Saturday, January 23, 2021

~ GREAT ESCAPES THE BROKEN SPINE ~

 ~ GREAT ESCAPES BLOG TOUR STOP ~
--  'THE BROKEN SPINE'  --
AUTHOR DOROTHY ST. JAMES
~Post Includes:  Book Spotlight + Excerpt,
Author Bio, Unique Guest Post Shared
By the Author & Giveaway~
  

 

The Broken Spine (A Beloved Bookroom Mystery)  
by Dorothy St. James
 

About The Broken Spine

 

Cozy Mystery 1st in Series 
Publisher: Berkley (January 19, 2021) 
Hardcover: 320 pages ISBN-10: 0593098579  
ISBN-13: 978-0593098578 Kindle ASIN: B086SCQ639

 

The first in an exciting new series featuring Trudell Becket, a spunky librarian who will stop at nothing to save her beloved books and catch a killer!

Trudell Becket, book-loving librarian, finds herself in a bind when the library where she works is turned into a state-of-the-art bookless library. In a rare move of rebellion, Trudell rescues hundreds of her library's beloved books slated for the recycle center. She sets up a secret book room in the library's basement and opens it to anyone who shares her love of the printed book.

When the town councilman, who was the vocal proponent of the library's transformation into a "futuristic technological center," is crushed under an overturned shelf of DVDs, Trudell becomes the police's prime suspect for his murder. She was the only person in the library at the time of his death, or so the police believe. But that's not true. For the past month, Trudell had been letting a few dozen residents into the building through the basement entrance so they could read and check out the printed books.

But if she tells the police about the backdoor patrons who were in the library at the time of the murder, she'd have to explain about the secret book room and risk losing the books. In order to protect herself from being arrested for a murder she didn't commit, Trudell--with the help of a group of dedicated readers--decides to investigate. She quickly discovers you can't always judge a book by its cover. 

EXCERPT:

No one in the moderately sized rural southern town of Cypress would ever suspect their stalwart assistant librarian of breaking into the library where she worked. Why would they? A bronze plaque hangs on my kitchen wall. It was personally presented to me by Mayor Goodvale. He declared me an asset to the town. I’d received the award because I always performed my job with the highest level of pride and professionalism. For the past thirteen years I put the town and library first, often to the detriment of my personal life.

An even bigger honor occurred a few years ago when Mrs. Lida Farnsworth, the town’s head librarian, whispered (she always whispered) while we busily returned books to their shelves: “Trudell Becket, I couldn’t be more pleased to be wrong about my first impression of you. I would have hired any other candidate for the position. But, alas, the only other person who’d applied was that drunkard Cooper Berry. I honestly didn’t think you had it in you, honey. But, bless your heart, you’ve become the model of a perfect librarian.”

And she was right. I was perfect. Until . . .

Well, let’s just say someone needed to do this.

As a general rule, librarians don’t speak in loud voices. Librarians don’t exceed the speed limit when driving to work. And librarians certainly don’t dress head-to-toe in black ninja-wear while attempting to pick the library’s backdoor lock.

Yet, librarians can always be counted on to get things done.

“Don’t look at me like that,” I muttered to a lanky brown cat with black tiger stripes. It had emerged from the darkened back alleyway to stand next to library’s cool pearly-pink granite wall and watch me. “Someone needs to protect those books before they all end up destroyed. They’re sending them to the landfill.” The small metal flashlight clenched between my teeth caused the words to come out garbled. Both of my hands were busy working the lock.

A textbook for locksmiths that I’d borrowed from the library’s reference section sat open to the page featuring a diagram of a lock. Since I didn’t own a lockpick kit—why would I?—I’d improvised with a few sturdy paperclips bent to resemble the tools depicted on the book’s previous page. Every little sound, every scrape and rumble in Cypress’s quaint downtown, boomed in my ears. I jumped at the soft cough of a car engine. And with that cat watching me, I felt an itchy need to scurry into the nearest mousehole to hide.

But I couldn’t run. I had to finish what I’d set my mind to finishing.

After what felt like a million thundering heartbeats while I fumbled with the paperclips, the lock clicked. The door opened. I rose on shaky legs, gathering up the reference book and the stack of flattened moving boxes I’d brought with me. My gaze darted to the darkest corners of the alleyway before I slipped inside.

Just as the door started to close, the cat that had been watching with such a judgmental glare shimmied between my legs and into the library before the heavy metal back door clanked closed.

“Hey!” I called in a harsh whisper because shouting in a library simply wasn’t done. Whispering seemed even more important in the middle of the night as I sneaked inside on my clandestine mission.

The brown cat ignored me. With a yeow loud enough to have me instinctively hissing, “Shhhh!” the little beast darted upstairs and disappeared into the shadows of the stacks.

“Tru, you’re in for it now,” I muttered before dropping the stack of boxes. I sprinted after that darn cat.

Mrs. Farnsworth would have a heart attack if she discovered a flea-bitten kitty wandering among her books in the morning. I needed to get him out. The head librarian was already on edge with having to deal with the changes coming to the library. If I didn’t know the tough older woman better, I would have suspected she was busy plotting a murder.

About Dorothy St. James

                                                            

Mystery author Dorothy St. James was born in New York but raised in South Carolina. She makes her home on an artsy island community in South Carolina with her husband, a crazy dog, and fluffy cat. Though writing has always been a passion for her, she pursued an undergraduate degree in Wildlife Biology and a graduate degree in Public Administration and Urban Planning. She put her educational experience to use, having worked in all branches and all levels of government including local, regional, state, and federal. She even spent time during college working for a non-profit environmental watchdog organization.

Switching from government service and community planning to fiction writing wasn't as big of a change as some might think. Her government work was all about the stories of the people and the places where they live. As an urban planner, Dorothy loved telling the stories of the people she met. And from that, her desire to tell the tales that were so alive in her heart grew until she could not ignore it any longer. In 2001, she took a leap of faith and pursued her dream of writing fiction full-time.

* Dorothy St. James is the alter-ego of award-winning multi-published author, Dorothy McFalls. She enjoys writing in several different genres. Her works have been nominated for many awards including: Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award, Reviewers International Organization Award, National Reader's Choice Award, CataRomance Reviewers' Choice Award, and The Romance Reviews Today Perfect 10! Award. Reviewers have called her work: "amazing", "perfect", "filled with emotion", and "lined with danger."


Making of a Small Town…For a Mystery Series

When setting out to create the Beloved Bookroom Mystery series, one of the first things I needed to do was to figure out where I wanted the books to take place. After all, it’s “location, location, location.”

  Since this is a cozy mystery series, I knew I wanted the action to take place in a charming small town. Having worked with several Southern small towns in my past as an urban planner, I’d fallen in love with the charm and friendliness of the people who lived there. But which town did I pick? And how would I justify setting a series in one of these lovely places and then murder someone in every book? That wouldn’t be the neighborly thing to do.

So, I decided to create a fictional town that could exist in the real world, a town just as lovely and friendly as any you might find in rural South Carolina. That is how the Town of Cypress came to life.

  Cypress, named for the Cypress trees growing all around the low-lying town, is located on the shores of one of South Carolina’s man-made lakes, Lake Marion. Lake Marion, which is very real, was constructed in 1940 when the Santee Dam was constructed to create hydroelectric power to bring electricity to rural South Carolina. The creation of the lake flooded several historic towns. Some were moved, others were lost under the waters. I decided Cypress is one of the towns that was moved, and that’s why it now resides on the shore of the 110,000 acre lake. Many of its buildings date back to 1910 when the town was in its heyday.

Cypress, like many rural communities in South Carolina, is struggling. The economy is mainly supported by fishing and tourism. There used to be a paper mill, but it has closed. The desperate need for good paying jobs is why the town manager takes the bold step in modernizing the public library. He hopes to attract high tech jobs to his scenic little town.

  I invite you to grab your bike and come explore the town, especially the cypresstree lined downtown. Stop in the coffee shop and taste the best coffee brewed in the state, and of course visit the library, especially the secret bookroom tucked away in the basement.

Catch Trudell Becket’s adventures in the first Beloved Bookroom Mystery, The Broken Spine!

Trudell Becket, known to her friends as Tru, finds herself in a bind when her library in lovely Cypress, South Carolina, is turned into a state-of-the-art bookless “technological center.” A library with no books breaks Tru’s book-loving heart so she decides to rescue hundreds of beloved tomes slated for the town dump. Under the cover of darkness, Tru, along with her best friends—coffee shop owner Tori Green and mysterious bestselling author Flossie Finnegan-Baker—set up a secret bookroom in the library’s basement and prepare to open it to their most loyal, trustworthy patrons.

But as Tru and her crew are putting the finishing touches on their new book room, the town manager, who was behind the big push for the library’s transformation, is crushed by an overturned shelf of DVDs. Tru becomes the prime suspect as she hadn’t hid the fact that she hated having all of those wonderful books replaced by tablets and computers. But if she gives the police her alibi, she’ll have to explain about the secret book room and risk losing the books.

Tru knows she’s in a heap of trouble, and it doesn’t help that the officer in charge of the case is her old crush from high school, who broke her teenaged heart. To keep herself out of jail and her beloved bookroom up and running, Tru—with the help of Tori, Flossie, and a brown tabby stray cat named Dewey Decimal—decides to investigate. And faster than you can say “Shhhh!” Tru quickly finds herself on the same page with a killer who would love to write her final chapter. . . .

 

Author Links Website:http://www.dorothystjames.com Twitter:www.twitter.com/dorothywrites Facebook:www.facebook.com/dorothy.stjames Bookbub:www.bookbub.com/profile/dorothy-st-james 

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TOUR PARTICIPANTS:
January 19 – The Avid Reader – REVIEW  
January 19 – I'm All About Books – SPOTLIGHT  
January 19 – Mysteries with Character – AUTHOR INTERVIEW  
January 19 – Sapphyria's Book Reviews – REVIEW  
January 19 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT  
January 20 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT  
January 20 – Ascroft, eh? – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
January 20 – I Read What You Write – REVIEW, GUEST POST  
January 20 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW  
January 20 – Christa Reads and Writes – REVIEW  
January 21 – Here's How It Happened – SPOTLIGHT
January 21 – Ruff Drafts – AUTHOR INTERVIEW  
January 21 – Reading Is My SuperPower – REVIEW
January 21 – MJB Reviewers - SPOTLIGHT  
January 22 – Books to the Ceiling - AUTHOR INTERVIEW
January 22 – Celticlady's Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
January 22 – Moonlight Rendezvous- REVIEW, GUEST POST
January 22 – Cozy Up WIth Kathy - REVIEW  
January 22 – View from the Birdhouse – SPOTLIGHT
January 23 – Baroness' Book Trove – CHARACTER INTERVIEW  
January 23 – Diane Reviews Books – REVIEW
January 23 – Elizabeth McKenna - Author Blog – SPOTLIGHT  
January 23 – Maureen's Musings – SPOTLIGHT
January 23 – Mystery Thrillers and Romantic Suspense Reviews – SPOTLIGHT  
January 24 – Reading, Writing & Stitch-Metic - GUEST POST
January 24 – Lisa Ks Book Reviews – CHARACTER GUEST POST 
January 24 – Brianne's Book Reviews – REVIEW 
January 24 – Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers – SPOTLIGHT  
January 24 – StoreyBook Reviews - REVIEW  
January 25 – Brooke Blogs – SPOTLIGHT  
January 25 – Books a Plenty Book Reviews – REVIEW
January 25 – Literary Gold – CHARACTER GUEST POST
January 25 – The Pulp and Mystery Shelf – SPOTLIGHT
January 25 – Melina's Book Blog – REVIEW  
January 25 – Thoughts in Progress – SPOTLIGHT   
 
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4 comments:

  1. Thank you for hosting me on your blog today! xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  2. I just started The Broken Spine...I am definitely on Tru’s side. A bookless library would be horrible. Your background in urban planning is interesting to me. I spent 28 years looking for my local City government. For over 25 of those years, I was the Administrative Coordinator in the Planning and Development Services Department. I loved that job...it was so interesting. cking78503(at)aol(dot)com

    ReplyDelete
  3. This sounds like a real pager turner and I love the cover too.
    Heather

    ReplyDelete

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