I am excited today to welcome to the blog 

for the first time, author 

Abby L. Vandiver

Abby is the author of 

the Logan Dickerson Cozy Mystery series! 

These look like such wonderful books! 

Check them out. 

Logan Dickerson is an archaeologist who feels she'll always live in the shadow of her famous mother. To prove her worth, she jumps the fence at a federally protected archaeological site. Not such a good idea. Now she's on the run from the FBI. Ending up in a small, coastal town in Georgia she discovers that one resident, Gemma Burke, has been found dead, keeled over in her bowl of bouillabaisse. Logan gets all tangled up in a big mystery, (and a little bit of romance), but the fun begins once she falls in cahoots with Miss Vivee, a ninety-something, five-foot-nothing Voodoo herbalist, and owner of a wheaten Scottish terrier named Cat. Of course the elderly sleuth, with Logan's help, thinks she can solve the murder before the local sheriff can.

Playboy Oliver Gibbons turns up dead, face down, in a sandbank of the Savannah River. And there are plenty of people around who wanted him that way. But when the five-foot nothing, ninety-something Voodoo herbalist, Miss Vivee, discovers that her daughter is a lead suspect in the murder, she grabs her partners in crime (solving), Logan, and Mac and enlists their help. She'll stop at nothing to either clear her daughter's name. 

Or, get her out of town - fast.

It's another fun, quirky and funny romp for 

Yasamee, Georgia's (not a realplace) amateur sleuths. 

Not yet released. 

These fun titles are available in paperback and Kindle at Amazon and the first book is available in paperback at Barnes and Noble online. 

And check out other books from Abby while you're there! 

And now a word from the author

Abby L. Vandiver

Why I Write Cozies

I love a good mystery. To me, they are just the best kind of story. So when I decided to write a book, of course it was the genre I chose. Since I published my first novel, I’ve written many more books and even though they are accurately categorized in other genres, each still had an element of mystery to them.

After finding my niche, to my delight, I found that a lot of other people like mysteries too. In fact, they are the second bestselling genre of books, coming in right after romance. I got to write the type of story I loved and maybe sell a book or two. How cool is that?

Books in the category are usually suspenseful, especially near the end when the answer to the mystery is revealed. And as of late, more mysteries are thrillers as well. Sometimes the genres are even combined to list all three together as one, e.g., the Mystery, Thriller and Suspense category on Amazon. In these books, for the protagonist to solve the mystery they’re set upon an adventure – the story filled with action a la Indiana Jones. And around practically every corner lies mortal peril, thrusting the hero/heroine into danger on each page-turning page. The main character must then use his/her wit and skill to narrowly escape the throes of the evil, wrongdoing villain (a la Dan Brown) and in end the end bring him down.

But do all the books in the genre have to be like that? Sometimes, I learned, it’s expected. Some lovers of mystery books, like the ones drawn to the description of my first series, were expecting to get a sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat thrill along with the “what-happened.”

My first book, In the Beginning, had initially been compared to Indiana Jones and Dan Brown by some. Because, I concluded, it had a biblical tagline to it, an alternative history twist, and a protagonist who had information that could possibly change the world as we knew it. But when true fans of the Da Vinci Code read it, they gasped – What? There’s no action! No killing! No chases through the city! And oh no! No swear words or sex! Egad!

My book, I wanted to scream to them, was a character-driven, thought-provoking, compelling (with some dry wit) work framed around a “what-if.” But with the subject matter as presented, readers weren’t happy with that answer and they screamed right back – “We need lots of action! Give us some violence! Blood. Guts. Gore.” Readers wanted more. And even though it was a struggle for me, in the next two books in the series (Mars Origin “I” Series) I tried to give them what they wanted. I added a little violence. A cuss word here and there. And some of the ever-craved-for action (still no sex). I wasn’t the master of it, but I think I pulled it off. But as I finished up the last book, it was plain for me to see – it just wasn’t in me to deliver what thriller mystery fans wanted.

The books did well (are doing well) but the fast-paced, action-packed ride that I’d written was not the stuff that could compete with the Borne Identity or Angels and Demons. So I thought, I still want to write mystery, and okay, I could do a murder – nothing violent – but I wasn’t adverse to death being a part of my story. But the car chases, the punch-roll-kick action of the characters, and the descriptive sex scenes . . . Well . . . Not so much.

Then I found cozies . . .

****Picture sky opening up, sun rays fanning out to the horizon, cueing the angelic music****

Oh happy day!

Cozy mysteries are the best. Aren’t they? Quirky, fun characters, a keep-you-guessing whodunit, and a little humor to boot. Action and violence are – of all things – not expected! Now that was something I could do. And who knew? There were readers galore that didn’t do the guts and gore, just like me!

So far there are two books in my Logan Dickerson Cozy Mystery Series – Bed & Breakfast Bedlam and Coastal Cottage Calamity. Both have become Amazon International Bestsellers, making #1 in their Amazon categories in the US, UK, Australia and Canada. Book III, Maya Mound Mayhem, is due out on July 15^th. (Just a few days away. Yay!). I had considered ending the series there, but fans seem to enjoy Miss Vivee and Logan, the two amateur sleuths in my cozy mysteries series, and I’m having so much fun writing them that I’ve planned to write two more installments – tentatively entitled Food Fair Frenzy and Garden Gazebo Gallivant. I plan to release one in August and another in September.

So be sure to stay tuned . . .

Isn't Abby delightful?!

And, she started writing cozies for the same reason I started reading them!

This may be Abby's first time on my blog, but if I have my way, it won't be the last! 

Learn more about 

Abby L. Vandiver

Through her various occupations, Abby discovered her love of writing. She’d always been told she had a gift for telling stories, combining the two, she became an author.

Her debut novel, the mystery/sci-fi, In the Beginning, Book I in the Mars Origin “I” Series was an Amazon #1 bestseller. It was written on a whim, packed away, and rediscovered some twelve years later. After publishing it in 2013, Abby decided to make writing a full-time endeavor. She's penned four novels since – two additional stand-alone novels to the Mars Origin Series, a historical/women’s fiction novel that she co-wrote under the pen name Kathryn Longino, and her first cozy mystery, Bed & Breakfast Bedlam, Book I in the Logan Dickerson Cozy Mystery Series, an Amazon International #1 Bestseller. Book II, Coastal Cottage Calamity was released on June 17, 2015, and Book III in her cozy mystery series during the summer of 2015.

Abby, a former lawyer and college professor, has a bachelor’s degree in Economics, a master’s in Public Administration, and a Juris Doctor. A lifetime resident of Cleveland, Ohio, Abby spends all of her time writing and enjoying her three wonderful grandchildren.

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