I am SO EXCITED to be here today to show off the cover for the third novel in my “Headlines in High Heels” mystery series! Thanks so much for having me, Dru Ann!
This book is near to my heart for many reasons, not the least of which is that part of the subject matter hit close to home while I was writing. SMALL TOWN SPIN opens with Nichelle getting a call about the death of a famous athlete’s son—which the local cops have labeled a suicide. While I was working on it, a dear friend of mine lost her teenage son to suicide. It was a horrific thing to witness, as a mom and as a friend. I have rarely felt so powerless. I wanted to do something, however small, to honor my friend and her family with this book, so the shoes on this gorgeous, gorgeous cover are purple, because it was her late son’s favorite color.
Didn’t the art department at Henery Press just outdo themselves this time? Here’s all the scoop on SMALL TOWN SPIN, on sale everywhere April 8, 2014:
When a superstar athlete’s son turns up dead in a tiny town on the Virginia coast, crime reporter Nichelle Clarke gets the inside scoop. But she quickly spies a gaping hole her inner Lois Lane cannot ignore.
Determined to unravel the mystery, Nichelle fights off paparazzi cameras and an unexpected rival. She uncovers an illegal moonshine operation, a string of copycat suicides, and a slew of closets stacked with more skeletons than slingbacks. Chasing a killer who’s a breath from getting away with murder, Nichelle realizes too late the culprit has her number—and it might be up.
Tell me about the coolest or craziest small town experience you’ve ever had or heard of (pig wrestling? Yarn festival? Fabulous arts fair/street dance?) in the comments below, and Dru will enter you to win an ebook copy of the first “Headlines in High Heels” Mystery, FRONT PAGE FATALITY. Thanks for stopping by, and good luck! One winner will be chosen at random and contest ends January 10.
LynDee’s bio
LynDee Walker’s award-winning journalistic work has appeared in newspapers and magazines across the United States. 
After nearly a decade covering crime, courts, and local politics, she left full-time reporting for motherhood with a side of freelancing and fiction writing. SMALL TOWN SPIN is the third novel in LynDee’s bestselling “Headlines in High Heels” Mystery series. The fourth is coming in January 2015.
LynDee adores her family, her readers, and enchiladas. She often works out tricky plot points while walking off the enchiladas. She lives in Richmond, Virginia, where she is either playing with her children or working on her next novel (but probably not cleaning her house). You can find her online at www.lyndeewalker.com.
Can hardly wait!
I’m going to look for this at the library!
Craziest small town festival I’ve ever heard of is the Deming, N.M., rubber duck race. In addition to the duck racing, there’s a Tournament of Ducks parade, a tortilla toss, a duck royalty contest … And the winners of the duck race can come away with actual cash. Happens every August. They sell cool t-shirts too.
How about an honest-to-God (as the saying goes) car chase? Think of the chase in the Pink Panther movie (where they circle an area several times), and complete with cop car going on two wheels while turning the corner?
That actually happened when I was 8 or 9, I believe, and they circled the park where my brother and I were playing. (Our grandfather took us to the park while my grandmother and mother visited an aunt in a local nursing home). It was pretty fun watching the chase.
The end result was the car leading the chase ending up missing curve and turning on it’s side in someone’s yard.
The reason for the chase? The person ran a red light. That’s right, the police gave chase to someone who ran a red light.
Gotta love small towns!
How about an honest-to-God (as the saying goes) car chase? Think of the chase in the Pink Panther movie (where they circle an area several times), and complete with cop car going on two wheels while turning the corner?
That actually happened when I was 8 or 9, I believe, and they circled the park where my brother and I were playing. (Our grandfather took us to the park while my grandmother and mother visited an aunt in a local nursing home). It was pretty fun watching the chase.
The end result was the car leading the chase ending up missing curve and turning on it’s side in someone’s yard.
The reason for the chase? The person ran a red light. That’s right, the police gave chase to someone who ran a red light.
Gotta love small towns!
We had moved to a new small town – within a short time, I was working in a kitchen serving food to raise money for a fire station. Eventually, we also had an auction to raise money for a library. I ended up becoming the first librarian (entire staff) and that town ended up with a library. The town was a wonderful place to learn about community involvement and getting things done.
Beautiful cover… can’t wait to read this one!
Love the new cover! Congratulations LynDee!
Folks around here play “cow pie bingo” as a fundraiser. To play: mark off the cow field in a grid and entrants pay a small fee for the right to guess which square will receive the most cow scat in a set period of time. The winner gets a certain percentage of the pot, with the rest going to support a cause. It’s like a redneck raffle 🙂
One of the best things about a small town is the Police Log. I refer to it as the funnies. It’s especially funny when they don’t name names but everyone knows who it is they are referring to. Usually, we even know if they are guilty or not and why they did it.
So sorry for the loss of your friend’s son, growing up a kid across the street committed suicide, it threw the whole neighborhood into shock. This sounds like a wonderful book and tribute. I love the cover, very eye catching.. Growing up close to the city I really didn’t do many hometown things, however all the kids in the neighborhood constantly doing stupid things kept things hopping. The original skateboarding down the street and over cracks had us all taking out elbows and knees, and kept our parents grey.
Thanks so much for stopping by today, everyone! Denise, I LOVE that story! Rubber Duck races: I would love to know how that came about.
Annette, that’s wonderful! And what a great thing, to be able to start a library in the community.
Debbie, thank you. I think neighborhoods can often mirror small towns. People like a sense of community wherever they can find it.
Oh, I missed a bunch of folks! Sorry about that, I didn’t see the comments. 🙂
Rebecca, indeed! The crime blotter is so much fun when you know everyone.
J.F. —wow. I guess when there’s not much else to do… 😉
Heidi, thank you!
Erin, that’s priceless! And totally sounds like something that probably once happened in my hometown. 🙂
Craziest thing – watermelon seed spitting contest – see who can spit the seed the furtherest. Wold love to win a copy of this book. I loveed the first two.
I think the goofiest small town thing here where I live are the meat raffles. Many of the bars have them and people just love them. You buy raffle tickets for packs of meat. Seems just silly to me.
suefarrell.farrell@gmail.com
Great cover! I look forward to reading it. Man across the street kept attempting suicide to get his wife to come back…until he succeeded. Dying, not wife returning. Due to dead man’s young son all of my neighbors know my first name and say “hi Barbara” as I walk down the street. That does give me a warm glow. Normally I prefer the anonymity of big cities.
Does dressing up like an artichoke at the annual Castroville, California artichoke parade count? If so, I’m in.
sounds like I need to make a point to visit some more small towns to experience some small-town fun!!!!
thank you for the giveaway!!
Eight years ago my family moved to a 40 acre farm out in the county Eight years ago my family moved to a 40 acre farm in the county after having lived all of our lives in the city. The first difference I noticed when we moved there was that when you asked people for their phone number they would only give you 4 digits. (“what is your number”, “its 2439”). I was ??? until I realized that EVERYONE has the same area code and first THREE NUMBERS to their phone number.
Thanks LynDee for giving me the opportunity to reveal the cover of your April book.
contest is closed.
Thanks so much for stopping in and commenting (and sharing!), y’all! And special thanks to Dru for having me. 🙂
Jack, I think I need to see pictures of that! How fun!
Peggy, wow. That is small! I think you’ll relate to Nichelle’s adventures in Mathews. 🙂
Stay tuned for a sneak peek at what others are saying about SMALL TOWN SPIN, coming to Dru’s Book Musing in February! 🙂