Today Lynn Cahoon is visiting Ascroft, eh? to tell us about Sconed to Death, her latest novel in the Cat Latimer mysteries series.

Welcome, Lynn. Let’s get started, shall we?

Tell us about your novel. Is it part of a series? If so, please tell us about the series too.

LC: SCONED TO DEATH is book 5 of the Cat Latimer series.  Cat is a YA author who opens a writers retreat in the house she inherited after her ex-husband’s death. She and her BFF run the retreat starting with A STORY TO KILL and her high school sweetheart joins the team to help get the house in shape.  When a famous author is killed during the retreat, Cat has to find the murderer to keep them from shutting her down.

We find Cat, Shauna, and Seth in SCONED TO DEATH at the start of a new retreat. But someone keeps calling the health department on Shauna’s kitchen.

Here’s the official blurb: Cat Latimer pursues a scone-cold killer who iced a top chef in a local bakery . . .

Cat has a full plate at her Aspen Hills Warm Springs Resort, as a group of aspiring cozy mystery authors arrives for a writers retreat. So when baker Dee Dee Meyer stirs up trouble by filing a false complaint with the health inspector against the B&B—all because she insists Cat’s best friend Shauna stole her recipes—Cat marches into the shop to confront her.

But Dee Dee’s about to have her own batch of trouble. Greyson Finn—a celebrity chef and, until today, one of Denver’s most eligible bachelors—has been found dead in her bakery. Cat’s uncle Pete, who happens to be the chief of police, warns her not to engage in any half-baked sleuthing. But as her curiosity rises, Cat’s determined to discover who served the chef his just desserts—before the killer takes a powder.

Where did the idea for the mystery that is central to the story come from?

LC: I’m a huge Top Chef fan. Okay, so I love all the competition cooking shows. When I built this plot I had the jealousy of the bakery owner on my mind but who better to kill than a local top chef?

Is there a theme or subject that underlies the story? If so, what prompted you to write about it?

LC: I’m always writing about friendship, community, and relationships.

How do you create your characters? Do you have favourite ones? If so, why are you partial to them?

LC: Since I’m writing series, the main characters stay the same. Sometimes new townies are introduced and later, they might have a bigger role in an upcoming story. Shauna’s been front and center for a few books now. With her writing a cookbook, I can see a lot of possible futures for her and the cookbooks.  They’re all my favorites, but I do love Uncle Pete. Having a strong father figure in the books is important to me. (And my characters.)

How do you bring to life the place you are writing about?

LC: It’s all about setting. If you can imagine yourself in Aspen Hills walking the college campus or visiting Tammy’s bookstore, I’ve done my job. I also use Google to figure out what I need to know that my character would know about the area even though I build fictional towns. They are set in real areas.

What research do you do to provide background information to help you write the novel?

LC: I research the things I need to know. I’m not writing police procedural so I don’t have to deal with how many set of handcuffs a typical officer has on his belt. But I do need to know how a stunner works. Which I wrote wrong the first draft of a different book, but something was bothering me and I found it before I sent the book to my editor.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell readers about the book?

LC: There’s a recipe at the end of the book. I hope you try out Sconed and the rest of the Cat Latimer series. Set in Colorado, Aspen Hills is a place where I’d love to vacation or even live. So I satisfy the urge by letting my character live there.

Thanks for answering my questions, Lynn, and good luck with Sconed to Death, the latest book in the Cat Latimer Mystery series.

Readers can learn more about Lynn and her writing by visiting her website and her Facebook and Goodreads pages. You can also follow her on Twitter.

The novel is available at the following online retailers:

Amazon – B&N – Kobo – Google Play

About Lynn Cahoon: Lynn is the award-winning author of several New York Times and USA Today bestselling cozy mystery series. The Tourist Trap series is set in central coastal California with six holiday novellas releasing in 2018–2019. She also pens the Cat Latimer series available in mass market paperback. Her newest series, the Farm to Fork mystery series, debuted in 2018. She lives in a small town like the ones she loves to write about with her husband and two fur babies.