Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Cozy Mystery Book Tours Book Promo W/Giveaway: Victoria Hamilton - Bowled Over







Author: Victoria Hamilton
Series: Vintage Kitchen Mysteries
Title: Bowled Over
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Pub. Date: March 2013
Buy: Amazon


Excerpt from Bowled Over:
Jaymie Leighton, the protagonist of the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries, is in her local mom and pop store picking up a few things when her lifelong nemesis, her one-time friend turned enemy from high school, Kathy Cooper, enters.
This is the moment when everything begins to go bad…

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Jaymie stiffened and riveted her gaze on her basket reservation book. Kathy Cooper, once Kathy Hofstadter, Jaymie’s only enemy, had just entered the store. The bad blood between them—mysterious to Jaymie, because she had never found out what caused it—was so deeply ingrained that Jaymie normally slunk out of the store when Kathy came in. She was a coward, she admitted it freely, but Kathy could be extremely unpleasant when she wanted, and it had caused rifts over the years, forcing mutual friends to choose sides in the mysterious conflict.
This time Jaymie straightened her back and took a deep breath. Turning, as Kathy made her way down the aisle, she spotted the little tow-headed boy hand-in-hand with her. This must be Connor, Kathy’s nephew. Jaymie had heard about the little boy, though she’d never seen him. Determined to mend their broken friendship from school days, she moved into the aisle in front of her once-upon-a-time friend and said, a forced smile on her lips,  “Hi, Kathy.”
Kathy turned away, as if she had not heard Jaymie, and said, “Mr. Klausner, (the store owner) did you ever get that Dinkle’s Herbal Products catalogue I ordered?”
Mr. Klausner looked up, his rheumy eye made huge by the magnifying glass, and held up a magazine. Kathy, her little nephew trotting behind her, advanced to the cashier’s desk and took it, then walked toward the back of the store.
It was as if Jaymie wasn’t there. Anger flared in her, but she calmed herself with a few deep breaths. She would not be defeated. She followed. “Kathy,” she said, gentling her voice so as not to frighten the little guy, who watched her with cautious attentiveness. “Kathy, I just wanted to say, I really hope someday we can be friends again. I don’t know what I ever did to make you mad, but it was so long ago, can’t you forgive and forget?” She’d said it all before, but some day the magic words might work.
Kathy turned, slowly, from looking at a display of herbal remedies along the pharmacy wall, and fixed her brown-eyed gaze on Jaymie. Ella Douglas (a wheelchair bound pharmacy customer) and Valetta (Jaymie’s friend and a pharmacist) were talking, their voices low, their attention taken by whatever it was they were saying. “The fact that you can stand there and claim not to know what you did just astounds me.”
“But I don’t know, Kathy, I’ve never known.”
Kathy turned away from her and moved on, apparently intent on the herbal remedies before her…
Jaymie turned away, pretending to look at the hair care products while she debated with herself what to do about Kathy.
Ella used the joystick on her wheelchair to turn and she examined the line of herbal remedies near Kathy, who had turned her shoulder and had her cell phone out.
“Crap!” Kathy said. “What the hell is this?” She tapped away at the tiny keyboard while Connor pivoted idly on his heel.
Jaymie considered trying to approach Kathy again, but decided against it. Her one-time friend was staring at her cell phone with an angry frown, while her nephew tugged at the hem of her t-shirt.
“Connor, let go!” Kathy said, swatting at his hand. “Can’t you see I’m busy right now?” The boy began running his hands along the vitamin bottles on the closest shelf, humming tunelessly as he did.
Giving it up as useless to try to sort things out with Kathy while her nephew was there, Jaymie turned away and was about to call out to Valetta that she’d see her later, when the little boy screeched and wailed. Ella Douglas cried out and moved her wheelchair rapidly, and the little boy hopped up and down, his face becoming red as tears trickled down his cheeks.
“Connor, Connor!” Kathy cried, whirling around. She knelt at his side, as he moaned and muttered. “What did you do to him?” Kathy said, looking up at first Jaymie, then at Ella.
“M-my footie!” the boy wailed, pointing to Ella’s wheelchair. “She wan o-o-over me!” he howled, his voice catching between sobs.
“Oh, no! I must not have seen him,” Ella cried, a look of distress on her wan face, sickly in the fluorescent lighting of the Emporium that glared off of her glasses. “Is he okay?”
Valetta came tearing out from the pharmacy just as old Mr. Klausner tapped down the wood aisle with his cane, his gait a thump-thump-tap counterpoint to Connor’s crying, Kathy’s shouted accusations, Ella’s thin, reedy denials and Valetta’s demands to know what happened.
“She ran over Connor!” Kathy yelled, jabbing a finger in Ella’s direction.
“Not on purpose,” Jaymie said.
“So you know what she’s thinking?” Kathy said, straightening. 
“Wan grampa! Wan grampa!” Connor shrilled.
“Connor, no!” Kathy said. “Your grandpa doesn’t want you!”
“How could you say that to him?” Jaymie cried, appalled.
“What do you know about anything?” Kathy said, thrusting her face in Jaymie’s.
“Ladies, cut it out!” Valetta said.
“I didn’t mean it, I didn’t… honest!” Ella shrilled, a sob in her voice. She covered her face with her pale, thin hands.
Connor was silent now, his tears drying as his gaze slewed between the adults, watching the brewing storm with interest on his thin, intelligent face.
“Ella wouldn’t have run over Connor’s toes on purpose!” Jaymie said, glancing at the wheelchair bound woman, who was sobbing into her hands. Valetta knelt by her side and tried to calm her.
“Are you calling my nephew a liar?”
“When did I call him a liar?” Jaymie asked.
“I didn’t see him, really!” Ella cried, her voice thick with tears. She put out her hands in an imploring gesture. “Please, is he all right?” She reached out to Connor, trying to grab his shoulder. “Are you all right, little boy?”
Kathy pulled him away and he clutched a hold of his aunt’s leg. “Professional victim, aren’t you, Eleanor? Why’d you change your name? Hoping people wouldn’t remember what a nasty piece of work you were?” She grabbed Connor’s hand and tugged him down the aisle. Connor didn’t appear to be limping as he trotted after his aunt.
After Kathy was gone, Valetta and Jaymie looked at each other over Ella’s head. “What was that all about?” Valetta asked, as Ella sniffled and blew her nose.
“I have no idea.”

Giveaway:  For all the details click here


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Meet the author:
Victoria Hamilton writes the bestselling Vintage Kitchen Mystery series (Book 1 – A Deadly Grind – May 2012) and the upcoming Merry Muffin Mysteries, also from Berkley (Book 1 – Bran New Death – September 3rd, 2013)  Victoria loves cooking and collecting vintage kitchen utensils, as well as reading and writing mysteries. Check out her webpage for all the latest: http://www.victoriahamiltonmysteries.com and find her on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorVictoriaHamilton  




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