Elementary She Read
by Vicki Delany

Read the first chapter here.

I have written (so far) twenty-five novels. I’ve written historical fiction (The Klondike Gold Rush books), modern Gothic thrillers (More than Sorrow), psychological suspense (Burden of Memory), police procedurals (the constable Molly Smith series), books for adult literacy (Juba Good), and cozies (The Year Round Christmas series). I like to shake things up a bit and switch sub-genres, styles, and moods.

My newest book is the first in the Sherlock Holmes bookshop series, Elementary She Read, from Crooked Lane Books.

As you can tell by the cover and the title, it’s firmly in the cozy camp and is about a woman who owns The Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium in the Cape Cod town of West London, located at 220 Baker Street. The business next door is Mrs. Hudson’s Tea Room, at 222 Baker Street.

The main character, Gemma Doyle, bears a somewhat intellectual resemblance to the Great Detective himself. Her side-kick Jayne Wilson is ever-confused but always loyal.

Sounds a bit silly? Sure it does. And it’s supposed to be. It’s nothing but fun, and what’s wrong with that?

I’ve come to realize that cozy mysteries are about real people living real lives (except for that pesky murder bit), although writ large. Everything is exaggerated. The nosy neighbor is nosier, the ditsy friend is ditsier, the mean girl is meaner. And the handsome man is, well, handsomer. Even better if there are two of them.

After putting in my time writing police procedurals and psychological thrillers, I’m having a lot of fun writing cozies. Keep it light, keep it funny, and have a good time with it.

Cozy mysteries are not trying to make an important statement about the human condition, or hoping to change the world. A cozy mystery tells a story that attempts to be entertaining, that’s about people much like us (or like us if we were prettier, or smarter, or younger!) and our friends and family.

So pull up a pull up a comfortable arm chair or get out your deck chair. Light a fire in the fireplace, or slap on that sunscreen, pour yourself a mug of hot tea or something icy and enjoy the adventures of Gemma and Jayne as they try to find out why on earth someone would hide a magazine worth over half a million dollars in the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium .

Elementary, She Read: A Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery
by Vicki Delany
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books (March 14, 2017)
Hardcover: 320 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1683310969
Kindle ASIN: B01MT6H7O1

Gemma Doyle, a transplanted Englishwoman, has returned to the quaint town of West London on Cape Cod to manage her Great Uncle Arthur’s Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium. The shop–located at 222 Baker Street–specializes in the Holmes canon and pastiche, and is also the home of Moriarty the cat. When Gemma finds a rare and potentially valuable magazine containing the first Sherlock Homes story hidden in the bookshop, she and her friend Jayne (who runs the adjoining Mrs. Hudson’s Tea Room) set off to find the owner, only to stumble upon a dead body.

The highly perceptive Gemma is the police’s first suspect, so she puts her consummate powers of deduction to work to clear her name, investigating a handsome rare books expert, the dead woman’s suspiciously unmoved son, and a whole family of greedy characters desperate to cash in on their inheritance. But when Gemma and Jayne accidentally place themselves at a second murder scene, it’s a race to uncover the truth before the detectives lock them up for good.

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers. She is the author of twenty-three published crime novels, including standalone Gothic thrillers, the Constable Molly Smith series, and the Year Round Christmas Mysteries. Under the pen name of Eva Gates she is the national bestselling author of the Lighthouse Library cozy series.

The first in Vicki’s Sherlock Holmes bookshop series, Elementary She Read, will be released in March 2017 from Crooked Lane Books.

Vicki lives and writes in Prince Edward County, Ontario. She is the past president of the Crime Writers of Canada.

www.vickidelany.com Facebook: Vicki Delany & Eva Gates and twitter: @vickidelany and @evagatesauthor

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