Maddie Kosloski first appeared in The Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum and one of the best ways to learn about a person is by asking questions, so let’s get to know Maddie.

What is your name?
Hi, I’m Maddie Kosloski.

How old are you?
Thirty-three.

What is your profession?
I am the proprietor (proprietess?) of the San Benedetto Paranormal Museum. Trust me, no one was more surprised than me when that happened. It started out as a combination of a bad job market plus a favor for a friend. But I quickly came to love the museum. It’s just so quirky!

Do you have a significant other?
I’m at the beginning of a relationship with Jason Slate.

What is his name and profession?
Jason’s a detective with the San Benedetto Police Department. Unfortunately, his partner, Laurel Hammer, detests me, so that makes things kind of tricky.

Any children?
No.

Do you have any sibling(s)?
Yes, two. They’re both revolting over achievers, but I love them anyway. My brother works for the State Department, and my sister is an opera singer.

Do your parents live near you?
My father has passed on, but my mother lives nearby. It’s a blessing and a curse. She’s pretty awesome, but she can also get kind of. . . involved.

Who is your best friend?
Why pick just one? My two best friends are Adele Nakamoto and Harper Caladareli. But I see a lot more of Adele, since her tearoom, the Fox and Fennel, is next door to my museum. We even have a secret passage through a bookcase between the two (that way, my clients can use her bathroom).

Cats, dogs or other pets?
GD is the museum’s ghost detecting cat. He and the museum were a package deal when I took over. He tolerates me, but he loves the customers, because he gets to show off his ghost detecting skills.

What town do you live in?
San Benedetto, California. It’s in central California wine country, and though it’s not as famous as Napa, the farmers make amazing old-vine zinfandels.

House or building complex? Own or Rent?
I rent a garage apartment from my long-suffering aunt. Honestly, if it hadn’t been for her, I don’t know what I would have done. Rental prices in California are crazy!

What is your favorite spot in your house?
The kitchen.

Favorite meal? Favorite dessert?
There’s a local taqueria that has the best burritos! But I also have a regular girl’s night out with Adele and Harper at a local microbrewery. And then there’s the Wok and Bowl. . .

Favorite hobby? Favorite color?
My favorite hobby is coming up with new promotional schemes for the museum. Every month we have a new art display in the gallery. In honor of San Benedetto’s Wine and Chocolate Days, this month the theme is The Magic of Chocolate. I managed to acquire a haunted molinillo, and a woman’s going to come in on weekends to tell fortunes with hot chocolate. As I understand it, the process is something like reading tea leaves. But with chocolate.

Favorite author?
Diana Orgain. She writes really clever mysteries.

Favorite vacation spot?
I’d love to sit on a tropical beach, but I’m so busy at the museum, I can’t see that happening anytime soon.

Favorite sports team?
I’m not a huge sports fan. I don’t have anything against sports, I just don’t have much time to watch.

Movies or Broadway?
Movies. I love the new super-deluxe seats that lean waaaaay back.

Are you a morning or a night person?
Night person. One of the beauties of the museum is it opens late, so I don’t have to get up early.

Amateur sleuth or professional?
I’m an amateur, as Detective Laurel Hammer constantly reminds me.

Whom do you work with when sleuthing?
Adele and Harper usually pitch in. On one horrifying occasion, my mother insisted on helping out. It did not end well.

In a few sentences, what is a typical day in your life like?
I wake up and eat breakfast, put on a Paranormal Museum t-shirt, and open the museum. I feed the cat, sell tickets, dream up plans for squeezing more cash out of the museum, and have lunch. Then I sell more tickets and dream up more plans. Occasionally the museum will host special events in the evenings, like ghost hunts or lectures, but I’m usually out the door not long after six. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

You can read about Maddie in Chocolate à la Murder, the fourth book in the “Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum” mystery series, released March 8, 2019.

Maddie gets rattled by a candy-coated murder

It’s Wine and Chocolate Days in San Benedetto, and paranormal museum owner Maddie Kosloski has sweet dreams about her new Magic of Chocolate exhibit. Her latest attraction is a haunted Mexican whisk called a molinillo that rattles if someone lies. When Maddie visits the town’s new boutique chocolate shop, she finds one of the owners dead and covered in melted cocoa.

Maddie’s determined to catch the killer, and she soon uncovers deadly dealings in the world of artisan chocolate. But the deception surrounding those dealings are enough to make the molinillo rattle all night. Will Maddie have to temper her passion for sleuthing before a killer makes her fate a bittersweet one?

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About the author
Kirsten Weiss has never met a dessert she didn’t like, and her guilty pleasures are watching Ghost Whisperer re-runs and drinking red wine. The latter gives her heartburn, but she drinks it anyway.

Now based in San Mateo, CA, she writes genre-blending cozy mystery, supernatural and steampunk suspense, mixing her experiences and imagination to create vivid worlds of fun and enchantment.

Visit Kirsten at kirstenweiss.com.

All comments are welcomed.