by Tracy Condie

The week we have a review of another Halloween mystery this one by Erica Wynters, and we have an interview with Erica. Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win an ebook copy of the book and a link to purchase the book from Amazon.

Sunflowers, Scarecrows, and Scandal: A Camelot Flowers Mystery by Erica Wynters
Review by Tracy Condie

This is my favorite Camelot Flowers Mystery yet, and not just because our intrepid sleuth Gwen has come to a decision regarding romance. It is my favorite because it happens during the time leading up to Halloween. Much like Gwen, I like the decorations, but can do without things that go bump in the night or cackle in the dark. I am pretty sure that if my neighbor put up a witch that had a motion sensor and a loud––make that a very loud––cackle that scared the bejesus out of me, there would be some larceny taking place. Of course, that wouldn’t scare me nearly as much as finding an obnoxious neighbor staged as a scarecrow in front of town hall. Poor Gwen. She is starting to get a bit of a reputation for finding dead bodies. Her mom thinks that Gwen may be cursed because her dad named her Guinevere and death followed the fictional Arthurian character.

Chances are you chuckled about Gwen having a cursed name. Be prepared to chuckle quite a bit while reading this entertaining cozy. In the opening scene, Penny, her very pregnant BFF, tries to convince Gwen that she would look great with a perm. Penny is a force to be reckoned with, but the permed look is a hard NO for Gwen; there are better ways to determine if a man really likes you for you. Even the way Gwen processes finding a dead body (again) is a bit humorous. Gwen has no intentions of getting involved. Detective Finn, aka Gwen’s love interest, is more than capable of handling this one. At least she was going to ignore the situation until it had negative repercussions on Finn’s free time.

Thankfully Gwen has good friends and a healthy dose of curiosity, aka nosiness. The characters, especially our sleuth, are engaging and relatable. The mystery is engaging with red herrings placed in all the right places. I second-guessed myself more than once and was completely wrong as to motive. I read the story in one sitting because I couldn’t put it down. This is a perfectly penned cozy with an engaging sleuth, a supportive family, a friend who may or may not be an instigator, and a bit of romance to round things out.

Tracy Condie is a paralegal by day and cozy armchair sleuth by night. When she is not working or reading, she enjoys preparing the recipes found in culinary cozies or researching recipes of meal items described therein and sharing reviews of both books and food on Instagram and on KRL. She lives in Corona, California with her husband and dog Zoolie, and looks forward to visiting with their grown sons when their time permits.

Interview with Erica Wynters:

KRL: How long have you been writing?

Erica: I’ve been writing for seven years now. I first started with an idea for a story that led to a fully completed first draft of a novel three weeks later. It wasn’t very good, but it ignited my love for writing.

KRL: When did your first novel come out, what was it called, and would you tell us a little about it?

Erica Wynters

Erica: My first full-length novel came out in May of 2023. It was the first book in the Camelot Flowers Mystery Series, and it was called Marigolds, Mischief, and Murder. I love cozy mysteries with a romance subplot, and the books in this series deliver.

Marigolds, Mischief, and Murder follows Gwen Stevens as she helps to run her family’s flower shop, tries to navigate her long-time crush on her best friend, Chris, with her growing feelings for the new police detective, Finn. When Chis becomes the prime suspect in a murder, Gwen is determined to prove his innocence. The book is full of funny and heartwarming moments as Gwen investigates a murder for the first time in the charming town of Star Junction, Illinois.

KRL: Have you always written mysteries/suspense and if not, what else have you written?

Erica: I’ve always written cozy mysteries and romantic suspense. I love a good romance, but I also enjoy a strong external conflict besides whether or not the main characters will get together. Romantic suspense and cozy mysteries give me that balance. A few years into my writing journey, I published a series of romantic suspense novellas about an FBI profiler named Alexandra Briggs and an FBI agent, Henry Collins. Much like the Camelot Flowers series, the novellas have a mystery to solve and sweet romance.

KRL: What brought you to choose the setting and characters in your latest book/series?

Erica: I grew up in the Midwest and wanted to set my cozy mystery in a charming Midwestern town. I created the town of Star Junction and placed it in rural Illinois, just a couple of hours from Chicago, where I went to college. The characters came to me as I was writing. One of the things I love about cozy mysteries is the cast of unique characters in a small town setting, so I set out to fill Star Junction with a fun mix of quirky, kind, and meddlesome characters. Some of them help Gwen in her investigations, and some of them end up getting in the way.

KRL: Do you write to entertain or is there something more you want the readers to experience from your work?

Erica: I mostly write to entertain. I love to lose myself in a story and forget about whatever problems or stressors I have in my life for just a little while. However, as a marriage and family therapist, I can’t help but want to show what healthy relationships look like. Some romance novels are filled with toxic behavior that is billed as sexy or romantic. I want the romances in my books to show that a healthy relationship can be interesting. It doesn’t mean my characters never experience conflict with each other, but I want my main characters to handle it in a healthy way or learn from the experience if they’re not being healthy.

KRL: Do you have a schedule for your writing or just work whenever you can?

Erica: A little bit of both. I see clients in a therapy private practice on Mondays and Wednesdays so I set aside time on the other days of the week for writing. Sometimes I’m very disciplined with that and other times, I’m leaving things until the last minute. I work really well with a deadline!

KRL: What is your ideal time to write?

Erica: I like to write in the mornings when I’m the most rested. It’s hard for me to be creative and really tired at the same time.

KRL: Do you outline? If not, do you have some other interesting way that you keep track of what’s going on, or what needs to happen in your book when you are writing it?

Erica: I used to just write as I went along, but it’s really hard to write a good mystery that way. There’s just too much to keep track of. I’m very thankful that my publisher, Gemma Halliday Publishing, required me to turn in a synopsis for every book. While they aren’t easy to write, they lay out every major scene in the book so that the mystery is solved in a way that makes sense.

Even with writing from a synopsis, there are plenty of moments that surprise me along the way, which is really fun as an author. I didn’t know that Gwen was going to adopt a kitten in book two of the series or that her best friend Penny was going to find out she was pregnant until I got to those scenes. It’s fun to be surprised by my characters.

KRL: Did you find it difficult to get published in the beginning?

Erica: It took several years to get published, but it was an important time spent learning to be a better writer. To write a good novel you have to not only know how to plot a story that keeps readers interested and makes sense, but become a better writer in how the story is told. I used the years it took to get published to learn, and I’m still learning today.

KRL: Do you have a great rejection/critique or acceptance story you’d like to share?

Erica: I’d admired Gemma Halliday as a writer long before I knew she was a publisher. Her mysteries are funny and have a swoony romance, something that I strive for in my books as well. When I first learned from my literary agent that Gemma’s publishing house was open for submissions, I submitted a book that was ultimately rejected. She liked the story and liked my writing, but it was a romantic suspense and she was really sticking with publishing mysteries. It was disappointing, but I didn’t give up.

I’d written the beginning version of Marigolds, Mischief, and Murder years before. I’d received feedback from other agents at the time that it was a great book but the romance subplot was too large to qualify it as a cozy mystery. I found the file on my computer and went to work rewriting it to be more mystery and less romance. A year later, I submitted that to Gemma, and she signed the book! We still had a lot of editing to do, but my dream of working with Gemma had come true.

KRL: Most interesting book signing story-in a bookstore or other venue?

Erica: I’ve only done one book signing, which was at my local library. It was so fun to meet the other authors there. The writing world can be incredibly supportive, and that’s what I experienced that day.

KRL: What are your future writing goals?

Erica: I’m excited to continue publishing books that are fun to read. I currently have two romantic suspense series that are ready to be published. I have a tentative plan to release the first in one of the series in early March 2025. I’d also love to keep writing Camelot Flowers mystery books. I have many more ideas for Gwen and her friends to solve crimes and get themselves into funny situations.

KRL: Who are your writing heroes?

Erica: I really look up to authors who can capture a mix of good writing, humor, and something that keeps me hooked. Some of those are Gemma Halliday, Gretchen Archer, and Lucy Score, specifically her Riley Thorne series.

KRL: What kind of research do you do?

Erica: I don’t tend to do a lot of research for books, because I don’t write about things that require technical knowledge on purpose, but I have done research on guns, flower arranging, and poisons. I guess it’s pretty obvious that I am writing a series about a florist who investigates murders.

KRL: What do you like to read?

Erica: I love to read cozy mysteries and romantic suspense, but other genres that I love to read that I don’t write in, are paranormal and fantasy. If those have some romance in them, even better.

KRL: What are your favorite TV shows or movies?

Erica: One of my current favorites is So Help Me Todd, because it’s a funny mystery show and those are right up my alley. I also love Elsbeth for the same reason. I like rom-coms and action movies, which aren’t very similar to one another, but both hold my attention. Maybe that’s why I like combining romance and action in my books.

KRL: Have you any advice for aspiring or beginning writers?

Erica: My number one piece of advice is to find a writing community. You need people at the same place in their journey as you, who can understand and validate the stressful parts of the process. You also need people who are farther along in their journey and their writing skills, who can help you improve. We can’t always tell where we need to grow, which is why having other people who can give us feedback is so instrumental in growing as an author.

KRL: What is something people would be surprised to know about you?

Erica: I write a series based on a main character who is a florist, but I don’t particularly get excited about receiving flowers. I’d much rather get a gift card to Starbucks, a live plant, or have an experience with someone. It’s always been a funny juxtaposition between myself and Gwen, and it’s probably why there isn’t as much focus in this series on the specifics of being a florist. I include the charm of being a florist, but don’t get into a lot of details about flowers. For me, the mystery and romance are the heart of these stories.

KRL: Do you have any pets?

Erica: I always say that I’m allergic to all the fun pets, which means cats and dogs. Nothing against people who like reptiles or fish, but if I can’t cuddle with a pet, then I’m not interested. Because of these allergies, I don’t have any pets.

KRL: That’s too bad. Is there anything you would like to add?

Erica: Sunflowers, Scarecrows, and Scandal is a fun book because it takes place at Halloween but isn’t spooky or creepy in any way. I can’t handle creepy, but I love the cute parts of the Halloween season. That’s what this book embraces, and I hope other readers who love fall and a cozy Halloween can enjoy this fun read. I’ve also had a lot of readers who read Sunflowers, Scarecrows, and Scandal first, and then went back to read the first two books. They’ve all said they loved the third book in this series and didn’t feel lost at all. There are some things about the relationships that build through the series, but each mystery is unique.

KRL: Where can our readers find you online?

Erica: I can be found on my website at ericawynters.com. There, readers can sign up for my newsletter. I don’t spam my newsletter community, but it’s the more reliable way to stay up to date on future books. I also sometimes do giveaways for my newsletter community. I’m also on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ericawynters and Instagram at instagram.com/ericawyntersbooks

You can click here to purchase this book from Amazon.

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