A Change of Scenery

For the next few months, while Linda takes a short break, watch for guest posts featuring new books and authors. 

A Change of Scenery by Edith Maxwell

Thanks so much Linda for having me on as a Stiletto Gang guest!

I write wearing several hats, although never in stilettos. My late-1800s Quaker Midwife Mysteries are usually set in Amesbury, Massachusetts, with midwife Rose Carroll catching babies, hearing secrets, and helping the police catch murderers.  It happens to be where I live, and I’ve done lots of research about the town’s history.

But I – as Maddie Day - also write a contemporary series set on Cape Cod. I often rent a Quaker retreat cottage during the off season and spend a week alone furiously typing away at the work in progress. The cottage is in West Falmouth, and over the years I have learned that the town was a veritable hotbed of Friends during Rose Carroll’s era.

So I pretty much had to take her down there for one of the books. We who set mysteries in small towns always want to try to avoid Cabot Cove syndrome, where after a while the village gets a reputation for being a dangerous place to visit because of all the murders.

My most recently released book is Nacho Average Murder, the 7^th Country Store Mystery (also written as Maddie Day). I took Robbie Jordan out of southern Indiana for that story, having her return to her native Santa Barbara for

a high school reunion. Regular readers don’t seem to mind, as long as the author promises to return to the village for the next book.

Here’s the burb for Taken Too Soon, the 6^th in the Quaker Midwife series (releasing September 8).

Quaker midwife Rose Carroll's maiden aunt calls Rose to Cape Cod with her new husband when Tillie's teenage ward is found dead. Rose and David's modest honeymoon turns into a murder investigation. A Native midwife and her family are among the suspects, as are David's own brother and a wealthy local Friend. With the help of the local detective, Rose digs in the shifting sands of the case until the murderer is revealed.

I love that I can research two series at once! I wander around the beaches and the back roads. I smell the air, watch the ospreys and egrets, see what’s growing and blooming at a certain time of year, and of course sample locally caught seafood. Who knows, maybe Mac Almeida from the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries will have to get out of town and venture up to Amesbury one of these books

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Agatha Award winning author Edith Maxwell writes the Quaker Midwife historical mysteries, the Local Foods Mysteries, the Lauren Rousseau Mysteries, and award-winning short crime fiction. As Maddie Day she pens the Country Store Mysteries and the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries. Maxwell lives with her beau and their Energizer kitten in Amesbury, where she writes, gardens, cooks, and wastes time on Facebook. Find her at edithmaxwell.com and on social media.