by Cindy Brown
Dickens had famously evocative names for his characters. Can you think of any names in Oliver Twisted that pay homage to this trait? If you could choose a Dickensian name for yourself, what would it be?
Did you catch the Dickens reference in the opening line of the book?
Some of the screwball antics in Ivy’s books have been inspired by true stories (like the scene where Ivy’s trapped in the shower). Do you have any wacky true-life experiences that might fit into Ivy Meadows’s madcap world? (If so, the author would love to hear about them).
Enhance Your Book Club or Class Discussion
Read Dickens’s Oliver Twist, or watch the miniseries and/or the musical Oliver!
Create your own Dickens-themed meal. You can have a simple ploughman’s lunch (Ivy eats a version on pgs. 120-121), enjoy traditional tea and scones, or create a Victorian feast with recipes from What Shall We Have For Dinner?, a cookbook by Charles Dickens’s wife, Catherine.
Catch an aerial dance performance, or even take a class. If you can’t find an aerial dance troupe in your town, watch the “Maiden Light” performance online.
See if you can fit inside a restroom stall while wearing a hoopskirt (just kidding).
Visit www.cindybrownwriter.com to learn more about the author, and to sign up for her Slightly Silly Newsletter, an irreverent look at mystery and drama (with a smidgen of book news).
About the Author
Cindy Brown has been a theater geek (musician, actor, director, producer, and playwright) since her first professional gig at age 14. Now a full-time writer, she’s lucky enough to have garnered several awards (including 3rd place in the 2013 international Words With Jam First Page Competition, judged by Sue Grafton!) and is an alumnus of the Squaw Valley Writers Workshop. The first Ivy Meadows mystery, Macdeath, was an Agatha Award nominee for Best First Novel.
Though Cindy and her husband now live in Portland, Oregon, she made her home in Phoenix, Arizona, for more than 25 years and knows all the good places to hide dead bodies in both cities.
The Ivy Meadows Mystery Series
By Cindy Brown
Read all about it and/or grab the book from Amazon
MACDEATH (#1)
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THE SOUND OF MURDER (#2)
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OLIVER TWISTED (#3)
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Henery Press Mystery Books
And finally, before you go...
Here are a few other mysteries
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MURDER ON A SILVER PLATTER
Shawn Reilly Simmons
A Red Carpet Catering Mystery (#1)
Penelope Sutherland and her Red Carpet Catering company just got their big break as the on-set caterer for an upcoming blockbuster. But when she discovers a dead body outside her house, Penelope finds herself in hot water. Things start to boil over when serious accidents threaten the lives of the cast and crew. And when the film’s star, who happens to be Penelope’s best friend, is poisoned, the entire production is nearly shut down.
Threats and accusations send Penelope out of the frying pan and into the fire as she struggles to keep her company afloat. Before Penelope can dish up dessert, she must find the killer or she’ll be the one served up on a silver platter.
Read all about it and/or grab the book from Amazon
CLICK FOR MURDER ON A SILVER PLATTER
FATAL BRUSHSTROKE
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An Aurora Anderson Mystery (#1)
A dead body in her garden and a homicide detective on her doorstep…
Computer programmer and tole-painting enthusiast Aurora (Rory) Anderson doesn’t envision finding either when she steps outside to investigate the frenzied yipping coming from her own back yard. After all, she lives in Vista Beach, a quiet California beach community where violent crime is rare and murder even rarer.
Suspicion falls on Rory when the body buried in her flowerbed turns out to be someone she knows—her tole-painting teacher, Hester Bouquet. Just two weeks before, Rory attended one of Hester’s weekend seminars, an unpleasant experience she vowed never to repeat. As evidence piles up against Rory, she embarks on a quest to identify the killer and clear her name. Can Rory unearth the truth before she encounters her own brush with death?
Read all about it and/or grab the book from Amazon
CLICK FOR FATAL BRUSHSTROKE
A MUDDIED MURDER
Wendy Tyson
A Greenhouse Mystery (#1)
When Megan Sawyer gives up her big-city law career to care for her grandmother and run the family’s organic farm and café, she expects to find peace and tranquility in her scenic hometown of Winsome, Pennsylvania. Instead, her goat goes missing, rain muddies her fields, the town denies her business permits, and her family’s Colonial-era farm sucks up the remains of her savings.
Just when she thinks she’s reached the bottom of the rain barrel, Megan and the town’s hunky veterinarian discover the local zoning commissioner’s battered body in her barn. Now Megan is thrust into the middle of a murder investigation—and she’s the chief suspect. Can Megan dig through small-town secrets, local politics, and old grievances in time to find a killer before that killer strikes again?
Read all about it and/or grab the book from Amazon
CLICK FOR A MUDDIED MURDER
FIXIN’ TO DIE
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A Kenni Lowry Mystery (#1)
Kenni Lowry likes to think the zero crime rate in Cottonwood, Kentucky is due to her being sheriff, but she quickly discovers the ghost of her grandfather, the town’s previous sheriff, has been scaring off any would-be criminals since she was elected. When the town’s most beloved doctor is found murdered on the very same day as a jewelry store robbery, and a mysterious symbol ties the crime scenes together, Kenni must satisfy her hankerin’ for justice by nabbing the culprits.
With the help of her Poppa, a lone deputy, and an annoyingly cute, too-big-for-his-britches State Reserve officer, Kenni must solve both cases and prove to the whole town, and herself, that she’s worth her salt before time runs out.
Read all about it and/or grab the book from Amazon
CLICK FOR FIXIN’ TO DIE