Henny Penny Farmette

Welcome September! I’ve got lots of exciting news for this month. First, A HIVE OF HOMICIDES, the third novel in my Henny Penny Farmette series of cozy mysteries, comes out on September 26. I’ll be doing a giveaway on Goodreads.com. But there’s more . . . .

“Lester’s sensitive portrayal of Abby’s struggle with her wounded psyche raises this traditional mystery above the pack.”–Publishers Weekly

The newest offering in the Henny Penny Farmette of cozy mysteries

This month marks the launch of an  exciting Barnes & Noble/Kensington Publishing “BUY 3, GET 1 FREE” sale throughout September. And my novel, THE MURDER OF A QUEEN BEE, is among the cozies featured! And there’s still more.

Everyone who buys a Kensington cozy mystery from the B&N in-store display or any Kensington cozy mystery from BarnesandNoble.com between 9/5/17 – 10/5/17 and registers their purchase at http://sites.kensingtonbooks.com/kensingtoncozies/BN/ will be automatically entered into Kensington’s “Cozy Mystery Bonanza” sweepstakes for a chance to win a $300 value gift basket.

–        The grand prize ($300 value)

–        Kensington Cozies Digital recipe book

–        A STORY TO KILL by Lynn Cahoon

One grand prize winner will be selected after the sale has concluded.

ABOUT QUEEN BEE: Murder claims the life of a free-spirited friend of ex-cop and farmette owner Abigail Mackenzie after a New Age Cult leader takes over an abandoned nudist camp in the mountains near Las Flores, California. Abby teams up with the dead woman’s brother to discover the killer’s identity even as an old boyfriend in Abby’s life shows up unannounced with a hidden agenda.

ABOUT HIVE: Abby suffers emotional challenges following the attempted murder of her friend Paola Varela and the death of  Paola’s husband. She seeks help from a new doctor in town while piecing together the clues to smoke out a killer. But as Abby attempts to heal and  help Paola  recover, she unwittingly places them both in the crosshairs of the killer.

See the full Publishers Weekly review at, https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-61773-917-0

The novel that launched the three-book Henny Penny Farmette series of mysteries is BEELINE TO MURDER.

BEELINE TO MURDER started theHenny Penny Farmette mystery series

ABOUT BEELINE: Abby is drawn into solving the murder of the celebrated pastry chef who buys her trademark lavender honey. The search for the murderer takes her through the lives of several of the town’s eccentric characters, exposing secrets along the way until she unmasks the killer among them.

Don’t miss this wonderful opportunity to stock up on your favorite cozy authors books this fall with the exciting offers from Barnes & Noble and Kensington.

I love it when the reviews start rolling in for one of my novels . . . in this case, THE MURDER OF A QUEEN BEE. Here’s a highlight of the Booklist review to be published in that magazine’s September 1, 2016 issue:

“Framed with details of beekeeping, herb growing, and living and working on a small farm in California, this charming cozy also includes well-drawn, engaging
characters and a promising new romance for Abby.”–Sue O’Brien

The first two novels in the Henny Penny Farmette series from Kensington Publishing.

For more than a century, Booklist magazine has been and continues to be the go-to resource for American librarians (see, http://www.ala.org/offices/publishing/booklist/).

As libraries develop and evolve their collections of all types of library materials for virtually every genre and age group, they depend on reviews that Booklist provides. As an author, I appreciate having positive reviews from respected publications such as Booklist and Kirkus as well as other media in their respective platforms. As a cozy author, I also appreciate the exposure my novels get on blogging sites and other social media platforms.

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Publisher’s Weekly, a major industry magazine that reviews books had this to say in its August 29, 2016 issue regarding THE MURDER OF A QUEEN BEE by Meera Lester (Kensington HC/October 2016/978-1-61773-913-2)

“Lester ticks all the boxes…This one is for lovers of cozy mysteries that are heavy on the cozy.” – Publishers Weekly

I’m also thrilled that Kirkus Review (see, https://www.kirkusreviews.com/), a valuable industry-firsts reviewing resource since 1933, has offered a review of my forthcoming novel, THE MURDER OF A QUEEN BEE that includes an excellent plot summary and this take-away quote about my protagonist ex-cop Abigail Mackenzie:

“Abby naturally finds it hard to concentrate on murder while she’s trying to decide what to do about Clay and her newfound attraction to Jack.  The second from Lester (A Beeline To Murder, 2016) is long on romance, sweet tips, and honey recipes. . . . [and] mystery, too.”

The Murder of a Queen Bee, byLester, Meera
312 p. Kensington, hardcover,  $25. (9781617739132)
E-book,  $11.99. (9781617739149).

These novels are available through online retailers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo Books, and Walmart as well as from traditional bookstores everywhere.

See, http://tinyurl.com/hxy3s8q

Now available in mass market paperback, this debut novel launched the Henny Penny Farmette series of mysteries and sold out its first press run.

See, http://tinyurl.com/h4kou4g

The second cozy mystery in the Henny Penny Farmette series, available Sept. 27, 2016, is now available on Net Galley (netgalley.com) for professionals and readers who write reviews.

With water use restricted in many counties because of the terrible drought, my garden is withering. Everyone in the Bay Area has to do their part. My onions look particularly pathetic.

In July, I polished a mystery I had hoped to sell. Mid-month, BEELINE TO MURDER sold to Kensington Publishing in New York as the first in a three-book deal. That meant I had to get cracking on the second book.

I forgot the onions. Poor things. The tops fell over and wilted, the bottoms swelled and stopped. A few succumbed to the soil organisms and bugs.

August rolled around and  I looked over the patch of brown stems and the heads that had gone to seed and vowed to dig everything out. But then . . . I got an offer to write a short nonfiction book that tied into the Law of Attraction, one of my favorite subjects. The onions had to wait for another 20 days until I cranked out that project.

Onion seeds fall out of dried blooms

Yesterday, my husband harvested the onions. Some have to be tossed because of bottom rot. Anything ignored will wither and die–that’s an axiom of gardening I’ve known since forever. So, the onions are gone, but their seeds are plentiful (thousands), so  this fall I will plant a new crop of onions and another in the spring and pray for rain.