Flora Lively and a Date With Death by Joanne Phillips Virtual Book Tour, Guest Post, Excerpt and Giveaway

Flora Lively and a Date with Death
by Joanne Phillips

A Date With Death: Cozy Private Investigator Series
(Flora Lively Mysteries Book 2)
Publisher: Mirrorball Books (April 15, 2015)
Print Length: 183 pages
ASIN: B00W7GUVQI


Synopsis
Amateur sleuth Flora Lively is back to investigate another mystery, and this time the body count is rising …
When Flora’s best friend returns to England with a Spanish film crew in tow, Flora is thrilled to land a job on set at a glamorous country house. But when a member of the crew is brutally murdered, and the priceless Infanta Tiara stolen, suspicion falls on everyone at Hanley Manor – including someone far too close to home.
When an arrest is made, Flora is plunged deep into a puzzling mystery, with no idea who she can and cannot trust. Surrounded by suspicion and bitter rivalries, she must keep one eye over her shoulder at all times. Because the murderer is about to strike again …
A Date With Death is a cozy English village mystery, ideal for readers who love cozy reads with romance and humor, and British mysteries on Kindle.
(Book #2 in the Flora Lively British cosy mysteries series)
Praise for Book #1:
“A gripping tale filled with humanity and humor. Don’t miss this one!” Found Between The Covers
“An excellent start to a new cozy mystery series and a brand new amateur sleuth for readers to fall in love with.” Socrates Book Reviews
“The characters are lovely, and the mystery is top notch. Murder at the Maples is a wonderful start to a cozy series.” Brooke Blogs

About The Author
Joanne Phillips lives in rural Shropshire, England, with her husband and young daughter. She’s the author of romantic comedies Can’t Live Without, The Family Trap and Cupid’s Way, and the Flora Lively series of contemporary mysteries. Can’t Live Without was an Amazon top 100 bestseller in 2012 and her books regularly appear on category bestseller lists. Before becoming a writer, Joanne had jobs as diverse as hairdresser, air hostess and librarian, but now divides her time between writing and finding creative ways to avoid housework. She’s a fan of super-dark chocolate, iced coffee and Masterchef.
Author Links
http://www.joannephillips.co.uk
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/joannephillipsauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/joannegphillips
Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Joanne-Phillips/e/B0083UEG86/
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2862086.Joanne_Phillips
Purchase Links
US: http://www.amazon.com/Date-Death-Murder-Mystery-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B00W7GUVQI/
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Date-Death-Murder-Mystery-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B00W7GUVQI/





Guest Post; 3 Partners in shopping, Nana, Mommy, & Sissy, Too!  would like to to thank author

A Day In The Life of Flora Lively - Guest Post for 3 Partners in Shopping

Flora never planned to be an amateur sleuth. In fact, whenever Marshall (that annoying manager her father left her saddled with) teases her about it, she tries to point out that mysteries seem to find her, not the other way around. A typical day for Flora is absolutely mystery-free, with no dead bodies or sinister villains, just a nice easy removals job (and they are getting thin on the ground lately – business is not good), followed by an evening out with friends. Simple. Uncomplicated.

Unfortunately, these kinds of days are rare. Usually Marshall gets her wound up to snapping point within about three minutes of her arriving at work. And then there are their customers – don’t even get her started on the customers! Changing their removal dates constantly, insisting that every item be packed separately in about a ton of bubble-wrap, generally getting under their feet on moving day with their anxieties and fretting and last-minute panics.

This wasn’t Flora’s choice of job, oh no. She wanted to go train as a psychologist. She thinks she would have been good as some kind of counsellor or therapist. Why, people certainly seem to like to tell her their problems the whole time! Yesterday some random woman told Flora her entire life story – how her husband had left her for her own sister, how her child wasn’t really his, though, even though he didn’t know it, but that she planned to tell him one day, after he’d paid for the boy to go to college and spent a lifetime loving him, just to get him back for betraying her. Flora had only been in the house for half an hour! She was giving the woman a quote for removals, but she could tell this wouldn’t be a happy move. Three bedroom executive home in the suburbs to dingy flat in the city. Oh, my. Sometimes it was a real shame they were so strapped for cash they couldn’t afford to turn down any work at all.

Actually, when you thought about it, maybe solving mysteries was kind of fun. At least there was a sense of achievement, and that buzz you get when you finally figure out every part of the puzzle. Take that murder at Hanley Manor, while her friend was filming the Spanish film, Una Cita con la Muerte – which translates as ‘A Date With Death’. Now that was a puzzler alright! But Flora had got there in the end. It just goes to show, you should never underestimate a woman.

Tour Participants
July 15 – A Blue Million Books – Interview
July 16 – Christa Reads and Writes – Review
July 17 – Shelley’s Book Case – Review, Guest Post
July 18 – 3 Partners in shopping, Nana, Mommy, &, Sissy, Too! – Guest Post
July 19 – Book Splurge  – Review, Interview
July 20 – View from the Birdhouse – Interview
July 21 – Lori’s Reading Corner – Guest Post
July 22 – Lilac Reviews – Interview
July 23 – StoreyBook Reviews – Spotlight
July 24 – Omnimystery News – Guest Post
July 25 – Frankie Bow – Interview
July 26 – Cozy Up With Kathy – Interview
July 27 – Brooke Blogs – Review, Guest Post
July 28 – LibriAmoriMiei – Review
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A Date With Death – excerpt

Flora said goodbye to Celeste and Eduardo, then headed back down the main staircase, her hand trailing along the polished curved banister, enjoying the feel of the old wood under her fingers and imagining the countless hands that had done the same over the last two hundred or so years. She figured she’d retrace her steps to get back out to the garden, then head across the lawn and go into the trees at the same point Sidney and Marshall had disappeared from view. This Nook place couldn’t be that difficult to find.

At the bottom of the stairs she saw Sidney heading towards her. He was carrying a large silver tray piled with dirty dishes and muttering to himself. Flora, on an impulse she didn’t understand or analyse, ducked into a recessed doorway next to a huge Chinese-patterned urn. Sidney strode past, still muttering. He stopped across the hall in front of a closed door, then reached into a deep pocket with his free hand, pulling out an enormous ring of keys. He rattled it like a jailer, then grabbed a key and jabbed it into the keyhole. As he swung the door open and hoisted the tray through it, Flora caught sight of another long corridor, dimly lit and narrow. Then the butler kicked the door closed with his heel, and Flora heard it being locked again from the other side. She frowned. Odd to keep a service door locked like that. Wouldn’t it make life difficult for him and the other staff? Every one of them would have to have a key, for a start, and locking and re-locking doors all the time didn’t seem very safe from a fire safety point of view. Wouldn’t it be simpler to put a No Entry sign up and leave it at that?

She stepped out of the doorway. Weird. Maybe the family who owned Hanley Manor insisted on keeping doors locked, to stop prying eyes. A shuffling sound to her left caught Flora’s attention, and she turned to see a young woman step out of an alcove only five or six feet from where Flora herself had been hiding. The woman’s eyes flashed in alarm when she saw Flora; she whirled around in a mass of wild, dark hair and fled into the music room. Flora followed, but there was no sign of the woman in either the music room or the next room along.

‘Hello,’ Flora said. Her voice sounded hollow and too loud in the vast space. Every wall was crammed with ancient paintings, some so dark and discoloured it was impossible to discern colours or features. She turned in a circle, wondering if the woman was hiding in here. Which would be ridiculous, of course. The faces on the closest paintings stared back at her, their expressions either bleak or sneering. The silence felt so absolute it was almost a noise in itself.

Flora retraced her steps, and found her way back to the small lobby area with the benches and the coat racks. She stepped out of the dark house into the sunlit gardens with a sense of pure relief. And there was Marshall, slouching on the lawn, kicking at something in the grass, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his cargo shorts, familiar and incongruous as hell. Flora smiled, then headed over to greet him.

‘Hey, Lively,’ he said, looking up and shielding his eyes from the sun. ‘You are gonna love where we’re sleeping.’

$10 Amazon Gift Card.




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Tour Participants
July 15 – A Blue Million Books – Interview
July 16 – Christa Reads and Writes – Review
July 17 – Shelley’s Book Case – Review, Guest Post
July 18 – 3 Partners in shopping, Nana, Mommy, &, Sissy, Too! – Guest Post
July 19 – Book Splurge  – Review, Interview
July 20 – View from the Birdhouse – Interview
July 21 – Lori’s Reading Corner – Guest Post
July 22 – Lilac Reviews – Interview
July 23 – StoreyBook Reviews – Spotlight
July 24 – Omnimystery News – Guest Post
July 25 – Frankie Bow – Interview
July 26 – Cozy Up With Kathy – Interview
July 27 – Brooke Blogs – Review, Guest Post
July 28 – LibriAmoriMiei – Review