GUEST POST and GIVEAWAY
Cold as Ice
(The Country Club Murders Book 6)
(The Country Club Murders Book 6)
by Julie Mulhern
Cold as Ice is the sixth book in Julie Mulhern's Country Club Murders series set in the 1970s. Also available: The Deep End (read my blog post), Guaranteed to Bleed, Clouds in My Coffee, Send in the Clowns, and Watching the Detectives (read my blog post).
Cold as Ice is currently on tour with Great Escapes Book Tours. The tour stops here today for a guest post by the author, an excerpt, and a giveaway. Please be sure to visit the other tour stops as well.
Description
Ellison Russell’s life resembles a rollercoaster ride. And rollercoasters make her ill. Her daughter Grace has a crush on a boy Ellison doesn’t trust and she’s taken to hosting wild parties when Ellison goes out for the evening. Worse, the bank which represents Grace’s inheritance from her father may be in trouble.
When a meeting with the chef at the country club leads to the discovery of a body, Ellison can’t afford cold feet. She must save the bank, find the killer, and convince Grace (and herself) that powerful women don’t need men to rescue them.
Excerpt
Check out the Guest Post by the Author (below) to read an excerpt and the inspiration behind it.
Praise for the Book
"I loved that the book takes place in 1974 when there were no cell phones, computers, etc. It was a nice change of pace. I am looking forward to reading the other books in this series, but do not feel that I was missing any important information because I hadn't. This book can definitely stand alone and I truly enjoyed it." ~ Sunny
"This is the first book I have read by Julie Mulhern and certainly won't be the last. I now need to go back to the first book in the Country Club mystery series and read them in order. Ellison is a typical seventies mom, a widow with a typical teenage daughter. Great story, fast paced, funny and a dead body." ~ sonnysmom
"This was the first book in the series I have read but it will not be the last! The characters were quite entertaining and the whodunit was very well written. I will certainly read the previous books in the series now, and look forward to reading the next in the series." ~ Karen Kenyon
"Every Country Club Murder is better than the last. I read this one in an afternoon; there was no stopping this story. I can't wait for the next one, because Anarchy." ~ G. Smith
"Julie Mulhern keeps honing her craft as a writer. I enjoy each of her Country Club mystery series installments more than the pervious. Her books are funny, well written and you can't put them down. When reading one of Mulhern's books, I keep telling myself, 'Just one more page' until I'm at the end, and I've lost a night's sleep. Cold as Ice is her best yet!" ~ Charlotte Wilson
Guest Post by the Author
If, by chance, you’re the parent of a teenager, I hope your son or daughter is an angel - the kind of adolescent who does their homework without being asked, the kind that empties the dishwasher because there are clean dishes inside and not because you nagged, the kind who never misses curfew and never considered having a party.
I did not raise angels. On the upside, my girls give me lots of inspiration. One of them (I won’t tell which one) inspired this scene in Cold as Ice.
Anarchy slowed the car to a crawl. I looked for the house flooded with lights and people.
Mine.
I was hosting an enormous party.
And if the police cars and scattering teenagers and empty beer cans littering my lawn were any indication, the party was a good one.
“She’s grounded until she’s thirty.”
Anarchy snorted and pulled into the drive, parking at the bottom. The rest of the driveway was already filled with haphazardly parked vehicles.
I didn’t wait for Anarchy to open my door. I was out of the car before he’d even turned off the ignition.
I charged up the drive in full Mother mode. Four friends to spend the night? Where was Grace? When I was done with her she’d wish for Mother.
“Ma’am?” A uniformed officer actually thought he could stop me.
My steps didn’t slow. “My house.”
He wisely got out of my way.
I pushed on the front door. It didn’t budge.
Apparently the teenagers who remained in my house had decided their best course of action was to lock the door and wait out the police.
Too bad for the geniuses behind the door, I had a key. I inserted the gold Schlage and turned. The door swung open onto a world gone mad.
A mob of children holding beer cans stared at me with horrified expressions on their young faces. “Smokin’ in the Boys’ Room” blared from the stereo in the family room, loud enough for me to feel the bass rumble through the floor. The boys’ room wasn’t the only place people were smoking. Far too many children held cigarettes. My house smelled like a dive bar.
I stepped inside. “Where. Is. Grace?”
No one said a word.
“Out.” I pointed toward the front yard.
No one moved.
I let my gaze travel. “I know who you are.” I’d known most of the kids in my front hall since they learned to toddle. “If you’re not out of here in one minute, I’ll call your fathers.” I paused, slowing my voice to deadly intent. “And send them bills for this mess.”
The little delinquents flew out the door.
I felt a presence at my back and glanced over my shoulder. Anarchy stood behind me. “Wow.” His voice was mild.
Wow? Maybe that was an appropriate response for a homicide detective who was accustomed to witnessing gruesome crime scenes, but as the unexpected hostess for this party, the words scrolling through my brain were much stronger. My fingers curved into talons and I stalked forward. At least thirty teenagers still lingered in the living room. And why wouldn’t they? That was where most of the liquor was—had been. A group of five or six kids were spinning an empty bottle of eighteen-year-old Glenfiddich. The bottle had not been empty when I left.
They saw me and leapt from the floor.
“Out.” I pointed toward the door.
Maybe it was the look on my face. Maybe it was the police detective standing behind me. They ran.
I strode toward the kitchen. The island was cluttered with empty beer cans and glasses doing double duty as ashtrays. Three boys perused the contents of my refrigerator, a fourth pumped a keg.
The growl in my throat was visceral.
“Ellison, keep everything in perspective. No one’s dead.”
“Yet.” Maybe not the smartest thing to say to a homicide detective.
About the Author
Julie Mulhern is the USA Today bestselling author of The Country Club Murders. She is a Kansas City native who grew up on a steady diet of Agatha Christie. She spends her spare time whipping up gourmet meals for her family, working out at the gym, and finding new ways to keep her house spotlessly clean - and she's got an active imagination. Truth is - she's an expert at calling for take-out, she grumbles about walking the dog, and the dust bunnies under the bed have grown into dust lions.
Giveaway
Enter the giveaway for a chance to win one of five ebook copies of The Deep End by Julie Mulhern (US only).
Links
