Hi, my name is Nona Fiske, and I’m a merchant on Victoria Square in the quaint little village of McKinlay Mill, just west of Rochester, New York.

I learned needlework at my grandmother’s knee. I’ve been sewing since the tender age of eight. My grandma worked as a tailor and learned the tricks of the trade, which she taught me. So, when I retired from a Rochester firm known for sewing men’s suits, I opened my shop on the Square known as The Quiet Quilter. That’s me. Sweet, demure, and a crackerjack businesswoman.

I’m such a business wiz that I came up with a summer promotion for Victoria Square based on the Disney film Pollyanna. Finally, I get to call the shots instead of that young whippersnapper Katie Bonner. Just because she has a degree in marketing from SUNY Brockport, she thinks she’s so smart.

Well, it was me who came up with the brilliant idea to run with the idea of a summer extravaganza. Like in the movie, we’re going to have food and other stuff that emulates the big bazaar depicted in the movie…if I can figure out how to pull that off. Katie has been no help at all. She should be doing the grunt work, like finding a band to play music and figuring out which food sellers should sell what, but I’ve been given the task of coordinating all that stuff—including contacting a port-a-potty vendor. Me! Contacting such vendors! That’s just not right. Not when Katie has such a hotsy-totsy degree in that kind of stuff.

My job is to think BIG. To crib what I can from the movie and then bask in the success that follows my biggest, best, and most stupendous idea.

Right?

A Lethal Lake Effect, A Victoria Square Mystery Book #9
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release: June 2024
Format: Digital
Purchase Link

Things go awry for Katie Bonner when her former mother-in-law, Margo, throws a housewarming party at her lakeside rental and one of her guests ends up dead in the water. Maxwell Preston was a devoted husband–and a not-so-great dad. He was a beloved pharmacist who didn’t take care of his ramshackle property, which is destined to be a hot commodity on Victoria Square when his heir puts it up for sale. But most of all, Preston was a stranger to the others who attended the party.

Meanwhile, Nona Fiske takes charge of Victoria Square big summer extravaganza—a disaster in the making as what little power she’s seized has gone straight to her head. The Davenport sisters have their own agenda, and they’ve not only been poking around to find out more about the dead man, but what other mischief has been going on around the Square.

So, who killed Maxwell Preston and why? That’s what Katie wants to know—and she’s willing to risk everything to find out.

About the author
The immensely popular Booktown Mystery series is what first put Lorraine Bartlett’s pen name Lorna Barrett on the New York Times Bestseller list, but it’s her talent — whether writing as Lorna, or L.L. Bartlett, or Lorraine Bartlett—that keeps her in her readers’ hearts. This multi-published, Agatha-nominated author also pens the exciting Jeff Resnick Mysteries as well as the acclaimed Victoria Square and Lotus Bay Mystery series, and the Tales of Blythe Cove Manor, and has many short stories and novellas to her name(s).

Visit Lorraine’s website to read an excerpt and watch the book trailer.
A Lethal Lake Effect | Author Lorraine Bartlett