by Cynthia Chow & Maddie Day

Up this week we have a review and giveaway of the latest Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery by Maddie Day aka Edith Maxwell, and we have a fun guest post by Maddie about biking–a perfect topic for some end of summer fun. Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a copy of the book and a link to purchase the book from Amazon.

Murder at the Rusty Anchor: A Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery By Maddie Day
Review by Cynthia Chow

Summer is the busy season for the town of Westham, Massachusetts, but a bout of rain has Mackenzie Almeida lulled into a slow period for her Mac’s Bikes shop that sells, repairs, and rents out bicycles. The neighboring Rusty Anchor Pub is not sharing the same slowdown, but it’s certain that their chef does not appreciate finding the first customer of the day dead behind the bar. Bruce Byrne was an infamous high school teacher in Westham for decades, not only giving Mac a poor grade 20 years ago, but being notorious for discriminating against students and even stealing “inappropriate” books from the library. It’s the latter act – caught on security cameras – that results in Westham’s head librarian Florence Wolanski on the police’s suspect list, with State Police Detective Sergeant Lincoln Haskins eventually calling her in for questioning.

Lincoln also warns Mac and her cozy book club group away from his investigation, despite their having had considerable success with previous murder cases. Mac and her book clubbers aren’t about to allow Flo or one of their other friends be railroaded for killing a pretty detestable man. They soon discover that the late teacher was responsible for getting another fired, while several former students have never forgotten Mr. Byrne’s traumatizing treatment. Mac’s amazingly supportive husband Tim, the owner and baker of Greta’s Bakery, has his own troubles concerning his sister and her growing family, and it’s coming at a particularly bad point in their lives. That of course doesn’t mean that he still won’t prepare his amazing dinners and pastries for Mac, even though she does attempt at least once to cook a dinner consisting of far too many ingredients and steps. Also on Mac’s plate is the 40th wedding anniversary of her adorable parents, who are planning a spontaneous celebration for most of the town before they traverse off on a second honeymoon.

This sixth in the series incorporates a crime that enmeshes much of Westham’s locals, but it is at its most fascinating when it sympathetically explores Mac’s fears over infertility. Learning that her parents themselves struggled with this issue has Mac worried that she and Tim will face the same challenge when having children. This of course comes to the forefront when it seems that everyone around her is becoming pregnant, especially when one of those is a person least capable of being a mother. Readers will appreciate the lambasting of Mr. Byrne’s censorship actions of removing LGBTQ+ books that he felt were inappropriate for teenagers, even though it perhaps wasn’t worthy of his being murdered.

Always entertaining, this latest in the Cozy Capers Book Group series excels at exploring this very cozy community whose lives have become even more complicated and compelling than the central mystery. As the circle of suspects narrows down to a few central characters, Mac and her friends become the reasons why fans will continue to return to this highly engaging series.

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).

Bikes I Have Known and Loved
By Maddie Day

I’m delighted to be here celebrating the release of Murder at the Rusty Anchor, my sixth Cozy Capers Book Group mystery and my 34th published novel.

My protagonist in the series is Mac Almeida, who owns Mac’s Bikes, a retail, repair, and rental shop in the fictional town of Westham on Cape Cod in southeastern Massachusetts. I’ve had fun doing research at bike shops and also picking the brains of my adult sons, both of whom are serious cyclists.

While I no longer ride a bicycle (more on that later), I do have a long history with the contraption. Like many of us, I suppose, I grew up with a bike. Unlike many of us, I was a native of the Pasadena, California area and could ride all year long, except for the rare winter rainy day. I don’t remember details of my childhood or teenage bicycles. They were probably a standard Schwinn-type girl’s bike and very possibly a hand-me-down from one of my older sisters.

The first bicycle I bought with my own money was when I was 18 and going to community college seven miles away for a semester before I left for university. In the newspaper ads, I found a red used boy’s bike with coaster brakes for only five dollars (this was decades before the internet and things like Craigslist). I loved that bike and rode it for months. When I took it to UC Irvine with me, I was exploring philosophies of living. I parked it outside my dorm, saying, “If someone needs it more than me, they should have it.” Sure enough, the bike was gone the next morning. Doh.

I didn’t have a car and needed transportation to my part-time job, so off I went to the newspaper again. I found a white pre-owned three-speed lady’s Peugeot. It came with a headlight that ran off the front wheel and a rack over the back wheel. Only one person had owned the bike and it was in fabulous shape. (Mine had upright handlebars, unlike the one in this picture.)

Photo credit: Rwendland, CC BY-SA 3.0

Some years later I took it with me to graduate school in southern Indiana. (That area was the inspiration for my long-running Country Store Mysteries series, in which protagonist Robbie Jordan is a serious cyclist.) I rode the Peugeot all around there, including home from nights drinking and dancing with friends (note: riding while inebriated is NOT recommended), when I was grateful for the headlight. I brought it with me on my move to the Boston area, too.

But the cycle was getting pretty tired 20 years later. To my delight, my husband at the time and my young sons presented me with a new bicycle for Mother’s Day one year in the late 1990s. It was a gray 12-speed with a wide comfy seat, and I loved it.

Fast-forward another chunk of years to when I moved to my current town and left my day job in 2013 to write mystery fiction full time from home. I thought I would ride my bike all over town. Uh, no. The thing is, I do not enjoy riding uphill, especially not now in my more senior years, and my town is nothing if not hilly. With my increasingly stiffening joints, the last few times I rode the bike I didn’t feel safe enough to continue. But with the advent of community FREE boards, I found someone who had a true need for a bicycle. I happily gave the bike, helmet, and lock to her, and now my shed has more room in it.

And I can still happily write about others who love riding. Mac’s mom and grandmother have gotten into adult tricycles in the last couple of Cozy Capers Book Group mysteries. Who know, maybe I will, too!

Readers: What’s your bicycle history? Do you still ride?

There’s deadweight behind the bar at the Rusty Anchor and it’s up to Cape Cod bike shop owner Mackenzie “Mac” Almeida to solve the murder in Agatha Award–winner Maddie Day’s latest Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery . . .

A rainy July weekend in Westham means the beaches are empty and business is dead at Mac’s Bikes but couldn’t be livelier inside the Rusty Anchor Pub. But come Monday morning one patron is not so lively when the chef opens up and finds a body behind the bar. It’s last call for Bruce Byrne, an elderly high school teacher who’s been around so long it seems like he taught everybody.

When Mac’s friend Flo, the librarian, makes the list of suspects, Mac gathers the Cozy Capers Book Group to clear her name. With no end in sight to the rain, the group has plenty of time to study the clues and sort through a roll call of suspects to determine who decided to teach Mr. Bryne a lesson. But with a killer desperate to cover their tracks, Mac and the group will be tested as never before . . .

You can click here to purchase this book from Amazon.

To enter to win a copy of Murder at the Rusty Anchor, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “anchor” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen August 24, 2024. 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 aka Edith Maxwell

A fourth-generation Californian, Edith Maxwell is an Agatha-Award winning and national bestselling mystery author who writes the historical Quaker Midwife Mysteries and the Local Foods Mysteries. Maxwell’s short stories have appeared in 30 juried anthologies and magazines. She is active in Mystery Writers of America and is a proud lifetime member of Sisters in Crime.
As Maddie Day, Maxwell writes the Country Store Mysteries, the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries, the Cece Barton Mysteries, and the historical Dot and Amelia Mysteries featuring Amelia Earhart as a sleuthing sidekick.
Maxwell/Day lives in an antique house north of Boston with her beau and their cat Martin, where she writes, cooks, gardens, and wastes time on Facebook. She blogs every weekday with the Wicked Authors and on the second and fourth Fridays at Mystery Lovers Kitchen. Look for her under both names on social media and at edithmaxwell.com.

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.