Cozy Review and Guest Post: Christmas Lights and Cat Fights

I'm grateful to Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours for the opportunity to read this fun holiday mystery!

Christmas Lights and Cat Fights: A Jules Keene Glamping Mystery
Cozy Mystery
3rd in Series
Setting – Virginia
Level Best Books (October 17, 2023)
Print length ‏ : ‎ 285 pages
Digital ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CJQKWK3F

Christmas has come to Fern Valley, and the town’s decked out with enough glitter and sparkle for a month’s worth of celebrations, each more over-the-top than the previous one. The idyllic setting, filled with laughter, carols, and sweet treats, is shattered, along with some of the decorations, when the current wife and the ex-wife of a big-cat showman have a knock-down, drag-out fight in the center of town. Jules Keene, owner of the Fern Valley Glamping Resort, tries to keep peace among her guests and with the town council, but it turns into a catastrophe when Tabbi Morris, winds up dead in one of her ex-husband’s tiger cages.

And if the murder wasn’t enough, Jules discovers that some of the big cats are missing, but the owner and his family insists that nothing is wrong.

Curiosity gets the best of her, and she has to solve the murder and figure out if the owner of Cal’s Cats is pussy-footing around or whether it’s something more sinister before it ruins the holiday season and her business.

My Review:

Christmas Lights and Cat Fights is a fun cozy with a nice winter-holiday theme. The town's move to make itself Christmas Central would send me running to the hills, but I enjoyed seeing what the author came up with. Jules' glamping resort is likewise a lot of fun to "see," with all the themed trailers and cabins.

I had no trouble following the story or picking up on the characters even without having read the first two books in the series, though there are references to murders that have gone before to keep us reminded that this is not the first in the set. The relationship between Jules and her boyfriend Jake, along with that of her aunt and the police chief, felt natural. I enjoyed that touch of romance without much angst.

And the mystery? I cannot tell a lie: I was pretty sure who the perp was well before the ending, though part of me expected a twist to another nice suspect. It was still fun to watch Jules working it out, and she mostly followed good sense in keeping the police posted about what she found out.

My Recommendation:

This book makes a nice, quick read for the holidays!

Author Guest Post – Location, Location, Location – Mysteries in Fictitious Places

by Heather Weidner

Thank you so much for having me as a guest on your blog.

I am a Virginia girl, and all of my stories are set there. I write where I know. Plus, I want to share the uniqueness of the Commonwealth with its beaches, mountains, fabulous restaurants, and historical sites. I needed a small town in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to set my Jules Keene Glamping Mysteries. Since murder and mayhem were going to take place all over town, I decided to create my own. I don’t usually have horrific crimes happen in real places.

Jules Keene, owner of the Fern Valley Camping Resort, grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains. My fictional town is west of the Charlottesville. Her parents bought the traditional campground before she was born, and after her divorce from the Idiot, she moved back to the resort, where she helped her father convert and repurpose vintage trailers. She saved a bunch from the scrap heap and was able to preserve their history and to create some upscale places for her guests to visit. All of the trailers come with wine chillers and posh amenities for glamping (glamorous camping).

Jules themed each trailer’s décor. Her 1953 Redman New Moon is decorated in honor of Lucy and Desi’s classic movie, “The Long, Long Trailer” that featured the same model camper. Her 1959 Sunliner Caravan debuted the same year as Barbie, so this one is decorated in pink, white, and black in homage to the classic doll.

As the series evolves, Jules and Jake, her maintenance/security guy, decide to add tiny houses to the resort’s offerings. They build a village of small dwellings in a new section of the resort, and Jules creates book themes for each. Each house will have some sort of surprise for the guests. The original ones were named for Beatrix Potter, L. Frank Baum, J. K. Rowling, and Bram Stoker.

My aunt and uncle owned a traditional campground in Nelson County near Crabtree Falls in the 1970s. It was a magical place with the mountains and all the traditional camping fun. I heard my first echo there and played my first game of pinball in the rec room. The water in the stream from the falls was ice cold, and I saw an entire family picnic on one of the magnificent rocks. It was a place full of lots of fun memories, and this became the model for the Fern Valley Resort. (They no longer own the campground, but it is still open today in Nelson County.)

My husband does a lot of DIY projects, and he restores classic cars, so we watch A LOT of home and vehicle renovation shows. I stumbled on one that restored classic campers, and it gave me an idea for Jules’s resort. I am also fascinated with tiny houses. I am amazed at how creative people are to build storage and living space in such a small space. These are a perfect addition to the Fern Valley Camping Resort. I am fascinated with them, and I would love to vacation in a tiny house. I’m not sure if I could pare down my belongings to live in one full-time.

So, while the town of Fern Valley is fictitious, the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the glamping craze, vintage trailers, and tiny houses are real, and they combine to add a sense of place to the Jules Keene Glamping Mysteries And I’m so excited to share more glamping adventures in Deadlines and Valentines (2024), Teddy Bears and Ghostly Lairs (2025), and Hazardous Links and Hijinks (2026).

Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing that behind-the-scenes look at Fern Valley!

Biography

Through the years, Heather Weidner has been a cop’s kid, technical writer, editor, college professor, software tester, and IT manager. She writes the Pearly Girls Mysteries, the Delanie Fitzgerald Mysteries, The Jules Keene Glamping Mysteries, and The Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mysteries.

Her short stories appear in the Virginia is for Mysteries series, 50 Shades of Cabernet, Deadly Southern Charm, and Murder by the Glass, and she has non-fiction pieces in Promophobia and The Secret Ingredient: A Mystery Writers’ Cookbook.

She is a member of Sisters in Crime: National, Central Virginia, Chessie, Guppies, and Grand Canyon Writers, International Thriller Writers, and James River Writers, and she blogs regularly with the Writers Who Kill.

Originally from Virginia Beach, Heather has been a mystery fan since Scooby-Doo and Nancy Drew. She lives in Central Virginia with her husband and a pair of Jack Russell terriers.

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