Q & A with Mystery Author Amy Patricia Meade

Today I welcome mystery author Amy Patricia Meade to the blog. She was on a podcast with Marsha Casper Cook and I last month if you'd like to check that out: 
www.blogtalkradio.com/michiganavenuemedia/2023/11/09/lets-talk-about-old-movies--hollywood--host-marsha-casper-cook

Tell us about your book.

My most recent releases are “Cold Turkey” which is the seventh in my Tish Tarragon culinary mystery series and sees my protagonist stepping in to solve the murder of the town’s deputy mayor during the annual Turkey Trot. “Game Over at Guild Hall,” the third installment in my Vermont Country Living Mystery series, focuses on the death of the organizer of an annual wild game supper. Both are Thanksgiving themed.
 
What made you want to write mysteries?

I’ve always enjoyed reading mysteries. I grew up on Encyclopedia Brown and Nancy Drew and then graduated to Agatha Christie in my tween years. I’ve also always enjoyed writing. I used to borrow my grandfather’s Instamatic camera and write stories to accompany the photos I’d taken. When I became an adult, it was only natural that I gravitated to mysteries.
 
What was your favorite book when you were growing up?

I loved John Bellairs’ The House with a Clock in its Walls.
 
Who are some of your favorite mystery authors?

I love Agatha Christie and had the thrill of being a featured author at the first annual literary festival to take place at her beloved holiday home, Greenway, in Devon. I own all 86 of her novels. I also love Sayers, Allingham, Martha Grimes, and Peter Lovesey.
 
What are you working on now?

I’m contracted to write two more Vermont books, but right now, I’m working on the first book in my Evelyn Galloway Hollywood script girl mysteries. Evelyn is working as script supervisor (then known as a “script girl”) on Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rebecca” when legendary actor, William Cunningham Margrave is discovered dead in his bungalow. While the police, influenced by studio head, Andrew Sachs, initially put the death down to natural causes, it doesn’t take long before they realize that he’s been stabbed to death. Evelyn winds up using her eye for detail to assist police in the investigation.
 
 Favorite mystery movie or show?

My very first mystery film was “Evil Under the Sun” starring Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot. My mother took me to the theater to see it, so it remains a comfort viewing favorite. I also love Ustinov in “Death on the Nile.” As for shows, I adore “Grantchester,” “Only Murders in the Building,” and “Death in Paradise” as well as “Midsomer Murders.”
 
 
What’s a non-mystery show/movie you’ve enjoyed lately?

I recently rewatched “My Man Godfrey” from 1936 and fell in love with it all over again. Lombard and Powell have such incredible chemistry, it’s difficult to believe they were divorced when they filmed it. (Although apparently no one in Hollywood believed they were divorced at the time, given they were constantly photographed together!) I also saw “Remember the Night” from 1940 and have decided to add it to my annual Christmas film roster. Barbara Stanwyck is terrific in it and, speaking of chemistry, so is Fred MacMurray. A really great sleeper film!

***KLH: I LOVE Lombard and that's a fun movie! Stanwyck is amazing, too.
 

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COLD TURKEY:

Purchase: amzn.to/3O6CaS1

Tish Tarragon is catering for Hobson Glen's annual Turkey Trot, and soon finds herself embroiled in a deadly race to the finish line . . .

Literary caterer Tish Tarragon is looking forward to opening the new Cookin' the Books cafe the day after Thanksgiving, but before then she has the small matter of catering for the Thirty-First Annual Colonial Springs Turkey Trot, a highlight in the Hobson Glen calendar.

With her food stall ready to go, Tish, the spectators and participating 'trotters' are eagerly awaiting the starter's pistol when they are confronted with the sound of rifle shots from the woods. Deputy Mayor Behrens is dead. But was he really the intended target, or could it have been Tish's ex, Mayor Schuyler Thompson? As Tish and Reade investigate, it seems there are no shortage of residents with an axe to grind against the town council their controversial policies. Can Tish finish first in her race against the killer?
 
 
GAME OVER AT GUILD HALL:

Purchase: amzn.to/423Znu6

“It’s game on when the longtime organizer of the annual Game Supper is murdered right in front of the diners. Readers who enjoy mysteries set in colorful rural settings will love Game Over at Guild Hall.” —Sue Ann Jaffarian, author of the Odelia Grey and Ghost of Granny Apples mysteries

In rural Vermont, where hunting and trapping are a way of life, nothing is bigger than the annual wild game supper at Guild Hall. Stella can’t wait to sample the exotic dishes prepared by her neighbors, but when the longtime organizer of the supper falls dead, a victim of poisoning, Stella’s appetite—along with a roomful of suspects—vanishes. Then that same night someone ransacks the hall’s kitchen, presumably to destroy any evidence, and spots Stella snooping. Now she fears she may be the next target.

Certain the only way to save herself is to find the culprit, Stella digs into the victim’s life hoping to discover who might have wanted him dead. It turns out he’d made countless enemies over the years, as volunteers at the event were run ragged and hunters who wanted their food included were shunned. What’s more, Stella discovers the victim had unearthed a shameful and long-buried secret at the hall itself. With the list of possible suspects growing and her life in danger, Stella zeroes in on a clue that could break the case wide open—as long as she can stay out of the killer’s crosshairs . . .

Praise for the Books of Amy Patricia Meade:

“The first in a new series for Meade features yet another set of bright young detectives . . .” —Kirkus Reviews

“Quaint characters and settings abound in this outing by New Yorker-turned-Vermonter Amy Patricia Meade.” —Mystery Scene

“Meade’s debut will strike a chord with fanciers of Dorothy Sayers’s Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane.” —Publishers Weekly

“If only Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and Jimmy Stewart were still alive. They would be fabulous in the movie version of Meade’s debut Marjorie McClelland mystery . . . Meade’s kickoff mystery is a winner.” —Booklist