s suspicious eye. What they hadn’t counted on was the killer wasn’t finished and wasn’t opposed to removing anyone else in the way. In order to prevent another murder…or two, Lucien and Lady Anne find themselves dodging bullets in their efforts to bring a murderer to justice. Available in ebook and paperback from most online bookstores including Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Hath-Fury-Viscount-Mystery-ebook/dp/B0FBBV1WH4 Hatchards (UK): https://www.hatchards.co.uk/book/the-dead-hath-no-fury/j-l-buck/9781684923144 Waterstones (UK): https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-dead-hath-no-fury/j-l-buck//9781684923144 Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-dead-hath-no-fury B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-dead-hath-no-fury-j-l-buck/1147500635 Google Books: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Dead_Hath_No_Fury/HVAH0QEACAAJ?hl=en Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-dead-hath-no-fury/id6746580176 Booktopia: https://www.booktopia.com.au/the-dead-hath-no-fury-j-l-buck/ebook/9781684923151.html  Just a quick book update. Viscount Ware book 5 is scheduled to release in July, book 6 is written, and I'm currently working on book 7! I'd like to share one of my favorite songs of the season...https://youtu.be/ifCWN5pJGIE?si=QncjRfUoMCHtHiIfThat's a good question. I'm still writing but health and family issues have left little time for anything else the past year. I'm not certain when or if I'll resume the author interviews, but I will keep you posted. Speaking of posting, I have migrated to Bluesky and rarely check my old twitter accounts. You can find me at JL Buck @Bluesky. Have a terrific holiday!   Welcome to Matter of Inquiry! Please join me in welcoming guest author Kate Michaelson, featuring her debut mystery novel, HIDDEN ROOMS. It's nice to meet you Kate. Please tell us something about yourself.  Bio: Kate Michaelson’s first novel, HIDDEN ROOMS, won the 2022 Hugh Holton Award for best unpublished mystery by a Midwest writer, and it was published by CamCat books in April 2024. She holds an MFA in poetry and a PhD in Educational Psychology and has published articles, short stories, and poetry in journals such as The Laurel Review and River Teeth. In her free time, she loves anything that takes her outdoors and away from her laptop. She lives in Toledo, Ohio with her husband and their pets. Something unusual/unique about you: "I inherited my love of books from my mom. Some of my favorite memories are of her reading to me before bed and then taking me to the library. I remember being almost overwhelmed by the selection of books at the library, and she told me to try a mystery. Little did she know what she was starting!" Author Contacts: Email: [email protected] Instagram: @katemichaelsonwriter Twitter: @katemichaelson3 Website: www.katemichaelson.om INTERVIEW: JLB: What inspired your featured book or series? KM: Many of my own experiences inspired Hidden Rooms. After years of working to find a diagnosis and treatment for my own chronic illness, I realized that dealing with a poorly understood condition is a lot like solving a mystery. This experience and my love of writing inspired me to write a mystery in which the protagonist investigates a murder while looking for answers to her own bewildering symptoms. My hope was to write a page-turner that also validates the real-life experiences of people struggling with undiagnosed or hard-to-treat chronic conditions. JLB: What is the easiest—or the hardest—part of writing for you? KM: The hardest part of writing for me is going from a very rough draft to a coherent second draft. My first draft is such a mess that I have to overcome my shame at having written it, all while trying to summon confidence in my ability to make it better. The easier part comes later on when the plot is fairly well set, and I can really dig into the language and details. JLB: Do you use beta readers prior to submitting you manuscript to a publisher? How do you select them? What do you expect them to tell you? KM: I do use beta readers. As a relatively new writer, it’s difficult for me to know if a story is working until I learn how a reader responds to it. I realize that readers’ responses are subjective, but if I hear the same feedback from multiple readers, I know I need to listen. I’m a member of a mystery book club and was lucky to have a few readers volunteer from there. I asked them to point out issues with logic and places where they felt bored, but I welcomed any feedback. JLB: As a reader, where do you go to find a new book to read? A friend, google search, browsing a brick-and-mortar bookstore? KM: I’m in a few book clubs and always get recommendations from my other writing friends, so I never find myself without something waiting for me on my to-be-read list. I also try to read mysteries that have been nominated for awards like the Edgars and Agathas. Reading books by some of the best writers in my genre inspires me and reminds me how much I have to learn. JLB: What is your next writing project? Anticipated release date? KM: My next book is called Resting Sad Face. It follows a professional mourner working in Sarasota, Florida who gets drawn into the suspicious death of a powerful real estate developer. I’m also working on a sequel to Hidden Rooms called In the Bones. It begins with the discovery of skeletal remains in a farm field and centers on Riley’s search for a childhood friend who disappeared long ago. JLB: Which of the trivia questions did you pick to answer? KM: See below -
JLB: I have enjoyed chatting with you, Kate. As we finish up, please tell us about your book!  HIDDEN ROOMS Genre: traditional mystery You can run fast. You can run far. But you can’t outrun family. Long-distance runner, Riley, has been fighting various bewildering symptoms for months, from vertigo to fainting spells. Worse, her doctors can’t tell her what’s wrong, leaving her to wonder if it’s stress or something more threatening. But when her brother’s fiancée is killed—and he becomes the prime suspect—Riley must prove his innocence, despite the toll on her health. As she reacquaints herself with the familiar houses and wild woods of her childhood, the secrets she uncovers take her on a trail to the real killer that leads right back to the very people she knows best and loves most. Buy links: Amazon, Gathering Volumes, and Bookshop.org Excerpt from Hidden Rooms: Late September 2022 I grew up inside a lightning bolt, in a family of pure momentum. My siblings and I were young, stupid, and fearless in our white gingerbread house, surrounded by dark earth, green shoots, and wild woods—untamed beasts running loose from morning to night. We snarled and bucked, more a pack than a family. Born less than a year apart, my brother Ethan and I spent most of our lives scrapping after the same few things, pinching each other where we knew it would hurt the most. But we also protected each other. When Trevor Paltree shoved Ethan off the metal slide the first day of preschool, I kicked Trevor’s little ass, and I’d do it again. Only, now, I didn’t know what protecting my brother looked like, though I felt fairly certain that kicking his fiancée’s ass was not it. Besides, I couldn’t even say what exactly Beth was up to, which (admittedly) undermined my argument. Putting my head down and going along with the wedding might feel cowardly, but it also seemed like the least destructive path forward. So, that’s how I found myself pulling up to Ethan and Beth’s house to pick up my puce monstrosity of a bridesmaid’s dress with Beth’s recent words still replaying in my mind. “Riley, you know I’d never do anything to hurt Ethan.” The problem was that she also once said with a wink and a smile that what Ethan didn’t know couldn’t hurt him. I parked in the shade of a low-limbed oak and got out, lifting my hair off my neck to catch the breeze. The autumn sun had built throughout the afternoon into the kind of fleetingly gorgeous day that makes up for Ohio’s multitude of weather sins: one last warm postscript to summer. Rain loomed in the low shelf of clouds to the north. I crossed my fingers that it would hold off until I could get home to walk Bruno. Maybe I could even get a run in if my energy held out. My phone buzzed, and I knew without looking it would be Audra. She called most days and knew that the previous night, I’d finally worked up the nerve to talk with Ethan about Beth. She would want the details. I was amazed she had waited this long. “How’d it go with Ethan?” Her melodious voice skipped along briskly. People usually went with what she said simply because they were so swept with how she said it. As her sister, I was an exception. “Hello to you too.” I continued toward the house but slowed my pace. “I’ll give you one guess.” “Hello, dearest Riley. I guess he got mad.” “Not just mad. He guilt-tripped me. I asked if he’d noticed anything wrong with Beth and he acted all injured about it. He told me, ‘she thinks you’re her friend.’” I mimicked Ethan’s self-righteous tone. The jab still stung. “I told him I think of her as a friend too, which is how I know she’s hiding something.” Admittedly, I couldn’t untangle what it was. It was something I sensed more than saw—a shift in posture or flicker behind an expression. The past few weeks she’d become more self-contained than ever, which was saying something for her. “Yeah, but can you really be friends with someone who has no personality? It’s like being friends with a mannequin. I don’t know how you can tell if she’s hiding something when she never shares—” “Look, I can’t talk about it now.” I lowered my voice as I neared the house. “I’m at their place getting my dress. Call you later.” As I climbed the porch steps, the front of their house looked so Instagram-perfect that I wondered whether I’d been seeing problems that weren’t there. The afternoon light slanted across pumpkins and yellow chrysanthemums that Beth had arranged just so. Dried bundles of corn rattled in the breeze. Careful not to disturb a precarious wreath of orange berries, I knocked on the door and tapped my foot, ready to grab my puffy dress and go. When no one answered, I rapped once more and tried the handle. Unlocked. This was not unusual in a town where nobody locked their doors, but Beth wasn’t from here. She’d moved to North Haven her senior year of high school and, thus, hadn’t lived here long enough for people to think of her as a local. But, to be fair, that usually took a lifetime. {End of excerpt} Coming July 9, 2024 England, summer of 1813. Lady Anne Ashburn and her father are at Seaford, a seaside resort, recovering from her mother’s death. When the earl is called to Parliament in London, Anne becomes bored and explores nearby Singing Cave. Her maid is telling her tales of smugglers and the ghost who haunts the cave when they discover the body of a dead woman. By the time authorities go there, the body is gone, and no one believes Lady Anne. When her own attempts to discover the woman’s identity are hindered by the local magistrate’s disparaging remarks, she reaches out to Lord Ware. Lucien, Viscount Ware, and his fellow agent Andrew Sherbourne are engaged in a secret inquiry for the Crown, hunting for a kidnapped young woman whose father is being forced to spy for France to keep her alive. Lucien would have gone to Seaford just to see Anne, but he and Sherbourne find it an odd coincidence that she has found a young woman…and they are looking for one. What Lucien learns in Seaford nearly gets him killed and leads him and Lady Anne back to London. Another murder, a bounty on Lucien’s head, a perilous ride in the park, an ambush, a mysterious note, and a very slippery French spy keep Lucien and Lady Anne busy searching for answers—and determined to catch a traitorous murderer before he gets away. Previous titles in this series (available now): The Dead Betray None (A Viscount Ware Mystery #1) The Dead Cannot Hide (A Viscount Ware Mystery #2) The Dead Came Calling (A Viscount Ware Mystery #3 Welcome to Matter of Inquiry! This week’s guest is S.A. Kazlo, the author of the Samantha Davies cozy mystery series. Good morning, Syrl! Let us begin with some information about your background.  About the Author: Syrl, a retired teacher, lives in upstate New York with her husband and two lively dachshunds. She writes the Samantha Davies Mystery series, featuring Samantha Davies and her loveable dachshund, Porkchop. When not writing she is busy hooking, rug hooking that is, and enjoying her family. Her newest book, number five in the series is, Chilled to the Dog Bone. Author links: FB- S A Kazlo Twitter- @sakazlo Instagram-@sakazlo LInkedin-sakazlo website- Home |Samantha Davies Mystery www.sakazlo.com INTERVIEW: JLB: What is the hardest part of writing for you? SAK: Like a lot of authors, it is the marketing. Wouldn't it be lovely if all an author had to do was pen their fabulous works and people would flock to buy them? Guess I can always dream. JLB: Do people you know ever sneak into your writing? SAK: Oh, my yes. I go to the gym a few mornings a week and a gentleman I know said while I was on the recumbent bike that his wife really liked my series. I was very flattered and asked him if she'd like to be in my next novel. He beamed and said. "Yes." I asked, "As the victim or murderer?" His reply, "She's put up with me all these years, definitely the murderer." So, murderer she will be. She's not the only one who's asked to be the murderer in one of my books. You never know what someone's wildest fantasies are or maybe I should be wary of the friends I keep. JLB: Do you write with or without an outline? SAK: My first book, Kibbles and Death, I wrote from an outline, but now my characters have taken over my imagination and won't let go so they pour forth their two cents onto my computer whether I like it or not. JLB: Authors live or die by reviews, but do you read them? SAK: Yes, I do read reviews of my books. I am honored to have someone write a review and feel I should take the time and read them. Luckily, most of them have been particularly good and encouraging. On the few occasions some one has left one not so stellar I've learned from them, too. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. JLB: What is your next book, and how soon can readers get it? SAK: My next writing project is Mistletoe, Mutts and Murder, book 6 in my Samantha Davies Mystery series. This one is set at Christmas time. Sam's parents have flown North from sunny Florida to spend the holidays with her. Unfortunately, murder has come to town, too. I expect it to be released in November 2024. JLB: Which of the trivia questions did you chose? SAK: Here they are--
JLB: It’s been a pleasure to talk with you, Syrl. Before we wind up this interview, we are all eager to hear about Chilled to the Dog Bone!  Chilled to the Dog Bone (Samantha Davies Mystery #5) Genre: cozy mystery It's Saint Patrick's Day weekend in chilly upstate New York, and Samantha Davies, children's picture book author and sometime sleuth, is excited to attend the annual outdoors games put on by the local Wings Falls fire company. It will be a weekend filled with fun activities such as a skillet toss, four-wheeler race, and the ever-popular decorated wooden outhouse race across the ice. Sam is looking forward to dancing the night away with her beau, police detective Hank Johnson at the Firefighter's Ball. Sam's rug hooking group, the Loopy Ladies is sponsoring one of the outhouses and their senior member, Gladys O'Malley, will have the honor of riding on the "throne" to the finish line. Only not all goes as planned when the neighboring fire company's chief is found in Gladys' place—frozen solid and dead as a doornail! To make matters worse, both Gladys' and Sam's fingerprints are all over the evidence at the murder scene, taking them from attendees to suspects. Now it's up to Sam to clear their names and get to the truth. The only problem is the victim had disagreements with almost everyone in town, from the Wings Falls fire chief to a sexy blonde named Sunny Foxx—with two xx's—and a slew of other suspects. Can Sam find the killer before the Luck of the Irish runs out for her? Or will she become chilled to the bone when the killer catches up to her... Buy Links: Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Chilled-Bone-Samantha-Davies-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B0CP8P9R37 Excerpt: CHAPTER ONE "How do I look? Should I wear a crown?" Gladys O'Malley, the senior member of my rug hooking group, the Loopy Ladies, sat on her "throne" in the outhouse we were sponsoring. The outhouse race would take place on Sunday morning. This weekend, the Firemen's Convention was being held at the Civic Center in Lake George, a resort town in upstate New York. My local fire company, Wings Falls Fire Department, was the host. It was held annually as close to Saint Patrick's Day as possible. Fun and green beer abounded. All the local fire companies who attended entered a homemade outhouse, decorated by a local group, like the Loopy Ladies, who'd volunteered to sponsor this year's outhouse for our hometown fire company. We often lent our services and talents to worthy causes. This past fall, we sold small rugs we hooked to raise money for Camp Adirondack, a summer camp that invites kids from the inner city for two weeks of fun in the fresh mountain air. I stomped my feet. Even though I wore my warmest fleece-lined boots and a pair of heavy wool socks, cold seeped through from the cement floor of my garage. A space heater blasted out warm air but barely made a dent in the freezing March air flowing into the drafty garage. I glanced at my cousin, Candie, and noticed her tugging a purple wool cap over her ears to stave off the cold air. I envied my dachshund, Porkchop, Candie's calico cat, Dixie, and the newest member of her family, Annie, a small dog of indeterminate breed, snuggled on the rug next to the fireplace in my living room. Helen Garber poked at the bright-orange glasses sliding down her nose. "Haul your skinny old butt out of there and help us finish hanging the rugs we hooked on the wall of the outhouse, so we can get out of this blooming cold." I rolled my eyes towards the rafters of my garage. Leave it to Helen to pick a fight with Gladys. She was the most outspoken member of the group. Her tongue knew no boundaries. She often said she "told it like it is." Not only did her tongue know no boundaries, but neither did her wardrobe choice. The louder and bolder the color, the better. Today her ample figure sported a lemon yellow jacket she paired with hot pink pull-on polyester slacks. I walked over to the outhouse and admired our handiwork. We had painted green shamrocks over a white background in honor of Saint Patrick's Day on the outside walls. Candie stood next to me. "Not a bad painting job, don't y'all think?" I smiled. My cousin had moved north over fifteen years ago from Hainted Holler, Tennessee, and you could still cut her thick southern accent with a knife. "We Loopy Ladies are a multi-talented group. Not only can we hook with the best of them, but we wield a mean paintbrush, too." I turned to the six of us who were gathered in my garage. "Don't you agree, ladies? Our outhouse will leave the others in the dust." Cheers erupted from my fellow hookers. There are usually twelve of us who gather every Monday morning at our friend Lucy Foster's rug hooking studio. Although our absent members were busy elsewhere, everyone had contributed a rug to decorate the outhouse. Susan Mayfield clapped her hands to get our attention. "We'd better finish hanging our rugs. Hank, Mark, and Brian will be here shortly to lift the outhouse onto the back of Brian's truck. They need to drive it to the staging area for the race on Sunday morning." Susan and her husband, Brian, own Momma Mia's, which I believe is the best Italian restaurant this side of the Big Apple. Brian had volunteered his truck for transporting our outhouse to the race's starting area, a park next to the Civic Center. Watch for Lucien and Lady Anne's next adventure, The Dead Sang Off Key, in time for your summer read! Lady Anne has a big role to play this time. I'll post the cover as soon as I see it! |
AuthorJ L Buck writes in the mystery genre, currenty enthralled with Regency-era England. She is multi-published in paranormal 
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