I am delighted to welcome Victoria Hamilton to Escape With Dollycas today!
Do you read book dedications? You know, that bit on the first plain page where the author takes a moment to speak of someone important to them? If there is one, I usually read it. After all, if it’s important to the writer, I’d like to know about it.
This book, Cat Got Your Tongs, is dedicated to my sister, Mickey Simpson, who I lost on June 23rd, 2024. This will be my first book published since her death. It’s always a great joy to have a new mystery coming out, but this time, it’s bittersweet.
Why? Because I wouldn’t even be a writer if it wasn’t for Mick.
I grew up in a good and talented family, but one that didn’t put a lot of stock in big dreams, impossible dreams. I have a brother who was a talented singer, and a sister who was a great artist, but both went on to other things, which is okay. Singing and art can be lifelong joys without being pursued as a career. But there’s nothing wrong with wanting them as a career, either. I knew I wanted to be a mystery author from the time I was twelve, but without Mick, who dared her whole life to dream big, I’d never have had the courage to fight the odds and do it.
You see, she grew up without anyone looking after her. Shuttled from home to home and place to place, she landed in our family when she was fourteen and I was eleven. She was fostered and then adopted. At first, we fought like feral cats, but slowly something powerful built between us, a reliance that lasted the rest of her life.
There are some in the world need someone to believe in them before they can believe in themselves. I sure did, because my parents discouraged dreaming and stressed, instead, being sensible. Get a job, even if you hate it, and cling to it like a life raft. Our parents grew up in the Great Depression, and I understand that now. They did the very best for us, and I deeply appreciate everything they hoped and dreamed for their kids.
But Mick was the one who told me I could be a writer.
She encouraged me with her own wild dreams. She followed them all and succeeded, blazing through her life and doing everything she wanted. She was a professional singer and recorded a record in Nashville. She had a bit part in a made-for-TV movie. She wrote and hosted a TV show, a local version of a bandstand type of program. She became a freelance writer and wrote history and magazine articles, as well as DIY and consumer pieces for our local newspaper. A brilliant self-taught techie, she learned how to create websites and built one for a local historical event that was, for a time in the nineties and two thousand, the premiere resource for the event, visited by writers and schoolkids. She turned to writing YA novels and wrote two before illness made everything too hard for her.
And with all of that talent, she still was open-hearted and generous, making friends everywhere she went. Her death left a giant crater in my heart. I miss her like crazy. But writing is getting me through. So this book, the first since she died, is dedicated to her and… well, I’ll leave you to read the dedication for yourself, so you can see why this book, Cat Got Your Tongs, is a special one to dedicate to Mickey Simpson, an extraordinary human being.
Love and peace to everyone.
Victoria Hamilton
PS The illustration that accompanies this guest blog holds photos of Mickey (left) and me with our joint venture, a paranormal mystery manuscript that we wrote together from a weird dream she had. The title was Old Sins Have Long Shadows, and we were mailing it out to Toronto publishers; the date was August 11th, 1982. Needless to say, it was not published, but we did get some positive feedback!
Thank you, Victoria for visiting today with such a wonderful post!
Keep reading for more information about Victoria and her new book!
Cat Got Your Tongs: A Vintage Kitchen Mystery
by Victoria Hamilton
A wonderful cozy mystery that makes me want to go back and read the ones I missed along the way.
~Carla Loves To Read
About Cat Got Your Tongs
Cat Got Your Tongs: A Vintage Kitchen Mystery
Cozy Mystery
12th in Series
Setting: Queensville, MI, USA
Publisher : Beyond the Page Publishing (March 18, 2025)
Paperback : 228 pages
ISBN-10 : 1966322046
ISBN-13 : 978-1966322047
Digital ASIN : B0DF64BMT5
A perplexing murder on a local river leads Jaymie into uncharted waters in the new Vintage Kitchen Mystery from the author of Sieve and Let Die . . .
Despite the brutally cold winter, vintage cookware collector Jaymie Müller is happy to help out a friend by looking after a colony of cats while its caretakers are away. The location on a high bluff overlooking the St. Clair River makes for bone-chilling work, and her task takes on an air of menace when an elderly neighbor reports suspicious goings-on at the river. Jaymie’s inclined to dismiss the woman’s fears as the product of an overactive imagination, but it’s not long before she discovers a dead body there.
When it becomes clear the dead man was the victim of foul play, Jaymie turns to the older woman looking for more information. What she learns is that the river has long been used for illicit smuggling, and Jaymie suspects there was a falling out among thieves. But then mysterious clues begin turning up at the cat colony and another victim is found, and Jaymie realizes there’s something much more sinister behind the killings. And while cats may have nine lives, Jaymie has just one, and she discovers too late that she’s perilously close to losing it . . .
Includes a vintage recipe!
About Victoria Hamilton
Victoria Hamilton is the pseudonym of nationally bestselling romance author Donna Lea Simpson. Victoria is the bestselling author of three mystery series, the Lady Anne Addison Mysteries, the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries, and the Merry Muffin Mysteries. She also write a Regency-set historical mystery series, starting with A Gentlewoman’s Guide to Murder. Visit her website at victoriahamiltonmysteries.com.
Social Details:
Website: http://www.VictoriaHamiltonMysteries.com (Sign up for her newsletter for all the latest!)
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VictoriaHamiltonMysteryAuthor
On BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/mysteryvictoria.bsky.social
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mysteryauthorvictoriahamilton/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/598635.Victoria_Hamilton
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/vintagekitchenm/_saved/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Victoria-Hamilton/e/B007T7LGAU
Purchase Links for Cat Got Your Tongs:
Ebook Version:
Amazon Canada Kindle Amazon US Kindle Barnes & Noble nook Kobo Smashwords GooglePlay
Amazon USA Paperback Barnes & Noble Paperback
TOUR PARTICIPANTS
March 17 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
March 17 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
March 17 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
March 18 – Read Your Writes Book Reviews – AUTHOR GUEST POST
March 18 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
March 19 – FUONLYKNEW – RECIPE
March 19 – Carla Loves To Read – REVIEW
March 20 – Baroness Book Trove – SPOTLIGHT
March 20 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
March 21 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT
March 21 – Jody’s Bookish Haven – SPOTLIGHT
March 22 – Sneaky the Library Cat’s Blog – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
March 22 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – AUTHOR GUEST POST
March 22 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – CHARACTER GUEST POST
March 23 – Cinnamon, Sugar, and a Little Bit of Murder – REVIEW, RECIPE
March 23 – Frugal Freelancer – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
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Hi Victoria, 
fan. Her approach to mystery writing – not too hard, not too soft, never gruesome, with real insight into the characters – inspired me in so very many ways. But I think my early love for 
(I mean, P&P and Persuasion? Come on! Best character interaction ever.) gave me a grounding in how to write about people of any time or place.
I had to do research on what it takes to get a pharmacy degree, and some random information about zoning laws in Michigan, as well as how construction companies can cheat. But that was all easily accomplished as I wrote.
is preparing for her wedding in Bath, England, to the man she loves (and lusts!) the delicious Marquess of Darkefell. Needing a distraction, she answers a friend’s plea to help Miss Sophia Lee, playwright, author and school owner, to help one of their students with her frightening experience of seeing a ghost. The girl almost died as she followed its commands and climbed out onto the roof.
. Victoria is the bestselling author of four mystery series: the 
, the 
, the 
, and 
.
Your Escape Into A Good Book Travel Agent 
, bestselling author of Regency Romances, paranormal historicals and historical mysteries, and still has a soft spot for the Regency period.
and 
. She does, indeed, collect vintage kitchenware and bake muffins. She drinks tea and coffee on writing days, and wine other times. It doesn’t do to confuse days. She crochets (a little), paints (a little) and reads (a lot). A solitary being, she can be coaxed out of her writing cave for brownies and cat videos.
