Lisa Ks Book Reviews blog is proud to bring to you

THE COZY TIMES

This is a weekly online publication focused on connecting cozy mystery readers to favorite cozy characters by way of their town's newspapers. 

 

Today The Cozy Times is featuring

The Kansas City Times

We've reached into the 1970's archives to bring you this edition.

While The Cozy Times did use a photocopy of 

The Kansas City Times header, we choose to reprint the rest to preserve the original paper. 

Check it out!

The Kansas City Times

Kansas City, Missouri

October 13, 1974

Mrs. Harrington Walford was the chairman for last night’s Kansas City Museum gala. Proceeds from the event will be used to support the museum’s collections.

The happening was preceded by a Thursday evening benefactors’ party at the Kansas City Museum.

The ballroom of the Muehlebach Hotel was transformed into a winter wonderland inspired by the museum’s igloo. Twinkle lights dipped from the ceiling while crocuses bloomed from mounds of snow on the tables. More than eight hundred guests were in attendance and those without tickets were rumored to have donated weeks at Vail condos in exchange for a coveted spot on the guest list.

The event promised to be memorable, an evening no one would ever forget. 

In that respect, it delivered.

Mrs. Randolph Jones (nee Gertrude Hamilton—Hammie to her friends) was allegedly poisoned while seated at her table. She died at the scene. 

All eight hundred guests were questioned in the matter.

Mrs. Walford and her daughter, Mrs. Henry Russell, were questioned at length. 

Neither made 

any comment to reporters. It can be noted that upon leaving the interrogation, Mrs. Walford looked ready to spit nails and Mrs. Russell looked a tad green.

There is some speculation that the poison ingested by Mrs. Jones was meant for Mrs. Russell.

The lead detective in the case, Anarchy Jones, refused to comment on an ongoing investigation but one of the guests at the event noted, “First there was that incident at the benefactors’ party. A bust nearly killed her (Mrs. Russell). I heard someone threw a fire-bomb at her house then shot at her.

Was Mrs. Russell the intended target? Only the killer knows for certain.

What is certain is that guests who were in attendance will be talking about Mrs. Walford’s gala for years to come.

*****

*****

~~~~~

A special thank you to Julie Mulhern 

for sharing this glimpse of 1974 with us. 

That's this week's edition of 

The Cozy Times 

I hope you enjoyed!

~~~~~

To learn more about the 1970's Kanasa City, Missouri and it's residents, read the Country Club Mysteries by author 

Julie Mulhern!

Book One

Swimming into the lifeless body of her husband’s mistress tends to ruin a woman’s day, but becoming a murder suspect can ruin her whole life.

It’s 1974 and Ellison Russell’s life revolves around her daughter and her art. She’s long since stopped caring about her cheating husband, Henry, and the women with whom he entertains himself. That is, until she becomes a suspect in Madeline Harper’s death. The murder forces Ellison to confront her husband’s proclivities and his crimes—kinky sex, petty cruelties and blackmail.

As the body count approaches par on the seventh hole, Ellison knows she has to catch a killer. But with an interfering mother, an adoring father, a teenage daughter, and a cadre of well-meaning friends demanding her attention, can Ellison find the killer before he finds her?

Book Two

With his dying breath, Bobby Lowell begs Ellison Russell, “Tell her I love her.”

Unable to refuse, Ellison struggles to find the girl the murdered boy loved. Too bad an epically bad blind date, a vindictive graffiti artist, and multiple trips to the emergency room keep getting in the way.

Worse, a killer has Ellison in his sights, her newly rebellious daughter is missing, and there’s yet another body in her hostas. Mother won’t be pleased.

Now Ellison must track down not one but two runaway teenagers, keep her promise to Bobby, and elude the killer—all before her next charity gala committee meeting.

Book Three

When Ellison Russell is nearly killed at a benefactors’ party, she brushes the incident aside as an unhappy accident. But when her house is fire-bombed, she’s shot at, and the person sitting next to her at a gala is poisoned, she must face facts. Someone wants her dead. But why? And can Ellison find the killer before he strikes again? 

Add in an estranged sister, a visiting aunt with a shocking secret, and a handsome detective staying in her guesthouse, and Ellison might need more than cream in her coffee. 
Related subjects include: cozy mysteries, women sleuths, murder mystery series, whodunit mysteries (whodunnit), amateur sleuth books, book club recommendations, humorous murder mysteries, historical mysteries. 

About the author

Julie Mulhern is the USA Today bestselling author of The Country Club Murders. 

She is a Kansas City native who grew up on a steady diet of Agatha Christie. She spends her spare time whipping up gourmet meals for her family, working out at the gym and finding new ways to keep her house spotlessly clean--and she's got an active imagination. Truth is--she's an expert at calling for take-out, she grumbles about walking the dog and the dust bunnies under the bed have grown into dust lions. 

In addition to mysteries, Julie writes historical, romantic suspense. Her first romance, A Haunting Desire, was a finalist in the 2014 Golden Heart® contest and is available now. 

Look for Bayou Nights in the early summer of 2016. If your tastes run to 70s-style mysteries, mark your calendars for October when Send in the Clowns, book four of the Country Club Murders, will release.

Is there a cozy town you'd like to see featured in 

The Cozy Times? 

Please let me know in the comments section.

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