Hammers and Homicide

February 05, 2024

Hammers and Homicide

Hammers and Homicide (A Hometown Hardware Mystery)
by Paula Charles

About Hammers and Homicides

Hammers and Homicide (A Hometown Hardware Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – Oregon
Crooked Lane Books (January 16, 2024)
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 280 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1639105999
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1639105991
Digital ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0C9PJXCFG

Perfect for fans of Kate Carlisle and Victoria Gilbert, when a body is found in a hardware store, will Dawna Carpenter’s sleuthing measure up to find the killer?

Recent sexagenarian widow Dawna Carpenter thought running her own hardware store after the death of her husband was hard enough. With her adult daughter, April, moving back into town, and Darlene, the annoying boutique owner next door to her shop poking around, Dawna has her hands full. But when she finds a dead man in the bathroom of her store, with a framing hammer by his side, she’s in way over her head.

The victim, Warren Highcastle, was a land developer who was looking to purchase the old theater in town to build a new hotel. Dawna and April, worried about the implications of the crime scene at the hardware store, put themselves on the case. They soon learn that Warren had made quite a few enemies in his short amount of time in town. As the suspect list starts growing, so too do the threats against Dawna and April. Can Dawna and April nail the killer before they strike again?

About Paula Charles

When Paula Charles isn’t writing under the towering trees of the Pacific Northwest, she can be found in the garden with her hands in the dirt or sitting on her front porch with a good book and a glass of iced tea. She has a love for small towns, ghost stories, and pie. Paula lives on a small farm in Southwestern Washington with her patient husband and a handful of furry and feathered critters. Paula also writes cozy mysteries under the pen name of Janna Rollins.

Q&A With the Author

What was your inspiration for writing this book?

My inspiration for Hammers and Homicide came directly from my childhood. My grandparents owned the hardware store in the little town in Northeastern Oregon where I grew up. My grandmother ran the store most of the time while my grandfather was busy working as a building contractor. I spent many hours in that store, tagging along behind my grandma. She’d put me to work with a dust rag or counting nails in the name of inventory. Grandma knew everyone in town and was a savvy businesswoman. When I decided to try my hand at writing a cozy mystery, I knew Grandma and her hardware store were the perfect inspiration for my amateur sleuth. Even though my town of Pine Bluff, Oregon is fictional and my protagonist, Dawna, quickly became her own person, the base of it all lives firmly in my own memories.

What did you enjoy most about writing this book?

There is a slight paranormal aspect, or magical realism, to this book. I’ve always loved a good ghost story and enjoyed figuring out just how much to put in the story to keep Dawna wondering if she was really seeing her late husband, or if she was losing her ever-loving mind. Now, there is a cat on the front cover, Lilac, who really leaves no doubt that she’s still hanging around the house, even though she passed years ago. I enjoyed getting to know the characters as I wrote, including those ghostly ones!

Do you have any other books you are working on that you can tell us about?

Yes, the second book in this series is written and waiting in the wings. That’s all I can say at this point about that one. However, I also write under the pen name Janna Rollins and have the first in a new series coming out in March under that name. The book is titled An Escape Goat. In it, Callie, a yoga instructor, has taken a DNA test and found her long-lost great-uncle. After flying to New Hampshire to meet her newly found family, she decides to stay and teach goat yoga from her uncle’s farm. During the first yoga retreat Callie hosts, she finds one of her guests dead behind the haystack. Unfortunately for Callie, it seems she’s invited a murderer to stay at the family farm. I’m excited about this new series and hope readers will like Callie and the goats.

Can you tell us about what you have planned for the future?

More of the same! I have contracts for three books in the goat yoga series and am hoping for more in the Hometown Hardware series. My goal is to finish writing two new books a year and go from there! As most writers do, I have lots of ideas up my sleeve and am excited to see what the future brings.

Anything more you would like to say to your readers and fans?

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being here. It means the world to me that you are interested in my little book, and I hope you love Dawna. She has more murders to solve so we need more contracts from the publisher. If you liked Hammers and Homicide, please consider leaving a review and telling your friends so more readers can find Dawna and the series can continue. Thank you!!