by Cynthia Chow & Maddie Day

This week we have a review and giveaway of Deadly Crush by Maddie Day aka Edith Maxwell, along with a fun guest post about the new year by Maddie. Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a copy of the book and a link to purchase it from Amazon.

Deadly Crush: A Cece Barton Book By Maddie Day
Review by Cynthia Chow

Had Cece Barton known better, she would never have hired electrician Karl Meier to make repairs on her Northern California Vino y Vida wine bar. She was in dire straits though, and it was too late that she learned of Karl’s abrasive attitude and shoddy practices, not to mention his poor treatment of his nephew assistant. Her friend and mechanic Jo had warned Cece not to hire Karl, so it doesn’t look good when Jo tells Cece that Karl has just been crushed to death in her auto shop. The investigating sheriff’s department detective immediately suspects that Jo may have intentionally caused the accident that killed her ex-husband, which is why Cece decides to take matters into her own hands and once again investigate a murder.

Ever since the death of her husband, Cece has had a rocky relationship with her daughter Zoe. Now that she’s turned 21 though, Zoe has matured enough to want answers about her father and the reasons that he was forced out of his job in Japan and eventually divorced by her mother. All trails lead to a history of affairs on his part, which is also why Cece has only recently let down her guard enough to enter into a relationship with law enforcement consultant Benjamin Cohen. Karl seemed to have had his own acrimonious relationship with the women in his life, meaning that there’s a number of women with motives for wanting him dead. Angry former clients only add to the list of suspects, which means that Cece will be busy as she “helps” the Sonoma County investigators, who themselves seem to be battling over law enforcement territory.

This second in the series, spun off from a short story novella, continues to explore the fascinating relationships and bonds between twins. Cece first came to Sonoma County to be near her fraternal twin sister Allie, who is herself the mother of adorable twin boys. Wine country and the business of wine tastings make for a fun and enviable setting, with the customers varying from bridal parties to another set of identical twins. Threats against the wine bar have Cece alarmed and wary that she is getting too close to finding out the truth, but that doesn’t stop her from helping her friends as she continues to run her business. An unlikable victim and sympathetic suspects keep readers invested in the plot without feeling too terrible about the murder, which perfectly suits this food and wine-centric mystery. This is a sublime read to relax with while enjoying a tasty beverage and delicious appetizers.

Cynthia Chow is the branch manager of Kaneohe Public Library on the island of Oahu. She balances a librarian lifestyle of cardigans and hair buns with a passion for motorcycle riding and regrettable tattoos (sorry, Mom).

Starting Anew
By Maddie Day aka Edith Maxwell

We’ve begun a new year. Are you as amazed as I am that another year has gone by? And it’s 2025, to boot. A quarter of this century is in the books.

I found a fun article about ringing in the new year on the Farmers Almanac site and was delighted to see it penned by Victoria Doudera, a fellow new Englander and former mystery author.

Maddie Day aka Edith Maxwell

Following are some of the customs she shared:

1. In Spain, people try to eat 12 grapes during the 12 strokes of midnight! If they succeed before the chimes stop, tradition says they will have good luck for all 12 months of the coming year.
2. In the southern U.S., black-eyed peas and pork foretell good fortune
3. Eating any ring-shaped treat symbolizes “coming full circle” and leads to good fortune. In Dutch homes, fritters called olie bollen are served.

PHOTO Credit: By Teunie, CC BY-SA 3.0

4. The Irish enjoy pastries called bannocks.
5. Germans and Pennsylvania Dutch eat sauerkraut on New Year’s Day for good luck in the coming year.
6. In India and Pakistan, rice promises prosperity.
7. Apples dipped in honey are a Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) tradition.
8. In Swiss homes, dollops of whipped cream, symbolizing the richness of the year to come, are dropped on the floors—and allowed to remain there!

I’d rather eat fried dough than sauerkraut, but the grapes custom sounds interesting, and I did make black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day.

I’m not one to make resolutions for big changes in the new year. At this point I just don’t want anything to blow up. No disasters in my personal life or in the world around me, no health crises, no sudden bad news, and heaven forbid, no pause in the stories seeping out of my imagination.

My “resolution,” if you can call it that, is to keep writing, of course. I also intend to spend as much time with my baby granddaughter as I can and to cherish family and friends. I want to keep walking and cooking, see good movies and solve crosswords, quilt a bit, and read excellent books every day.

My beloved goddaughter turns forty in a couple of weeks. I was in the room when she was born at home, and she’s like my sons’ sister. Anna is now a busy mother of three, but I’m hoping to find a way to celebrate with her and her mom, my best friend of almost fifty years.

Speaking of numbers, Deadly Crush is my 35th published mystery! That’s also a kind of pinch-myself moment.

In her second full-length adventure, Cece Barton also starts a new year. She’s upgrading a few things in the wine bar she manages and has pretty much settled into this new life in Colinas she began about a year earlier when she moved north from Pasadena to the town where her twin sister, brother-in-law, and twin nephews live.

Unlike in my new year––I hope!––when Josie, Cece’s mechanic, finds a dead man in her shop, Cece gets pulled into trying to clear her name. In 2024, I would be perfectly happy to keep any homicide victims I run across firmly on the page.

Readers: What are your New Years foods and traditions?

It’s the beginning of a new year, and for widowed single mom and recent L.A. transplant to California wine country, Cece Barton, that means green hillsides, flowing streams from winter rains, pruned vineyards—and a murder to solve. She’s shocked when she gets a call from her mechanic, Josie, that she’s found her ex-husband crushed to death beneath the lift in her automotive shop.

Cece convinces Josie to call the police, even though Josie is terrified. Electrician Karl was an abusive husband, was threatening her, and she has no alibi. Josie’s future is on the line, and maybe her own, so Cece starts her own investigation. With a bouquet of motives and unanswered questions, Cece is going to need the help of her twin, Allie, who owns a nearby B & B, as she dives into Karl’s past—before the killer catches up with her, and the lights go out for good . . .

You can click here to purchase this book from Amazon.

To enter to win a copy of Deadly Crush, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “deadly crush” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen January 18, 2025. U.S. residents only, and you must be 18 or older to enter. If entering via email please include your mailing address in case you win. You can read our privacy statement here if you like.

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Maddie Day pens the Country Store Mysteries, the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries, the Cece Barton Mysteries, and the Dot and Amelia Mysteries. As Agatha Award-winning author Edith Maxwell, she writes the Quaker Midwife Mysteries and short crime fiction. Day/Maxwell lives with her beau and their cat Martin north of Boston, where she writes, gardens, cooks, and wastes time on Facebook. Find her at EdithMaxwell.com, wickedauthors.com, Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen, and on social media. Facebook & Instagram.

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases. KRL also receives free copies of most of the books that it reviews, that are provided in exchange for an honest review of the book.