Invitation to Die is published by Thomas & Mercer on 14th May. It’s the first full-length novel in my mystery series featuring twenty-six-year-old amateur sleuth, Emily Castles. She has already had two outings in two novellas I have written, Three Sisters and Showstoppers. Readers seemed to enjoy the stories so I was delighted when Thomas & Mercer asked me to write three new novels in the series.
When I was invited to join the Kindle Serials program and publish the first novel in serial format, I jumped at the chance. The program is fairly new – Amazon launched it in September 2012 – but there’s a strong tradition of publishing mystery novels in serial format. Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins published their books as serials in monthly magazines, as did Thomas Hardy. More recently, Armistead Maupin published his Tales of the City books in serial format before they appeared in paperback. Mystery novels work well like this, I think, because there’s often a cliffhanger or a twist at the end of a chapter to encourage the reader to turn the page and keep reading.
As part of the Kindle Serials program, readers are encouraged to discuss each episode with the author as it is published. I thought that would feel weird, but I enjoyed it; it was fun to interact with readers and talk about my work. As the series progresses and more Emily Castles novels are published, I hope to continue the conversation with readers on my blog and Facebook page.
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Synopsis: Twenty-six-year-old Emily Castles is out of work… again. So when famous romance author Morgana Blakely offers her a job helping out at a conference in London, Emily accepts. Just as eagerly, American blogger Winnie Kraster accepts an invitation from Morgana to attend as a guest, not realizing she has, in effect, accepted an invitation to die.
As a cast of oddball characters assembles at the conference hotel, grievances, differences, and secrets begin to emerge. When Winnie goes missing, and then is found murdered nearby, Emily begins to suspect that someone involved with the conference is responsible. Could it be one of the organizers, one of the authors, a member of the hotel staff, or even the supplier of the chocolates for the conference gift bags? Emily teams up with guest speaker and eccentric philosophy professor Dr. Muriel to find out.
Offbeat and engaging, this entertaining comic mystery is the first full-length novel featuring amateur British sleuth Emily Castles.
Biography:
Helen Smith is a member of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain, the Crime Writers Association and English PEN. She traveled the world when her daughter was small, doing all sorts of strange jobs to support them both--from cleaning motels to working as a magician's assistant--before returning to live in London where she wrote her first novel. Her work has been reviewed in The Times, the Guardian, The Independent, Time Out and the Times Literary Supplement. Her books have reached number one in the bestseller lists in the Kindle store on both sides of the Atlantic.
The giveaway prize for this tour is a $25 Amazon.com or Paypal cash. The link to the giveaway form is here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1rFkZ-WdgFY4m8M2HRdPAcztaDpgMra7XT48YdHSj8RA/viewform.
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