Lisa Ks Book Reviews

I'm so happy to have author

Blanche Day Manos

in today's

Author Spotlight!

Ms. Manos is a new to me author, having only discovered her a few days ago. She writes two cozy mystery series. The

Ned McNeil Mysteries

and the

Darcy & Flora Cozy Mysteries

I'm looking forward to starting them both!

Take a look!

Ned McNeil Mysteries

BOOK ONE

Nettie "Ned" McNeil cannot imagine why her Uncle Javin feels that he is in danger, but she loads her suitcases into her car, leaves Atlanta and her late husband, and makes the long trek to Ednalee, Oklahoma, to help out.

When she arrives, Uncle Javin's white Victorian house is strangely dark and silent. Inside she finds him lying on the floor in a pool of blood.

So begin her first moments back in her old home town, where the mystery of Uncle Javin's violent death pulls at Ned. But his mysterious murderer seems to always be just a few steps ahead of her search. How can she protect her own life as she pursues a killer who will stop at nothing to guard a deadly secret?

BOOK TWO

Is it Moonlight or is it Murder?

Ned McNeil is haunted by a nightmare that wakes her in the middle of the night, leaving her gasping for breath. A dog—or is it a wolf?—howling in her yard under the brilliant autumn moon sends chills down her spine. Is the moonlight and the fact that she is alone in Granger Mansion causing her imagination to work overtime?

Hidden by a dense fog, an unknown driver pursues Ned to the edge of a cliff, an innocent-appearing luncheon ends in violence, a neighbor drops dead for no apparent reason, and a hidden shooter waylays her in a deserted cemetery. Surely, these are not coincidences.

Every old house has a history and Ned thought she knew everything about Granger Mansion, but the house holds some deep secrets of its own. Those secrets very nearly cost Ned McNeil her life.

By the Fright of the Silvery Moon is a page turner; a cozy mystery with an extra shiver that just may keep you up at night, even when the moon isn't full!

Doesn't this series sound great? My hands are itching to get started on it.

What else does author Manos have to offer? Keep reading to find out!

Darcy & Flora Cozy Mysteries

BOOK ONE

Goshen Cemetery lay quiet and peaceful under a benevolent spring sky. Darcy Campbell and her mother, Flora Tucker, had no inkling that in a few moments, the scene would change and they would face a horror on the ground and a threat from above, beyond their imaginations.

Becoming entangled in a centuries-old legend, being targeted by a group of ruthless men, and discovering a long-lost love were not in Darcy's plans when she returned to her birth place, Levi, Oklahoma. She merely wanted to soak up the peace of her mother's home and try to heal the wounds left from her husband's death. Fate, however, had other plans for Darcy and Flora.

BOOK TWO

Before the long nightmare ended, Darcy would often wish her mother had not opened that letter from an unknown woman. But, she did open it and shared it with her daughter, plunging both Darcy Campbell and Flora Tucker into a tale of an unsolved mystery, a web of secrets, and the discovery of an unsuspected traitor.

In tracking down clues about the disappearance of a young woman, Darcy and Flora leave their hometown of Levi, Oklahoma, and drive to Amarillo, Texas, then back again. Following leads that have long been covered, both women find more than one surprise including some discoveries about themselves.

BOOK THREE

Darcy Campbell might have expected life in a small Oklahoma town nestled in the beautiful Ozark foothills to be as idyllic as the scenery. That, however, is not what she finds when she returns to her hometown of Levi after the death of her husband.

One autumn morning, Darcy and her mother, Flora Tucker, are enjoying a cup of coffee in their hundred-year old farmhouse when Darcy gets an urgent telephone call. The contractor who is digging the foundation for their new home insists that Darcy drop everything and come to the building site as quickly as she can. He has found a mysterious object deep in a hand-dug well and he needs Darcy's help in retrieving it. The ancient, crumbling package pulled from the well contains two items that are as shocking as they are inscrutable. In trying to decipher the meaning of these long-buried objects, Darcy and Flora discover a dark secret from their family's past. A kidnapping, a brush with death, and a stranger's greed add to the mix. The era of World War I becomes enmeshed with the present day as Darcy and Flora unravel a tangled web of deceit that has ensnared their family.

BOOK FOUR

Summer storms can bring unwelcome surprises.

During the rainiest July on record for the people of Ventris County in Oklahoma, in the midst of a violent thunderstorm, a stranger is murdered. When a friend becomes the second person to die under suspicious circumstances, local sleuth Darcy Campbell is drawn into the investigation. Evidence points toward someone she cares about, but has loyalty blinded her to the truth? Danger is closer to Darcy and her mother, Flora, than either of them suspect. And if the human threat is not enough, Lee Creek and the Ventris River flood, bringing Mother Nature into the fray.

Has the whole world turned on Darcy and Flora?

Doesn't this series sound awesome too? I may have to flip a coin to see which one to start first.

About Author Blanche Day Manos

Blanche Day Manos is the author of the Darcy and Flora series about a mother and daughter sleuth team: The Cemetery Club, Grave Shift, Best Left Buried, and Grave Heritage. She also writes the Ned McNeil mysteries, following courageous heroine Nettie Elizabeth (Ned) McNeil through breath-taking scenes in Moonlight Can Be Murder and By the Fright of the Silvery Moon.

Blanche has been writing mysteries since she was big enough to hold a pencil. In addition to her cozy novels, she has been published in children’s magazines, educational magazines, and Christian periodicals. She welcomes visitors to her daily blog site.

Her “Mysteries with an extra shiver” are cozies, but not the kind you might want to read at night when you are alone or need a good night’s sleep. Each book actually has many shivers, cover to cover.
A native Oklahoman and retired teacher, Blanche now lives in bustling and energetic Northwest Arkansas. Her mysteries are set in the small towns she knows so well.

Fun Facts in No Particular Order:
* Grows herbs—the best kind of aromatherapy
* Played the piano for several different churches
* Is energized by lively daytime thunderstorms
* Is relaxed by thunderstorms that visit at night
* Has so many books, she’d be rich if each book were a dollar bill
* Forgets about time when painting or writing
* Has roots binding her to Ireland, the Cherokee people, and the Old South
* Is a pushover for kittens and puppies
* Bakes cakes from scratch just for fun
* Always begins each day with good, strong, hot coffee
* Derives a great deal of peace and strength from prayer
* Visited Ireland and fell in love with the Emerald Isle