EXCERPT and GIVEAWAY
Murder’s No Votive Confidence
(Nantucket Candle Maker Mystery Book 1)
(Nantucket Candle Maker Mystery Book 1)
by Christin Brecher
Murder’s No Votive Confidence is the first book in the new Nantucket Candle Maker Mystery by Christin Brecher. Available for pre-order: Murder Makes Scents.
Murder’s No Votive Confidence is currently on tour with Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours. The tour stops here today for an excerpt and a giveaway. Please be sure to visit the other tour stops as well.
Description
Nantucket candle store owner Stella Wright specializes in creating unique candles for every occasion. But someone sets the stage for murder when a Memorial Day celebration becomes a wedding to die for ...
Jessica Sterling’s candlelight-themed nuptials promises to be the perfect kick-off to the summer’s first official holiday weekend. Stella’s thrilled to have been chosen to provide the decorative centerpiece for the wedding ceremony: a two-foot-tall scented unity candle - a symbol of the happy couple’s love. But it looks like the bride-to-be’s uncle won’t be walking his niece down the aisle after he’s found dead. The murder weapon is Stella’s seemingly indestructible candle, now split in two.
When a beloved local bartender is arrested, Stella’s sure a visiting police captain running the case made a rush to justice. With superstitious brides-to-be canceling orders and sales waxing and waning at her store, the Wick & Flame owner decides to do some sleuthing of her own. Abetted by a charming reporter and challenged by the town’s sexiest cop, Stella’s determined to shine a light on the truth and uncover a killer who’s snuffing out her own flame.
Excerpt
I knocked on the door.
“Uncle Simon?” Jessica said from behind me.
The scratching stopped for a moment. We both put our ears against the door. I don’t know why I did. I surely did not want to hear that noise again.
“Uncle Simon?” said Jessica, more loudly.
“Eeeeow,” came an unmistakable sound from the other side of the door.
It was a cat. Not a quiet cat, but one with a screeching, horrible mew.
“Excuse me,” said Jessica to a passing housekeeper.
The woman was Maude Duffy, a dear family friend whose son I used to babysit when I was in high school.
“Can you let me into this room? My uncle is staying in here, but we can’t seem to rouse him.”
Maude looked at me and I gave her an all-go nod, so she fished out her passkey. No sooner had she opened the door than a flash of black fur, darker than my own wild mane, dashed out of the room and down the stairs. We peeked inside, but the bed was still made.
No sign of Uncle Simon.
“Did you already clean the room?” I asked Maude.
“It’s seven in the morning,” she said without a trace of defensiveness. “I just got here.”
In the distance, the sound of scratching and mewing resumed.
For a moment there was silence.
Then, came a scream I’ll never forget.
They say that when people go into shock, they sometimes do the opposite of what they should. Like someone pulls out a gun, and the person just stands there. Or an earthquake hits and instead of staying inside, everyone runs outside. Stuff like that. A scream would suggest danger ahead. The scream I heard would suggest that as creepy as Uncle Simon’s empty room was, the best idea would be to run into it, lock the door, and dodge under his bed. Instead, we all did the opposite. We ran down the stairs, past the reception desk, and toward two open doors to the Game Room, in front of which that cursed cat sat, still and erect, eyes on us like a sentry.
Inside, Mrs. Sterling stood shaking and looking as if she were ready for another scream. The inn’s manager, Frank, a tall, slim man, about my age, who was impeccably dressed for work at this early hour, was beside her looking as if he were summoning every fiber of strength not to join her.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, but didn’t get a chance to hear the answer because Jessica, a step or two ahead of me, let out her own scream.
Doors above us started opening. Footsteps from other areas of the hotel began to stampede toward us.
Maude, who I once saw kill a snake with her own hands, fainted.
And then I saw the most horrible image I’d ever seen.
Lying on the floor, was my once mighty unity candle, broken in two.
The candle itself would be easy enough to fix, but the fact that Jessica’s estranged uncle, Simon Sterling, was lying next to it with his head bashed in suggested a cause of death no one could dispute.
[Want more? Click below to read a longer excerpt.]
Praise for the Book
“A cozy with candles, conspiring couples, and a cat - what could be a better combination? Christin Brecher’s debut mystery has all those and more.” ~ Kaitlyn Dunnett, author of Clause & Effect
“A scentsational new series! Christin Brecher’s charming debut, Murder’s No Votive Confidence, glows with a seaside location, a candle shop, and a kitty that will melt your heart. Interesting characters and a twisting plot will keep you intrigued to the very end.” ~ Krista Davis, author of The Diva Sweetens the Pie
“A charmingly fun whodunnit with plenty of twists and turns and delightfully quirky characters. Murder’s No Votive Confidence had me hooked from the first pages.” ~ Kirsten Weiss, author of Bleeding Tarts
“The first book in the Nantucket Candle Maker Mystery series by Christin Brecher burns bright with a delightful protagonist, realistic characters, and an intriguing plot - a breath of fresh Nantucket air!” ~ Barbara Allan, author of Antiques Ravin'
“A charming mystery with believable, likeable characters. Check it out.” ~ Suspense Magazine
About the Author
Christin Brecher was born and raised in NYC, where her family and many childhood friends still reside. As such, she feels she is as much of a small-town girl as any. The idea to write the Nantucket Candle Maker Mystery series sprang from her life-long connection to the small island off the coast of Massachusetts. Spending summers there as a child, Christin read from her family’s library of mystery novels, after which she began to imagine stories inspired by the island’s whaling heyday, its notoriously foggy nights, and during long bike rides to the beach. After many years in marketing for the publishing industry, followed by years raising her children, Murder’s No Votive Confidence is Christin’s debut novel.
Giveaway
Enter the tour-wide giveaway for a chance to win one of five print copies of Murder’s No Votive Confidence by Christin Brecher (US only).
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