Book Signing: Mavens of Mystery Linda Lovely and Kerry Peresta!

Linda Lovely and Kerry Peresta will join us on Saturday, April 2nd from 1 – 3 pm and here’s your chance to get in on some uber-cool cozy mystery reading, at deals that’ll save you extra (for the gas pumps, eh?!) Here’s more about their featured books and the fabulous authors who wrote them!

With Neighbors Like These: HOA=DOA TERROR REIGNS…When a belligerent owner in another HOA is murdered, terror reigns. The Sheriff’s Department blames Ted for letting HOA feuds spiral into homicide. Kylee discovers links between the victims and suspects a recently-pardoned general is next. Authorities and the arrogant general dismiss her warning. Can she foil the third act in the crafty killer’s death-as-theater game or will she be the next corpse on display?

Dead Hunt: Three men want Riley Reid. One wants her dead.When a homegrown terrorist group threatens to turn prestigious Blue Ridge University into a funeral pyre, Riley Reid, Director of Security, is thrown into a shadow world where old hatreds run deep, family feuds poison relationships, and death and danger spill off the college campus into mountain wilderness. To survive, the former FBI agent must decide where to place her trust. Not easy when conflicting loyalties pose ethical dilemmas and the men in her life trigger emotions that war with logic.Dead Hunt is the second book in the Smart Women, Dumb Luck romantic thriller series. A college mentoring program-dumb luck-brings three smart women together. Riley Reid, an FBI agent, mentors coeds Nexi Ketts and Kate Johnson at her alma mater. A decade later, these fast friends know they can call on each other whenever dumb luck turns bad. In this series, each of these bright heroines faces a frightening array of killer choices.

The Deadening: Olivia Callahan’s quiet, orderly life is shattered when she regains consciousness in a hospital and discovers she is paralyzed and cannot remember a thing. The fragmented voices she hears around her help her piece together that an apparent assault landed her in the hospital, but nobody knows who attacked her, or why. After a chilling struggle to survive, she awakens from a coma unable to remember what happened to her or anything at all, except she has been told she is an entirely different person. Or is she? Now, in spite of a brain injury that has rewired her personality, Olivia is on a mission to reclaim her life. As clarity surfaces and she starts to understand who she was, she is shocked. Had she really been that person? And if so, does she want her old life back?

The Hunting: Top advertising salesperson at the Chatbrook Springs Sentinel newspaper, has a habit of falling in and out of marriage. After her last divorce, she’d shoved the emotional pain into a compartment in her brain to deal with later. With three teenagers to raise, bills to pay, and sales quotas to meet, introspection was a luxury she couldn’t afford. Her mind needed a happy place. When Isabelle (Izzy) discovered online dating, it immediately became her favorite stress reliever and best friend. Often, she’d steal into the night after her kids were asleep to meet someone new. One fateful evening, the hunt for the perfect guy took a sinister turn when the mystery man she met turned out to be her worst nightmare! Reluctantly pulled into a web of lies, Izzy is forced to confront her demons. Snarky, suspense-filled, and real, “The Hunting” is an exquisite entwining of the crippling emotional fallout of divorce with the quest for a healthy, fulfilling relationship. This inspirational story rivets!

A journalism major in college, Linda Lovely has spent most of her career working in PR and advertising-an early introduction to penning fiction. With Neighbors Like These is Lovely’s ninth mystery/suspense novel. Whether she’s writing cozy mysteries, historical suspense or contemporary thrillers, her novels share one common element-smart, independent heroines. Humor and romance also sneak into every manuscript. Her work has earned nominations for a number of prestigious awards, ranging from RWA’s Golden Heart for Romantic Suspense to Thriller Nashville’s Silver Falchion for Best Cozy Mystery.

A long-time member of Sisters in Crime and former chapter president, Lovely also belongs to Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, and the South Carolina Writers Association. For many years, she helped organize the Writers’ Police Academy. She lives on a lake in Upstate South Carolina with her husband, and enjoys swimming, tennis, gardening, long walks, and, of course, reading

Kerry Peresta’s publishing credits include a popular newspaper and e-zine humor column, “The Lighter Side,” (2009-2011); and her debut novel, The Hunting, women’s fiction/suspense, Pen-L Publishing, released in 2013. Before starting to write full time, she spent twenty-five years in advertising as an account manager, creative director, and copywriter. She is past chapter president of the Maryland Writers’ Association and a current member and presenter of Hilton Head Island Writers’ Network, and the Sisters in Crime organization.

Recently, she worked as editor and contributor for Island Communications, a small, local publishing house. Her magazine articles have been published in Local Life Magazine, The Bluffton Breeze, Lady Lowcountry, and Island Events Magazine. Her second book, The Deadening, suspense; releases February, 2021, with Level Best Publishing. Kerry is the mother of four adult children. She lives in Hilton Head with her husband and three annoying cats. She has a bunch of wonderful grandkids who keep life interesting…