MURDER SPILLS THE TEA

The third Tea by the Sea mystery from Kensington Publishing

Cape Cod provides an appealing backdrop for a food-centric cozy replete with red herrings and likable sleuths.” Kirkus Reviews

Lily Roberts pores over the clues in a piping hot new case when a confrontational celebrity chef is murdered at her Cape Cod tearoom during the filming of a popular baking show in the latest Tea by the Sea mystery from national bestselling author Vicki Delany . . .
 
The country’s hottest TV cooking show is coming to Cape Cod. And against her better judgment, Lily Roberts is entering America Bakes! with her charming tearoom, Tea by the Sea! Filming is already proving disruptive, closing the tearoom during Lily’s busiest season. But tensions really bubble over when infamous bad-boy chef and celebrity judge, Tommy Greene, loses his temper with Lily’s staff, resulting in an on-camera blowout with Cheryl Wainwright. Just as Lily thinks the competition can’t get more bitter, Tommy is found dead in Tea by the Sea’s kitchen . . . murdered with Cheryl’s rolling pin.
 
Suspicion immediately falls on Cheryl, but the temperamental star has racked up plenty of culinary clashes in the past, both on- and off-screen. And nearly anyone associated with Tommy or the show could be the killer: be it one of Lily’s fierce competitors, a member of the beleaguered film crew, or even one of Tommy’s fellow judges—struggling cookbook maven, Claudia D’Angelo or beauty contest winner, Scarlet McIntosh. Now, while she’s baking up a storm for the show, Lily must also whip up an impromptu investigation . . . before the murderer rolls someone else away.

Click here to purchase Murder Spills the Tea and other books in the TEA BY THE SEA SERIES: Murder Spills the Tea (kensingtonbooks.com)

Welcome to my web site. I’m Vicki Delany and I also write as Eva Gates. Please have a look around, check out the books and different series I write, read a bit about me. While you’re here, why not sign up for my newsletter (go to Contact page) to get the latest news about my books and my travels or visit the Links page to see where else you can connect with me.

 

DEATH BY BEACH READ

The Ninth Lighthouse Library Mystery

Coming June 7, 2022. Now available for pre-order: Click Here

“Exceptional…Cozy queen Gates is at the top of her game.”
Publishers Weekly, starred review of Deadly Ever After

Librarian Lucy’s new historic house comes with a lot of baggage and family secrets. Can she put them to rest or will a killer bring Lucy’s family to their downfall, in the 9th Lighthouse Library mystery.
 

It’s spring in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and Lucy and Connor have moved into their new home at last, a historic cottage on the Nags Head Beach. The house needs a lot of renovations, but they worked hard over the winter to get it ready. Lucy is now happily immersed in her work at the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library, planning her wedding, and decorating the house. That is, until a dead body disrupts their peaceful new abode.   

The first night Lucy’s alone in the house, with the company of Charles the library cat, she hears sounds. Investigating they see footsteps in the dust of the unfinished living room, and the door to the outside is open. Lucy’s reminded that the house is said to be haunted: forty years ago the teenage daughter of the owners fled in the night, and never again stepped foot inside her family home.

But the sounds have an all-too-human origin and one evening Lucy and Connor find the dead body of a man they don’t even recognize in their kitchen. They soon realize he has a long-time connection to their house. Lucy’s forced to find out what happened all those years ago and why it’s threatening her happiness today.

Meanwhile, the Classic Novel Reading Club is reading The House of the Seven Gables by Nathanial Hawthorne, a book about another old house full of secrets. Can Lucy find parallels to her own situation in Hawthorne’s fiction before the killer strikes again?