Say Cheese!!!! I am so thrilled Avery Aames is visiting today. You know how we love our cheese in Wisconsin! Avery writes the Cheese Shop Mysteries and besides the wonderful mystery I just love all the cheese information and recipes. Today I am sharing a virtual tray with Wisconsin made Linderkranz cheese, some dried apricots and a little rye bread. (My dad was a Borden’s milkman for years and this cheese used to be a treat at our house.) I am sure Charlotte, the star of this series, would know the perfect wine to go with this yummy cheese, but around here a nice dark beer is our usual complimenting beverage. Please help yourselves and relax and enjoy Avery’s post.
Welcome Avery!
Thank you, Lori, for inviting me to talk about the third in A Cheese Shop Mystery, Clobbered by Camembert.
I know this might sound cheese-y, but I’m truly thrilled to write about cheese. I have a love affair with it. I didn’t. Before writing this series, I had tasted the usual suspects: Cheddar, Monterey Jack, Swiss. But then I started to do research, and I’ve fallen head-over-heels with cheeses with names like: Délice de Bourgogne and Hook’s Five-Year Cheddar and Abbaye de Bellocq. Aren’t these heavenly and unusual names?
It’s such a joy to write about food. I love to cook, to explore. I blog about food on Mystery Lovers Kitchen with a number of other foodie authors, and we have so much fun.
Often people ask if my protagonist, Charlotte, a cheese shop owner, is like me. Actually, the answer is yes. She’s much younger and single (for now), but like me, she’s impulsive, caring, and a fixer by nature. She can’t stand on the sidelines. She has to dig in and make things right. It gets her in trouble [It often gets me in trouble, too]. I don’t like to see the underdog suffer. And I really care about my community: my family, my friends, my city and country. Would I ever be a cheesemonger? I’m not sure about that. I think running a business would be so difficult. You have to consider the customers, the purchasing, the state of the store, taxes, disability insurance, and so much more. My hat goes off to people who continue to start new businesses in this country to make our economy hum. I did consider owning a restaurant at one time. I wanted to have a diner, like the Country Kitchen across the street from Fromagerie Bessette (The Cheese Shop). I would have loved to serve up grilled cheese sandwiches and burgers and shakes, with delicious homemade pies, homemade ice cream, and cheesecakes for dessert. Yum! Can you tell I like food? And I would have demanded that the wait staff dance in the aisles! Heck, I would have joined them.
Many of my CHEESE SHOP MYSTERY readers ask if I have tasted all the cheeses that I mention in the books. I have tasted over 200 cheeses in the past year and a half and intend to taste another 200 in the year to come. I also have a real-life cheesemonger, Marcella and her feline foodie, Spaulding Gray, that give me fabulous suggestions! [I recently shared an Italian Meatball recipe on her site. Mounded with cheese. Divine.]
Research is so much fun. It’s been one of the true delights of my life going into various cheese shops and asking for a sliver of something new or buying a unique cheese online and offering it at a party. A recent discovery was Rush Creek Reserve, from Oregon. Talk about melt-in-your-mouth. Set out at room temperature, it’s a paste that simply scoops out of its bark-bound crust. Delish!
As for mysteries, I’ve been a mystery fan for as long as I can remember. As a girl, I read all of the Nancy Drew stories and Agatha Christie novels. And now I read many of the current foodie mysteries from wonderful authors, such as, Krista Davis, Cleo Coyle, Julie Hyzy, and so many more!
I hope you all enjoy Clobbered by Camembert
You can read more about the book and the series on my website: http://www.averyaames.com,
or Facebook http://www.facebook.com/averyaames.
And I’m always thrilled to hear from my writing and reading friends on twitter! http://www.twitter.com/averyaames.
About This Author
Avery Aames is the Agatha award wining, nationally bestselling author of The Cheese Shop Mystery series, which launched in 2010 with The Long Quiche Goodbye.
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Clobbered by Camembert (CHEESE SHOP MYSTERY)
The Berkley Publishing Group
Published by The Penguin Group
A Cheese Shop Mystery
3rd in the Series
Cover Illustration by Teresa Fasolino
Cover Design by Annette Fiore Defex
Charlotte Bessette—proprietor of Le Petit Fromagerie, affectionately known in Providence, Ohio, as the Cheese Shop—is busy setting up her tent for the town’s Winter Wonderland faire, where she’ll offer fine wines and scrumptious cheeses. In the midst of the preparations, Charlotte meets an old friend of her mother, Kaitlyn Clydesdale, who has come back to Providence with plans to start a new honeybee farm.When Kaitlyn is found dead in the cottage of Charlotte’s assistant Rebecca, suspicion falls on Rebecca’s boyfriend, a honeybee farmer himself. Charlotte knows this beekeeper wouldn’t hurt a fly, so she decides to find the real killer. While the town buzzes with gossip, can Charlotte catch the culprit without getting stung herself?
Dollycas’s Thoughts
Charlotte Bessette is a wonderful strong woman, raised by her grandparents. Her parents were killed in an accident when Charlotte was just a toddler. She has had more than a few bumps already in life but emerges from each them even stronger. She also has a huge heart which means it is hard for her to say “no” to anyone which sometimes leads her to yet another bump in the road. The trouble is lately this bumps have been dead bodies or live ones she just wishes would leave her alone. Rebecca is quite demanding of Charlotte in this installment but then again her boyfriend is being accused of murder. You can’t help but love these characters.
As you can see from the cover of the book illustrated by Teresa Fasolino, the setting is gorgeous. The Winter Wonderland Faire sounds like an awesome event, the food, the ice sculptures, the choir, the author puts you right there, you may even shiver from the cold weather as the snow starts to gently fall.
Avery also sculpts a wonderful winter mystery. New characters come to town shedding some light on the past and also with big ideas that could mean major changes to Providence making many upset as they learn the details. But who would commit murder? We are kept guessing until the very end.
The setting may be winter but that makes this is a perfect cozy to curl up in front of the fire to read. Don’t forgot to pour a glass of wine and make a little cheesy snack. The story will have you craving both.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”