Guest Sleuth Spotlight: Sloan Foster—Cue the Catastrophe
Meet Sloan Foster — author of Cue the Catastrophe. Vintage costumes, a chandelier death played for laughs, and a nine-pound Chihuahua named Taco.
Series: A Marnie Devlin Cozy Mystery
The Book: Marnie Devlin retired from teaching English so she could spend her afternoons with her vintage costume collection, her nine-pound Chihuahua, and the quiet pleasure of saying yes when the local theater asks for help. When the Players Community Theater requests a few weeks of period costumes for their spring production, she expects sawdust, slapstick, and good company. What she gets is a director crushed by his own chandelier — in front of an audience that, for several long seconds, thinks the death is part of the bit.
The Players Community Theater is the kind of small-town stage where everyone has a history with everyone else, and the dead director was, as the audience is about to discover, notoriously cruel. Marnie's official police consultant badge gets her past the velvet rope. Her instinct for spotting what doesn't fit gets her past the cast's polished alibis. Taco — her Chihuahua, who has never once been wrong about a person — gets her past the rest. The trio start pulling threads, and the threads do not lead where anyone expected.
The scorned actress, with a shattered engagement and a freshly padded bank account, looks suspiciously like a suspect. The silver-haired theater legend, whose life's work was stolen by the dead director, looks suspiciously like a better one. Then a second body turns up. Then evidence appears in Marnie's own boutique trunk — the kind that does not arrive there by accident. Someone closer than Marnie thought is watching every move she makes. Taco knew first. Marnie just has to catch up before the killer takes the final curtain call.
What Readers Are Saying: Just launched May 8, 2026.
“A retired English teacher, a community-theater chandelier death the audience mistakes for part of the bit, vintage costumes with secrets in the trunk, and a nine-pound Chihuahua named Taco who is never, ever wrong about a person. Consider this your spring-afternoon-on-the-porch recommendation. ”
Love Small-Town Mysteries?
If you enjoyed this spotlight, you'll love the Maple Grove Gazette—my weekly blog where a certain town archivist reports on the latest incidents in Maple Grove (there are always incidents), and I share the cozy mystery authors and books I think you need to know about.
👉 Read the latest Maple Grove Gazette
Want free early copies of my books? My ARC team, The Inner Circle, gets every new release before it hits Amazon — in exchange for honest reviews.
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Guest Sleuth Spotlight: Finley Page—The Poisoned Petal Express
A librarian. A rescued golden retriever named Bessie. A snowbound train and a dead influencer. Meet Finley Page — free on BookFunnel.
The Book: Librarian Charlotte Wren lives by lists and schedules. She likes knowing what's coming. So when she inherits a mystery bookstore from a great-aunt she barely knew, she does what any organized woman would — packs a neat suitcase, books a seat on the Poisoned Petal Express, and sets off to claim her inheritance the way you're supposed to.
One impulsive rescue of a shivering golden retriever named Bessie, and Charlotte's careful plans collapse in minutes. When ruthless influencer Dylan Rhinehart is found dead in his compartment during a blizzard, the elegant train becomes a locked-room mystery on rails. With Bessie at her side, a charming travel writer named Theo Parker, and rookie Deputy Mindy Collier on the case, Charlotte has to do the thing she's least comfortable with: improvise.
Was it the flamboyant magician Rhinehart humiliated? The ice-queen socialite shielding her husband's past? The quiet chef with a family secret Rhinehart was about to expose? As snowdrifts bury the train and the suspects grow desperate, Charlotte has to unmask the killer before they realize she's seen too much. On this train, everyone aboard is hiding something — but only one secret is worth killing for.
Rating: Just launched on BookFunnel — a brand-new reader magnet from Finley Page.
What Readers Are Saying: Fresh release — early readers are just discovering it.
“A librarian who inherits a mystery bookstore, a rescued golden retriever named Bessie, and a snowbound train with no way off? Every ingredient on my favorite-tropes list, all in one book. Yes please.”
Love Small-Town Mysteries?
If you enjoyed this spotlight, you'll love the Maple Grove Gazette—my weekly blog where a certain town archivist reports on the latest incidents in Maple Grove (there are always incidents), and I share the cozy mystery authors and books I think you need to know about.
👉 Read the latest Maple Grove Gazette
Want free early copies of my books? My ARC team, The Inner Circle, gets every new release before it hits Amazon — in exchange for honest reviews.
👉 Apply for Willow's Inner Circle | Get Ghosts Don't Use Blueprints on Amazon