A Matinee Classics Cozy Mysteries inspired puzzle!

I've been having fun with puzzles lately. For this one I asked AI for a theater with people watching a movie. 

Why a movie theater? Because many scenes in my Matinee Classics Cozy Mysteries are set in Sweet Penny Cove's Pinecone Theater. Amateur sleuth Stevie Jewel has a passion for classic movies, and each week runs several in the movie theater she owns with best friend, Melanie.

At the beginning of every movie, Stevie gives a spiel with facts and stories that surround the making of the films. Then she sits down to enjoy the movie with her customers...unless she has to run off and interview a murder suspect to help catch a killer.

For this puzzle I specifically asked AI for a picture of four older ladies in the front row, since there are four such ladies in the book I'm currently working on. I asked that the four women all looked different from each other.

So what did I get? Three women instead of four, and if you squint, they are slightly different😏Gee, thanks, AI! Nailed it.

Enjoy!

Sweet Penny Cove puzzle!

Hm...the only puzzles I've created have been autumn themed. Could it be that this is my favorite time of year? 🤔 It definitely is! 

This is pretty near what the town looks like that inspired Sweet Penny Cove. What do you think? Would you like to visit? The Matinee Classics Cozy Mystery Series will take you there!

Click here to do the puzzle!

Because the cover is so pretty!

 

Isn't this cover adorable? There's Rocky the Newfie riding in the back. He's my favorite part, but I also just love the pink Studebaker.

Hopelessly Dead to You is now available for purchase as an ebook, but don't buy it! 🫣

Yep, I said don't buy it. Unless you want to of course, but I want to give it to you for free!

A free ecopy of Hopelessly Dead to You is available when you sign up for my newsletter. You can unsubscribe again right away if you wish (there's an easy button), but the ebook is a gift you get to keep.

Here's where you sign up:

Della Pearl Newsletter Signup

If the book is free, why did I put it up for sale on Amazon?

Mostly because the cover is so pretty! I love seeing it with the other books.

Here's the link to that (Hopelessly Dead to You is at the bottom, listed as "related to" the series):

Matinee Classics Cozy Mystery Series

What to know about the book?

It's a NOVELLA. That is the first thing to know. It's about a quarter of the size of the regular books in my Matinee Classics Cozy Mystery Series.

Also, just as all the books in the series include classic movie spotlights, this novella focuses on a single movie title: the 1978 film version of Grease starring Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta.

Grease meant a lot to me as a pre-teen. Dancing, singing, teen angst...so much fun energy. I still can't stop myself from hopping and jiving and cutting a rug when the music starts. It was a joy including it in my murder mystery story.

If you haven't started the series yet, this is a great place to start!

Happy reading 🔎

And the second reason is...

 

Una O'Connor and Claude Rains in The Invisible Man (1933)

While the first reason I love writing the Matinee Classics Cozy Mystery Series is because I love vicarious snooping, the other is:

2. I love classic Hollywood trivia!

With every book in the series I choose a few old movies to spotlight. One of those lucky films gets a nod in the title. This time, it's the 1933 classic The Invisible Man starring Claude Rains. It's a terrific excuse to read up on the actors' lives, learn the details about how the film was made, and make connections. For instance, young and beautiful Gloria Stuart, who plays the Invisible Man's former fiancé, is well-known for her portrayal as the elderly Rose in Titanic. That kind of trivia makes me giddy.

And don't get me started on Claude Rains's life story. It's fascinating.

While only a few paragraphs about the movies appear in each book, my research always turns up so much more. I will stop and watch the Hollywood greats every time. Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Jimmy Stewart, Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, and so many more.

Una O'Connor
By DVD (Selznick Studio - United Artists) - Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936 film), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=159012208

I'll write more next time, but here's a quick note on Una O'Connor, who played the part of Jenny Hall the innkeeper in The Invisible Man. You may recognize the actress as she appeared in nearly a hundred supporting roles in her career, which ranged from 1929-1957. A Belfast, Ireland native, O'Connor played mostly humorous characters, such as the hysterical townsperson in Bride of Frankenstein, and a string of servants, crones, spinster chaperones, and nagging wives.

A Wikipedia article quotes a 1959 post humorous description of O'Connor:

... a frail little woman, with enormous eyes that reminded one of a hunted animal. She could move one to tears with the greatest of ease, and just as easily reduce an audience to helpless laughter in comedies of situation. She was mistress of the art of making bricks without straw. She could take a very small part, but out of the paltry lines at her disposal, create a real flesh-and-blood creature, with a complete and credible life of its own. (Eric Johns)

O'Connor never married or had children, but her legacy continues in her memorable screen presence. I think she steals the show in every scene she's in.

A new book in the Matinee Classics Cozy Mystery Series!

I'm delighted to share that The Invisible Corpse is out in the world!

This book is 2nd in the series. The mystery is a complete standalone, though Stevie, Melanie, Roddy, and the crew have their own lives going on, so I recommend starting the series with book 1, Here's Looking at Murder, Kid.

I have two favorite things about writing this series:

1. I love being with Stevie as she tiptoes somewhere she isn't supposed to go. I remember as a kid wanting to be like Nancy Drew, and sometimes venturing to those forbidden places.

We had a neighbor across the street who lived down a long driveway that disappeared into the trees. We couldn't even see his house, and we never saw him. (Why am I assuming it's a him? Hm.) The only sign of life there was every night around midnight, he backed down his driveway, the headlights shining up into my bedroom window. When he left again was a mystery.

One night around ten o'clock, we knew he wouldn't be home for a few hours and decided to venture down his driveway. We even had a reason in case we got caught, something to do with a school fundraiser. I didn't think to come up with an answer to the obvious question, why we were fundraising that late at night.

I also can't remember who I'd talked into taking this adventure with me, but considering how it ended, I can guess. It wasn't my try-anything friend, and it wasn't my rule-following little sister. It might have been my brother who for some reason trusted me, or my if-you-think-it's-a-good-idea friend. Because once we crossed the street and took a few steps toward that gaping black hole where the trees swallowed the driveway, I knew in my bones that it was a terrible idea to go down there. I told whoever was with me--I'm thinking it was my brother--and we decided to go home.

Nancy Drew would have been so disappointed in me, but we lived to tell the tale.

With Stevie's story, I find that she has no such qualms. She doesn't purposely put herself in danger, but she does venture to places where I never would. Stevie is Nancy Drew in her forties.

2. The second reason I love this series? I'll write about that next time.

Happy reading!

Della

The Body and Mr. Chicken puzzle

I took an hour off from writing to clean the house and accidentally made a puzzle instead. Whoops.

If you like digital puzzles, click on over and have some fun!

The Body and Mr. Chicken puzzle

 

Matinee Classics Cozy Mystery Series so far

Okay, friends, I just had to see all of these cute covers together. Aren't they fun? Rocky is the best part of them, of course. I especially like the HOPELESSLY DEAD TO YOU cover where he's in the classic car. 

If you're book shopping and thinking, huh, I can't find HOPELESSLY DEAD anywhere, that's because it's not for sale right now. It's only available for FREE.

If you look to the right (or I think it might be above if you're on your phone) and click on Newsletter and a free novella, you can get a copy. You'll have to sign up for my newsletter, but if you want to unsubscribe once you have claimed your free book, no worries! Sometimes my email box gets too full as well, so I get it.

I'll write more another day about how this series came to be. Meanwhile, happy reading, sleuth friends!

~Della