Author Alana Lorens (aka Barbara Mountjoy) visited the Ally Shields blog answering questions about her reading and writing - and a bit of trivia. Check out the interview and her thriller/mystery Encounter here: ​https://allyshields.com/blog/author-interview-with-thrillersuspense-writer-alana-lorens

Check out this interview on the Ally Shields blog with a writer of short mystery fiction. She has a selection included in this anthology. A giveaway is included, but enter soon - it ends on October 29.
Link: ​https://allyshields.com/blog/meet-short-story-mystery-author-francelia-belton

​Pop over to my Ally Shields blog and read this interview with Heather Weidner, featuring her new cozy mystery series:  ​https://allyshields.com/blog/cozy-up-to-the-fire-with-mystery-author-heather-weidner

Mission Improbable: Vietnam (Book #3)

Blurb for Series
 
The Blanche Murninghan Myseries
Genre: Cozy mystery
 
Sometime sleuth, part-time journalist, and full-time beach bum, Blanche Murninghan, gets herself in one scrape after another—in places she never expected.
 
The new mystery series starts off peacefully enough on sleepy Santa Maria Island, Florida (until murder and mayhem drop in). Adventure then finds Blanche in Mexico City where she uncovers a “new” mummy, and in Vietnam where she hunts down a friend’s lost mother. Saving Tuna Street and Trouble Down Mexico Way from Light Messages/Torchflame Books, available on Amazon, through the publisher, and at any bookstore. Mission Improbable: Vietnam launches June, 2022.

​NOTE:  See Author Interview with Nancy Nau Sullivan and buy links for her books on the Ally Shields blog: ​https://allyshields.com/blog/author-interview-cover-reveal-for-mission-improbable-vietnam

Mind Trap (Clay Wolfe/Port Essex mystery series, Book #2)
Genre: mystery

 Mind Trap delves into a radical cult threatening a small coastal Maine town. When Clay Wolfe is hired to find a missing girl, the events come tumbling down in rapid fashion.  
 
“You say your daughter is missing?” Clay Wolfe asked. The man in front of him was slightly disheveled. Red eyes. Fear creased his features.
 
What is the End Game?
It was as close to ecstasy as the woman had ever been in her life. It was enlightenment. She was no longer Martha Abbott. She was a warrior of Marduk engaged in a war of purity.
 
What is going to happen on Leap Day?
“We have allowed sin to fill our homes, and it is our divine labor to cleanse that filth from our streets.” Marduk’s voice boomed through the cavernous temple.
 
Something evil is lurking in the streets of Port Essex.
A missing girl. Violent attacks. It is up to Clay Wolfe, his partner Baylee Baker, and a colorful assortment of friends to get to the bottom of these odious occurrences before it is too late. 

​Buy Links
 
Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/Mainely-Angst-Matt-Cost/dp/1645992845/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=mainely+angst&qid=1631819295&s=books&sr=1-1
 
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mainely-angst-matt-cost/1140142186?ean=9781645992844​​

EXCERPT:

​Chapter 1: Monday, February 17th
            “You say your daughter is missing?” Clay Wolfe asked. The man in front of him was slightly disheveled. Red eyes. Fear creased his features.
            “Yes. I haven’t been able to get in touch with her for weeks. Came looking for her this weekend, and she’s disappeared.” His voice was desperate and frustrated, but it was also angry.
            “Your daughter lives with your ex-wife?”
            “Yes, well no, we aren’t divorced yet.”
            “Tell me about that, Mr. Abbott.”
            “What’s that got to do with anything?”
            Clay leaned back in his chair and waited. He hadn’t ever made a fool of himself by not saying anything. Instead of speaking, he took stock of the man in front of him. He had a 1970s shiny comb-over with full sideburns that made him look like an Elvis caricature. His face was long and broad, his nostrils flared slightly, and there was a bit of a quirk to his mouth.
            Doug Abbott sighed, rubbed his weary eyes, and leaned forward. “Sorry. I’m just a bit frazzled. I left Martha last March. Ran away to Florida with my girlfriend.”
            Clay nodded. He was not the man’s priest. His own personal life certainly had enough holes in it. “Fair to say your wife was pretty angry with you?”
            “She told me to fuck off when I left. Said she never wanted to see me again, and she hoped I died by castration and bled out.”
            “And then you moved to Florida?”
            “Yeah. Sick of these Maine winters, you know?”
            “Could have moved south with your wife.”
            “Pretty fucking sick of her, too.”
            “So, that was the last time you spoke with your wife?”
            “I tried calling her, you know, to talk about Jenna, school stuff, things like that, but she wouldn’t answer my calls. Wouldn’t return my calls.”
            “Jenna is your daughter?”
            “Yeah.”
“Did you stay in contact with Jenna?”
“Yeah, she had her own cell phone. She was pretty pissed at me, too, but I think I was making some headway with her. Told her maybe she could come visit me in Florida. She liked that idea.”
“When was the last time you spoke with your daughter?”
“Couple of months ago.”
Doug said this so quietly that Clay leaned forward. It seemed a long time to go without talking to your daughter, however estranged, Clay thought, but what did he know? At thirty-five years of age, he had no kids, and had been an orphan himself. What’s more, there were no women lining up to be the mother of his future children. He’d gotten the most recent contender for that title arrested and sent to federal prison for ten years. That seemed to be a deal breaker.

Author Bio
 
Matt Cost is the highly acclaimed, award-winning author of the Mainely Mystery series. The first book, Mainely Power, was selected as the Maine Humanities Council Read ME fiction book of 2020. This was followed by Mainely Fear and Mainely Money. Mainely Angst is the fourth book of the series.
I Am Cuba: Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution was his first traditionally published novel. He had another historical released in August of 2021, Love in a Time of Hate.
Wolfe Trap was the first in the Clay Wolfe Port Essex Trap series. Mind Trap was the second, published in October of 2021, and will be followed by Mouse Trap in April of 2022.
Cost was a history major at Trinity College. He owned a mystery bookstore, a video store, and a gym, before serving a ten-year sentence as a junior high school teacher. In 2014 he was released and began writing. And that’s what he does. He writes histories and mysteries.
Cost now lives in Brunswick, Maine, with his wife, Harper. There are four grown children: Brittany, Pearson, Miranda, and Ryan. A chocolate Lab and a basset hound round out the mix. He now spends his days at the computer, writing.
 
Author Links and Social Media
Email: matthew-cost@comcast.net
Phone: (207) 751-5387
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/matt.cost.3
Twitter: @MattCost8
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mlangdoncost/