One Gold Ring (Century Cottage Cozy Mysteries)
by Dianne Ascroft
It is my pleasure to welcome Lois Stone to Escape With Dollycas today!
Please tell us a little bit about yourself, your family, and your job.
Hello. I’m Lois Stone. I guess you could call me middle-aged – I’m 55. As a librarian, I love books and reading. I work part-time at our town library. It still feels strange to refer to it as ‘our town’ as I only moved from the big city of Toronto to Fenwater a couple of summers ago.
I guess you could say my family is rather small. I’m a widow and I live on my own with my two calico cats, Ribbons and Raggs. My husband James and I didn’t have any children. One of my cats, Ribbons, is very protective toward me since my husband died and sometimes I’d swear she’s keeping watch over me from her perch on the windowsill. Her steady purring as she sits there is comforting.
My mother and stepfather only live a couple of hours away from me in Toronto but I don’t see them too often. My father and I were close when he was alive but my mother isn’t the easiest person to get along with. The less we see of each other, the better our relationship is. My partner Bruce and I have been getting steadily closer over the past couple of years so maybe I should include him as family too. He doesn’t live with us but my cats and my resident ghost, Beldie, all accept him as part of our family.
Are you more optimistic or pessimistic about the mystery you are involved in?
Well, we’re trying to find a ring that belongs to my partner, Bruce. It was accidentally left on the table in the Honey Pot diner when he and my friend Marge went up to the counter to look at the Specials board. We don’t know any of the other people who were in the diner at the time so we have our work cut out for us to figure out who they are and where to find them again before we will have any idea which one is most likely to have taken it. From what I’ve seen, it could have been any of them so I don’t think it’s going to be easy to find it. And a ring is so small. It’s easy to hide. The odds are stacked against us.
Do you have a sidekick to help you follow clues?
Marge Kirkwood is my closest friend. I’m not sure whether she’s my sidekick or vice versa. She’s the same age as me and she’s from Fenwater. She’s been divorced for quite a while and she returned to her hometown a couple of years ago to keep an eye on her elderly mother. Mind you, I often think that it’s her mother, Mrs G., who has to keep an eye on Marge. Marge is the archivist at the local museum and we met when we worked together at a Toronto library. We now live a couple of blocks from each other on the same street.
She and I have been friends for years, and I guess you could say, we’re unlikely friends as she’s the complete opposite to me. She’s outspoken, confident and extroverted. A real social butterfly and she has introduced me to just about everyone in town. She’s been a great support to me since James died but she also lands me in trouble at times. This mainly happens when she gets us involved in police investigations and we end up in over our heads.
Do you have a spouse/significant other who wishes you would stay out of the latest crime investigation?
Yes, I have a man in my life. I first met Bruce when Marge called him to repair my window after my house was broken into a couple of summers ago. After spending time with Bruce and getting to know him, a friendship grew between us and it gradually developed into more. We’ve been taking our time as I miss James and it’s taken a while to come to terms with his death. But I’m really fond of Bruce and am glad we’re together.
He’s so easy-going. I love being around him. He isn’t one to say much so I don’t always know what he’s thinking, but I trust him. The one subject that he is outspoken about though is my involvement in criminal investigations. He asked me to promise I wouldn’t get involved in any more of them. He worries about the scrapes that Marge and I get into. I know he couldn’t stand it if I got hurt. Nevertheless, he wouldn’t let Marge and I down, and he has stepped in to help us catch criminals a time or two. I think he sees it as saving our necks though he wouldn’t say that out loud.
Do you have a special way of sorting through the clues when they get muddled?
When my friend Marge and I have too many suspects and clues to make sense of we meet up in our favourite window booth at the Honey Pot diner or in front of the old brick fireplace in my living room, and go through everything over a cup of coffee and something sweet: apple and cinnamon muffins for me and banana ones for Marge (or sometimes Dutch windmill cookies that my neighbour Blanche makes). That sugar boost gets our brains going – not mentioning that Marge can’t function without coffee.
If you could change one thing about how your author writes you, what would it be?
I like the plots that Dianne dreams up. She released The Snow Job, the third novel in the Century Cottage Cozy Mysteries series, last winter and this Christmas novella, One Gold Ring, last month. She’s currently busy editing the fourth novel in the series so she can release it next spring. I’m eager to find out what happens next.
What I’m not always keen on is some of the situations I end up in but you can’t really blame Dianne for that. That’s mostly Marge’s doing. Dianne would be happy if I solved crimes without putting myself in danger. I have to admit that Marge sometimes scares me silly with the things she drags me into, but I think we’re developing a knack for solving crimes and I couldn’t be happier than when we catch a criminal. So I hope Dianne keeps putting me in the path of mysteries to solve – I’ll just have to stay on my toes to keep Marge from getting us into too much trouble.
Would you like to travel to find your next mystery? Where?
May I remind you that I’m the one who tries to avoid getting dragged into solving mysteries – I’ve promised Bruce that I won’t go looking for trouble. It’s my friend Marge who can’t stay out of them. So I don’t plan to go off looking for something to solve.
I’m not really someone who does a lot of travelling anyway. I have my cats and my lovely stone century cottage to look after, but I do sometimes like to get back to my old neighbourhood in Toronto to see how my friends there are faring. So that might be my next trip – though I am hoping it will be a crime-free visit. Then again, that’s what I always say after every adventure Marge and I have, but things don’t usually go just as I’ve planned.
Do join us in my current adventure as Marge, Bruce and I traipse through Fenwater’s cheery Christmas streets and market on our hunt for Bruce’s missing ring. He’s really upset that it’s gone and I want to do everything I can to help him get it back.
Thank you, Lois, for visiting today!
Keep reading for more information about Lois’s latest adventure and about her author, Dianne Ascroft.
About One Gold Ring
One Gold Ring (Century Cottage Cozy Mysteries)
Cozy Mystery
Novella related to the main Century Cottage Cozy Mysteries Series
Setting – Fenwater – a fictional small town in rural Canada.
Independently Published (November 1, 2025)
Paperback
Print length : 104 pages
ISBN-13 : 979-8272391599
Digital
Print length : 102 pages
ASIN : B0FYX6KXGD
A busy shopping street, a cozy coffee klatch, a missing ring: Marge Kirkwood has no desire for anyone to gift five gold rings to her. She just needs to find one elegant gold ring sparkling with dainty diamonds and rubies: the one that was stolen due to her carelessness.
When Marge Kirkwood meets her friend Bruce Murray at the Honey Pot diner to reassure him about his choice of an engagement ring for her best friend Lois Stone, she couldn’t be happier for the couple. But a few moments of her inattention could scupper Bruce’s plans for a romantic Christmas proposal. A cunning thief seizes the opportunity Marge’s lapse affords to snatch Bruce’s family heirloom. Soon afterwards Lois arrives and joins Marge and Bruce in the search for the ring. Three heads may be better than one or two but Lois can’t find out that it’s her engagement ring they are hunting for.
And so the week before Christmas begins with dashing through the snow without a sleigh, tangy gingerbread muffins and cinnamon scented apple cider, clever calico cats, slippery snow-sheathed sidewalks, glittering gems set in gold, hazardous high-heeled boots, rushing thieves and bustling Christmas shoppers set against a cheerful holiday clad shopping street, sultry Christmas songs serenading shoppers in the market, the sweet scent of carnations, roses and baby’s breath bouquets in the florist’s window and a mantlepiece twinkling with shiny baubles and lights woven through holly in a comfy century cottage.
Great Escapes Praise for One Gold Ring
(Century Cottage Cozy Mysteries)
by Dianne Ascroft🎄What a fun, festive short story about a missing ring! Clocking in at just a little over 100 pages, this is the perfect read for this busy season. I was holding my breath as the characters scrambled to uncover what was lost!
~Sarah Can’t Stop Reading BooksI recommend that cozy mystery lovers give this novella a read during the Christmas season to get into the holiday spirit. It’s also a must-read for those of you who’ve read all of the Century Cottage books and have been waiting for this proposal.
~Christy’s Cozy Corners
About Dianne Ascroft
Dianne Ascroft is a Canadian who has settled in rural Northern Ireland. She and her husband share their small farm with some elusive wild creatures. She is currently writing the Century Cottage Cozy Mysteries series. She believes that part of the enjoyment of reading a cozy mystery is losing oneself in a pleasing setting so she fictionalized a small town she knew and the first novel in the Century Cottage Cozy Mystery series, and the town of Fenwater evolved from there. She wanted to create a place that beckons readers to step in and stay a while, and characters that readers would remember. Cozy mysteries allow her to explore the characters and the place, as well as the mystery at the heart of the story. Writing stories set in her homeland, Canada, has also been a nostalgic journey for her and she enjoys every minute of it.
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Thanks, Lori, for inviting Lois to stop by your blog today. I hope your readers enjoyed meeting her.
Dianne Ascroft