My name is Tina Powell and I’m the travel editor at Perfect Bride magazine. I live in a little town in New Jersey and commute to New York. I hang out with a bunch of four friends I’ve known forever. There’s Janice Rogers, an actress and director, Gini Miller, a documentary film maker, Pat Keeler, a family therapist, and Mary Louise Temple, a housewife.
To stay reasonably thin, we started tap dancing and got to be so good at it, we were hired to dance first for community groups and then on cruise ships, luxury trains and resorts. We call ourselves the Happy Hoofers, and we thought we’d have a lot of fun dancing and eating good food and making some money. Who knew we’d get mixed up in a couple of murders on some of our gigs?
So far we’ve danced and almost been killed on a cruise ship sailing from Moscow to St. Petersburg, on a luxury train traveling across northern Spain, on a bateau mouche in Paris and at the Copacabana in Rio. Luckily, murders haven’t stopped us from eating and there are recipes in each book from every country we’ve danced in.
Each one of us is the narrator of a series of cozy murder mysteries called the Happy Hoofers Mysteries: Me for Chorus Lines, Caviar and Corpses set in Russia and published on November 4, 2014; Gini for Flamenco, Flan, and Fatalities, set in Spain and out next March; Janice for Cancans, Croissants and Caskets, set in Paris and published in the fall of 2015.; and Pat for the one set in Rio. Each of us brings her own quirks, assets, personalities and flaws to her narration.
Here’s to great food, lovely wines, romance, puppies and kittens, with a couple of murders thrown in.
You can read more about Tina and her friends in Chorus Lines, Caviar, and Corpses, the first book in the new “Happy Hoofers” mystery series, published by Kensington.
GIVEAWAY: Leave a comment by 6 p.m. eastern on November 12 for the chance to win a copy of CHORUS LINES, CAVIAR, AND CORPSES. Two lucky winners will be selected. The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.
Meet the author
Mary McHugh has published 22 books on subjects ranging from feminism to Crotchety Old Men. At present she is writing a series of cozy murder mysteries for Kensington Books.
She worked for The New York Times for their special sections, and her article, “Telling Jack” in the Sunday Times magazine was nominated for an award for best personal essay by the American Society of Journalists and Authors.
Her book, Special Siblings: Growing Up with Someone with a Disability, was awarded a prize for Special Recognition of a National Project by The Arc of New Jersey.
She worked as an articles editor at three national magazines and was a contributing editor for Cosmopolitan magazine.
Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Good Housekeeping, Family Circle and Senior Women.
Travel! Recipes! Bad Cruise Ship service! Would-be sleuths that are my age! Sounds like a REALLY fun read!!
Love to travel vicariously.
I’m a dancer, so this is a perfect theme for me. Love to travel too. Fingers crossed for the giveaway.
Looks like a fun new series. Congrats
I love cozies with recipes 🙂
Thanks for the chance, looks great 🙂
The Happy Hoofers sound like a lot of fun…thanks, Dru and Tina/Mary.
Sounds like the beginning on a good series.
What a fun idea for a series. I look forward to meeting the Hoofers!
It sounds wonderful and a great adventure. Thank you for this opportunity Dru and Mary.
Sounds very entertaining. Another series to start and add to my TBR list.
I would love to read this!
So many interesting new series lately! Thanks for the chance to win!
Sounds like a great book. Wish I had a copy.
This sounds like a really fun book.
I think I can relate to this book. would enjoy reading it.
Sounds great. Would love to read.
With grandsons from Russia and dancing granddaughters, would love to read and review this book!!
Would love to give this one a try. Thanks for the opportunity!
Lots of traveling going on. Sounds like a book I’d like to read.
Sounds like a blast! ON my must read list!
Another good series for me!!!!!!
Travel and mystery, what more can you ask for, this sounds great, thanks for the chance to win.
Sounds like a really fun new series.
This cover would definitely make me pick this up at a bookstore or online if I saw it in a group with other books. I am sure the cozy will be great as well. Would be so happy to be lucky enough to win. Thank you, Dru.
Would love to win this book.
Would love to win…Thanks for chance
A new cozy series!!
Sounds like a good book. Thanks for the chance to win.
As a former “Jersey Girl,” I can only l say – delightful!
Very unique title I’d be thrilled to win this book !! Thank you for these great giveaways 🙂
This sounds like my kind of read
This sounds like a funny new series, and set in a variety of interesting places. Putting on my TBR list.
Dancing, travel, and food. What more do you need for a great series?
I’ve always wanted to take one of those riverboat cruises. Imagine tap dancing your way to the Seine! Murders! Recipes! Woohoo!
Always excited for a new series!
This sounds very interesting. I bet it is a lot of fun to read.
I can’t dance a step–but what fun it would be to dance on a cruise ship. I’d love to read this book.
suefarrell.farrell@gmail.com
Mississippi River boat cruise! On my bucket list! Although my dancing days are in the past, this sounds like a fun read! Adding this to my TBR list. Thanks for the review & giveaway!
It sounds like a fun and interesting read. Thanks for having the giveaway.
This sounds like a great read. And I have discovered yet another new author. Thanks for the chance.
I like the idea that each book is narrated by a different character. Sounds like an interesting way to do a series. And I love the cover. Winter finally hit here in Colorado and now I’m dreaming of vacation. 🙂
So many new series coming out. Thanks for the opportunity!
I would love to read this book! Thanks for the chance!
would love to read and win. Thanks!
this one sounds like fun!
Can’t wait to read it.
contest is closed.