That Touch of Ink (21 page)
Authors: Diane Vallere
Tags: #Mystery, #mystery books, #contemporary women, #british mysteries, #Doris Day, #detective stories, #amateur sleuth, #murder mystery books, #english mysteries, #traditional mystery, #women sleuths, #humorous mystery, #female sleuths, #mystery series, #womens fiction
Reader’s Discussion Guide
1. Madison has established an independent life for herself, but when Brad returns, she is thrown off-kilter. Do you think she is as independent as she portrays herself, or do you think she has merely shut out the world to avoid emotional entanglements?
2. Madison waffles back and forth on whether or not to trust Brad, based on how she used to feel and how she feels now. Do you think both sets of feelings are justified?
3. Do you think Brad truly cares for Madison, or do you think he is a manipulator and sees her as a means to an end?
4. Madison’s relationship with Brad is exposed in
That Touch of Ink
. Do you feel like you have a better understanding of what made Madison the woman she is, or do you think she is still hiding behind the Doris Day image?
5. Many of the characters—including Madison—engage in subversive behavior in this book. Consider Madison drugging Brad, Brad lying to Madison, Hudson confiding in Tex, and Tex not telling Madison that Brad is a person of interest. Do you think their behavior is justified? Do you think any of the characters has more reason for acting the way they do than others?
6. How did you feel when Hudson left Dallas? Did you want him to stay, or were you happy that he was moving on with his life after what happened in
Pillow Stalk
?
7. Madison finds herself confiding in Lt. Tex Allen about Brad. Do you think he is a smart choice for confidant? Does he put his job as police lieutenant above his attraction to Madison, vice versa, or neither?
8. Both Madison Night and Officer Donna Nast are strong female characters. Are they more alike than they would admit? Or does one have traits the other aspires to have herself? Does the animosity between them stem from their individual relationships with Tex, or do you think there’s more at the core?
9. Is it creepy or a sweet gesture that Brad makes over Madison’s living room without consulting her?
10. Even though he hurt her, Madison lets Brad back into her life. Do you think she is looking for closure on her past or nostalgic for what was a defining relationship in her life? If it were you, what would you have done differently? What would you have done the same?
From the Author
This is a mystery about a counterfeiting scheme, but it’s also about broken trust. How easy is it to accept someone back into your life after he or she has lied to you? What if there is an explanation for the lie? Even if a person can find their way to forgive and forget, can trust ever really be reestablished?
About Diane Vallere
Diane Vallere lives in a world where popcorn is a breakfast food and Doris Day movies are revered for their cultural significance. After over twenty years in the fashion industry, she now writes full time, juggling the Mad for Mod series, the Style & Error series, and the upcoming Material Witness series. She launched her own detective agency at age ten and has maintained a passion for shoes, clues, and clothes ever since. Visit her at www.dianevallere.com.
In Case You Missed the 1
st
Book in the Series
PILLOW STALK
Diane Vallere
A Mad for Mod Mystery (#1)
Interior Decorator Madison Night has modeled her life after Doris Day’s character in
Pillow Talk
, but when a killer targets women dressed like the bubbly actress, Madison’s signature sixties style places her in the middle of a homicide investigation.
The local detective connects the new crimes to a twenty-year old cold case, and Madison’s long-trusted contractor emerges as the leading suspect. As the body count piles up like a stack of plush pillows, Madison uncovers a Soviet spy, a campaign to destroy all Doris Day movies, and six minutes of film that will change her life forever.
Read all about it and/or grab the book from Amazon
Be sure to check out Madison’s prequel novella
MIDNIGHT ICE featured in
OTHER PEOPLE’S BAGGAGE
Kendel Lynn, Gigi Pandian, Diane Vallere
Baggage claim can be terminal. These are the stories of what happened after three women with a knack for solving mysteries each grabbed the wrong bag.
MIDNIGHT ICE by Diane Vallere:
When interior decorator Madison Night crosses the country to distance herself from a recent breakup, she learns it’s harder to escape her past than she thought, and diamonds are rarely a girl’s best friend.
SWITCH BACK by Kendel Lynn:
Ballantyne Foundation director Elliott Lisbon travels to Texas after inheriting an entire town, but when she learns the benefactor was murdered, she must unlock the small town’s big secrets or she’ll never get out alive.
FOOL’S GOLD by Gigi Pandian:
When a world-famous chess set is stolen from a locked room during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, historian Jaya Jones and her magician best friend must outwit actresses and alchemists to solve the baffling crime.
Read all about it and/or grab the book from Amazon
Sign up for the Henery Press email blast,
we’ll send a short note when the next in this series is released,
plus all our new mystery titles.
(Note: We don’t do a whole big newsletter, just a quick title blast to keep you in the loop, and we won’t share your email address, you can unsubscribe any time.)
Henery Press Mystery Books
And finally, before you go...
Here are a few other mysteries
you might enjoy:
LOWCOUNTRY BOIL
Susan M. Boyer
A Liz Talbot Mystery (#1)
Private Investigator Liz Talbot is a modern Southern belle: she blesses hearts and takes names. She carries her Sig 9 in her Kate Spade handbag, and her golden retriever, Rhett, rides shotgun in her hybrid Escape. When her grandmother is murdered, Liz high-tails it back to her South Carolina island home to find the killer.
She’s fit to be tied when her police-chief brother shuts her out of the investigation, so she opens her own. Then her long-dead best friend pops in and things really get complicated. When more folks start turning up dead in this small seaside town, Liz must use more than just her wits and charm to keep her family safe, chase down clues from the hereafter, and catch a psychopath before he catches her.
Read all about it and/or grab the book from Amazon
DOUBLE WHAMMY
Gretchen Archer
A Davis Way Crime Caper (#1)
Davis Way thinks she’s hit the jackpot when she lands a job as the fifth wheel on an elite security team at the fabulous Bellissimo Resort and Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi. But once there, she runs straight into her ex-ex husband, a rigged slot machine, her evil twin, and a trail of dead bodies. Davis learns the truth and it does not set her free—in fact, it lands her in the pokey.
Buried under a mistaken identity, unable to seek help from her family, her hot streak runs cold until her landlord Bradley Cole steps in. Make that her landlord, lawyer, and love interest. With his help, Davis must win this high stakes game before her luck runs out.
Read all about it and/or grab the book from Amazon
BOARD STIFF
Kendel Lynn
An Elliott Lisbon Mystery (#1)
As director of the Ballantyne Foundation on Sea Pine Island, SC, Elliott Lisbon scratches her detective itch by performing discreet inquiries for Foundation donors. Usually nothing more serious than retrieving a pilfered Pomeranian. Until Jane Hatting, Ballantyne board chair, is accused of murder. The Ballantyne’s reputation tanks, Jane’s headed to a jail cell, and Elliott’s sexy ex is the new lieutenant in town.
Armed with moxie and her Mini Coop, Elliott uncovers a trail of blackmail schemes, gambling debts, illicit affairs, and investment scams. But the deeper she digs to clear Jane’s name, the guiltier Jane looks. The closer she gets to the truth, the more treacherous her investigation becomes. With victims piling up faster than shells at a clambake, Elliott realizes she’s next on the killer’s list.
Read all about it and/or grab the book from Amazon
CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE
Annette Dashofy
A Zoe Chambers Mystery (#1)
Zoe Chambers, paramedic and deputy coroner in rural Pennsylvania’s tight-knit Vance Township, has been privy to a number of local secrets over the years, some of them her own. But secrets become explosive when a dead body is found in the Township Board President’s abandoned car.
As a January blizzard rages, Zoe and Police Chief Pete Adams launch a desperate search for the killer, even if it means uncovering secrets that could not only destroy Zoe and Pete, but also those closest to them.
Read all about it and/or grab the book from Amazon
ARTIFACT
Gigi Pandian
A Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery (#1)
Historian Jaya Jones discovers the secrets of a lost Indian treasure may be hidden in a Scottish legend from the days of the British Raj. But she’s not the only one on the trail…
From San Francisco to London to the Highlands of Scotland, Jaya must evade a shadowy stalker as she follows hints from the hastily scrawled note of her dead lover to a remote archaeological dig. Helping her decipher the cryptic clues are her magician best friend, a devastatingly handsome art historian with something to hide, and a charming archaeologist running for his life.
Read all about it and/or grab the book from Amazon
THE AMBITIOUS CARD
John Gaspard
An Eli Marks Mystery (#1)
The life of a magician isn’t all kiddie shows and card tricks. Some-times it’s murder. Especially when magician Eli Marks very publicly debunks a famed psychic, and said psychic ends up dead. The evidence, including a bloody King of Diamonds playing card (one from Eli’s own Ambitious Card routine), directs the police right to Eli.
As more psychics are slain, and more King cards rise to the top, Eli can’t escape suspicion. Things get really complicated when romance blooms with a beautiful psychic, and Eli discovers she’s the next target for murder, and he’s scheduled to die with her. Now Eli must use every trick he knows to keep them both alive and reveal the true killer.
Read all about it and/or grab the book from Amazon
DINERS, DIVES & DEAD ENDS
Terri L. Austin
A Rose Strickland Mystery (#1)
As a struggling waitress and part-time college student, Rose Strickland’s life is stalled in the slow lane. But when her close friend, Axton, disappears, Rose suddenly finds herself serving up more than hot coffee and flapjacks. Now she’s hashing it out with sexy bad guys and scrambling to find clues in a race to save Axton before his time runs out.
With her anime-loving bestie, her septuagenarian boss, and a pair of IT wise men along for the ride, Rose discovers political corruption, illegal gambling, and shady corporations. She’s gone from zero to sixty and quickly learns when you’re speeding down the fast lane, it’s easy to crash and burn.
Read all about it and/or grab the book from Amazon
PORTRAIT OF A DEAD GUY
Larissa Reinhart
A Cherry Tucker Mystery (#1)
In Halo, Georgia, folks know Cherry Tucker as big in mouth, small in stature, and able to sketch a portrait faster than buck-shot rips from a ten gauge -- but commissions are scarce. So when the well-heeled Branson family wants to memorialize their murdered son in a coffin portrait, Cherry scrambles to win their patronage from her small town rival.
As the clock ticks toward the deadline, Cherry faces more trouble than just a controversial subject. Between ex-boyfriends, her flaky family, an illegal gambling ring, and outwitting a killer on a spree, Cherry finds herself painted into a corner she’ll be lucky to survive.
Read all about it and/or grab the book from Amazon
