Welcome to Piney Falls: A Cozy Historical Murder Mystery
(Piney Falls Mysteries) by Joann Keder
I am so happy to welcome November Bean and Lanie Anders to Escape With Dollycas today!
Please tell us a little about yourself.
November Bean here, year of the N. I’ve never been one to brag, but I can yodel in four octaves. You might ask why one would do that, but the real question is, why not?
I’ve lived most of my life in the Piney Falls area. I don’t like talking about the early years. It was too restrictive and we were all supposed to be the same. If you’ve ever met me, you know I’m nothing like your average Piney Fallian. Is that right? It sounds right to me.
I married the Toilet Paper King. When people ask about our marriage, I like to say, “I’ve never been more satisfied than when he was flushed.”
Luckily, he was loaded, so guess what? Now I don’t have to worry about money. I teach meditation and yoga and like to howl.
Are you done, Vem?
Okay, hi. I’m Lanie Anders. I thought I was doing this alone, but November informed me that you wanted both of us here. Let’s see…I am the marketing manager for the multi-national company, Work Ahead Office Supplies–The Most Profitable Office Supply Chain in the World. I won the Up and Comer Award three years in a row at the Markies.
My office is located in Chicago, but I spend most of my time traveling. I love the businesswoman life.
I used to be very self-absorbed. That played out in numerous ways–what’s that, Vem?
She wants me to tell you about my experiences at marketing conferences. You’ll just have to read about them in the book. People might be offended if I go into detail.
November: She sewed her wild oats, as the kids say. Lanie has stories that curl my toes, and not in a good way.
Do you have any concerns about the loss of life in Piney Falls?
November: Why are you asking me, specifically? Do you think I had something to do with it? I don’t even kill the bugs that wander into my house. You should have seen the spider floating in my Oat Boats last week. Did you know they can backstroke across a bowl in three seconds flat? I timed it.
What? Oh yeah. The mysterious deaths. I like to think I’m connected to nature, but not so much to humans. It’s a safe community. I leave my doors unlocked at night and sunbathe in the nude.
LANIE: I’d like to interject here. Vem does in fact, lock her doors.
NOVEMBER: No, I don’t.
LANIE: We are most concerned about the deaths and the fact that the police don’t take them seriously. There is a link to the past, I believe, specifically the Scheddy Cannery from the turn of the century.
Tell us more about your research, Lanie.
I came here to discover out why the town of Flanagan, Oregon changed it’s name to Piney Falls. There isn’t much online that I could find. I just get the sense that people are hiding things from me. So far, everyone is either disinterested or mysteriously tight-lipped.
NOVEMBER: That’s because we’re all concentrating, Lanie. You use big words like, “disinterested.” We’re “cut-to-the-chase” kind of people. We don’t like lots of syllables.
November, can you explain why everyone wears name tags? What’s the significance of the one you’re wearing?
We are a coastal town and that in and of itself should have brought people. We did a survey in other Oregon Coast towns, and we learned that our town has a reputation for being odd. I scratch my head over that one.
A year or two ago, we hired a marketing agency to come here and help us attract more tourists. They suggested wearing these name tags, so people could identify us by name and feel a connection.
Underneath our names, we were given a specific tourist activity to promote. Each person had three paragraphs to memorize about that specific activity so they could explain to a tourist why they should see that attraction.
It seemed like a good idea in the beginning, then it just got creepy. People would cover the bottom half of their name tags in protest and others made up silly things to promote. The other problem was that we don’t have as many tourist spots as we thought.
Larry from the bowling alley has a nametag that says, “Hi, I’m Larry. Ask me about our trash pickup.”
What? Oh yeah, you wanted to know about mine. My name tag says, “Hi, I’m November Bean. Ask me about our gas.” I left it on the counter at the grocery store while I meditated over the celery. When I came back, I noticed someone had scratched out, “class,” as in my meditation classes and wrote gas.
What do you ladies think will be the outcome of Lanie’s research? Let’s start with you, November.
I think she’s going to discover we’re very boring people. There’s really nothing going on here, with the exception of the few people who’ve jumped over the falls and those weird mounds in my backyard. Oh, and she’s going to find the man of her dreams and get married and live happily ever after.
LANIE: Getting married isn’t part of my research, Vem.
NOVEMBER: When I looked at your search history on your computer last night, I saw “Ruggedly handsome men on the Oregon Coast.” Re-search, Lanie.
LANIE: (sighs) I’m not going to argue with you in front of these nice people. This story intrigues me. It’s why I came all the way from Chicago. While the people here are different, something is drawing me in. If I were to guess, I’d say the name change, the Scheddy Cannery, and the mysterious deaths are just the tip of the iceberg.
Thank you, Lanie and Vem for visiting today!
Keep reading to find out more about these 2 characters featured in the Piney Falls Mysteries.
About Welcome to Piney Falls
Welcome to Piney Falls: A Cozy Historical Murder Mystery (Piney Falls Mysteries)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – Fictional town of Piney Falls, Oregon
Purpleflower Press (March 14, 2021)
Hardcover : 270 pages
ISBN-10 : 1953270999
ISBN-13 : 978-1953270993
Paperback : 318 pages
ISBN-10 : 1733663940
ISBN-13 : 978-1733663946
Digital ASIN : B083FF56FZ
Winner of the Literary Titan Silver Award
Lanie has no idea what awaits her in Piney Falls…
Lanie Anders has a perfectly-ordered life. From her half-foam morning latte to her high-powered executive job – she controls every outcome. But when her house burns to the ground in mysterious circumstances, her life is thrown into confusion.
Searching for some kind of purpose, she stumbles across a century-old mystery and flees to Piney Falls, Oregon, an oceanside hamlet with a curious past. But something isn’t quite right in the picturesque town. Her neighbor speaks in riddles, the death rate is alarmingly high and the impossibly handsome town baker is hiding something.
With each clue she unearths in the present and the past, she becomes more convinced that the townspeople are in imminent danger.
Will Lanie be able to solve both mysteries without putting her own life in jeopardy?
Find out why readers are calling Welcome to Piney Falls “immensely immersive and totally gripping.” Don’t miss the first in this exciting new mystery series!
About Joann Keder
Joann Keder spent most of her years in the Midwest, growing up and raising a family on the Great Plains of Nebraska. She worked for sixteen years as a piano teacher before returning to school to receive a master’s degree in creative writing. A mid-life move to the Pacific Northwest lead her to re-examine her priorities. She now creates stories about life and relationships in small towns while her ever-patient husband encourages her on.
Author Links
Website – Facebook – Instagram – Amazon – GoodReads Link
Purchase Links – Amazon
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February 14 – I Read What You Write – CHARACTER GUEST POST
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This sounds like the start of a good, quirky series.
What an interesting mystery! Great character interview. Thanks for sharing.