Welcome to Cozy Wednesday!
I am thrilled to have Nancy Haddock back for another visit today!
Inspector Gadget?
by Nancy Haddock
(Guest Post Provided by Publicist)
Hello, Readers! Thank you for stopping by, and many thanks to my hostess for having me here!
Last year I came out of the closet. The office supply closet to be exact. The one filled with more sticky notes, colored paper clips, and file folders than I’ll use in my lifetime. Yes, I have a fatal attraction to office supplies.
Now I’m ready to admit I also have a gadget fixation, and it’s the mountain of catalogues I still get at this time of year that reminded me of my little addiction.
Sigh.
I imagine most of us have bought our fair share of gadgets. After all, they’re everywhere! Does the phrase “as see on TV” ring a bell? Perhaps a cute owl kitchen timer bell?
A gadget is “a small mechanical or electronic device or tool, especially an ingenious or novel one.” Synonyms include appliance, implement, tool, utensil, contraption, machine, device, and gismo. By this definition, gismos come in every size—small, medium, large and humongous!
I’ve purchased gadgets to assist in-house cleaning from floors to ceilings. Wet and dry mops, a baseboard duster, hand dusters with some sort of static-cling technology in the pads. Pet hair removers, vacuums, bathroom scrubbers, extendable dusters to reach ceiling fans and whisk away ceiling cobwebs those itty-bitty “corner” spiders make. Ack! Stop the cleaning gadget madness!
Other gadgets make mealtime preparations easy … and even fun! Pause to remember those commercials in which the excited announcer’s voice touts the latest and greatest way to slice, dice and make Julienne fries! What the announcer doesn’t tell you is that the leverage and sheer force needed to slice, dice and julienne is equivalent to 500 pounds per square inch. Your average giant bodybuilder might pull off this kind of kitchen magic, but I can’t.
Naturally, the gadgets I especially love our office and computer gadgets. Storage units for the aforementioned office supplies, and USB hubs. A small external hard drive suitable for travel, and the ever-popular flash drives. Power surge protectors, one with battery backup power. The only gizmo I’ve yet to find is someone thing or system that will truly organize and hide the jumbled jungle of power cords for my desktop computer, printer, etc.
Whether for indoors or out, whether for spring, summer, autumn, or winter, we have gadgets for every season and every reason.
But wait? Do we really have all the tools, gizmos, and gadgets we need? I don’t, and I have a list of what I’d like to see invented. Here are my top contenders.
- A whole-house dust and vacuum system. I’m not talking about the robotic vacuums on the market. I want to flip a switch and magically have all the dust and pet hair sucked out of the house. All that stuff tucks into your wall spaces to further insulate your home!
- A Jetsons-type Rosie the Robot maid to wipe up hubby’s kitchen spills as soon as they happen. Which is, coincidentally, every time he goes to the kitchen. If Rosie is a no-go, how about a battalion of housekeeping brownies or faeries who’d keep my home immaculate?
- A doodad that will draw the words straight out of my brain when I’m writing and transfer them to the monitor. Of course, seeing as my thoughts tend to bounce all over the place at times, I’d be editing for months on end, but, hey, at least the story would be out there. In the raw, but in black on white.
There you have it. My secret love-hate of all things gadgetry. Do you have a favorite gismo that makes life easier? A do-hickey that was a dud and didn’t work for you at all? A gadget you wish you had? I’d love to hear your best, your worst, and your wished-for, so let me have them!
~Nancy
Thank you, Nancy, so much for stopping by today!
A Crime of Poison (A Silver Six Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
3rd in Series
Setting – Arkansas
A Berkley Prime Crime Mystery (December 5, 2017)
An Imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0425275740
Kindle ASIN: B06XK2YCWP
The Silver Six are known for their arts and crafts—but they’re about to be tested in the art of catching a crafty killer.
It’s early October, time for the Fall Folk Art Festival and Bake Sale in Lilyvale, Arkansas. Every business along the town square will benefit from the event, including the craft store run by Leslee Stanton Nix—aka Nixy—and the Silver Six, a group of retirees. In charge of making the festival go smoothly, Nixy is confident that it will be a success.
But things become knotty when local troublemaker Cornell Lewis is found dead with a plate of Snickerdoodles from the bake sale. Two members of the Silver Six are accused of cooking up a murder plot, but Nixy knows that the cookies weren’t literally to die for. With time running out, Nixy and company must catch the actual killer…before the Silver Six find their number permanently reduced to four.
Dollycas’s Thoughts
We arrive in Lilyvale, Arkansas, just in time for the Fall Folk Art Festival and Bake Sale and for Cornell Lewis’ return. The man left town several years ago and many were happy about his departure. Those same people are upset about his return especially when he stops by The Handcraft Emporium. He leaves after a little fracas with the Silver Six. When the man is later found dead in his car in what looks like a case of anaphylactic shock. With Detective Eric Shoar sidelined because of his close relationship with Nixy and the Silver Six, Detective Charleen Vogelmen takes over the case and she quickly zeros in on Maisie and Aster, and their bake sale cookies found in the victim’s car. Nixy with some assistance from Eleanor starts her own investigation keeping Eric in the loop hoping he’ll pass whatever she discovers on to Charleen. Maybe she can find other suspects for the detective to focus on and prevent her friends from baking in the big house.
I have loved the Silver Six since we met them in the first book of this series, Basket Case. They are an interesting group brought all together under one roof for a variety of reasons. I wish I had half their energy. They are always on the go and when someone messes with one of them or two as in this story, look out, because, they will not take it lying down. They are a family and they all care about Nixy. The author has created a wonderful cast of characters. I would love to meet them in real life and maybe become one of the group.
The plot was very interesting as we found how many people he was actually connected to in Lilyvale. Eleanor was a real asset as she and Nixy reached out to new people every day that could have the motive to kill the man. I enjoyed the process they took to narrow down the suspects and the way all of the Silver Six was involved in one way or another. I loved their meeting complete with a “murder board”. The story flowed so well and the mystery was nicely plotted The final reveal and the manner of poisoning was surprising. I was so happy because I had the person still on my own suspect list.
Nancy Haddock has written a fun series, they have all been “perfect escapes” for me. I recommend starting at the beginning for maximum enjoyment but this book read well all its own too.

About The Author
Nancy Haddock is an award-winning and national bestselling cozy mystery author. Basket Case is her first book in the Silver Six Crafting Mystery series with Berkley Prime Crime, and the second book, Paint the Town Dead
, is a Sept. 2016 release. Nancy draws on historic wealth, southern culture, and the plain old quirkiness of places and people for her books. She lives with her husband and rescue dog Baron.
Visit Nancy on her Webpage, Facebook and GoodReads.
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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.”