With Vics You Get Eggroll (A Mad for Mod Mystery Book 3) (22 page)
Read With Vics You Get Eggroll (A Mad for Mod Mystery Book 3) Online
Authors: Diane Vallere
Tags: #book club recommendations, #mystery books, #amateur sleuth, #detective stories, #women's murder club, #murder mysteries, #cozy mysteries, #cozy mystery, #english mysteries, #murder mystery, #women sleuths, #fashion mysteries, #female sleuth, #humorous murder mysteries, #mystery series, #british cozy mysteries
As the night grew to a close, Hudson turned to me. “You don’t have to leave.” He brushed a few stray blond hairs out of my face. “Stay here with me.”
“Okay,” I said, surprising him by not thinking it over. “Which do you want? The sofa or the bed?”
His eyes moved from my mouth to my eyes and back to my mouth. “You pick,” he said.
I reached forward and hooked my index finger into the waistband of his jeans, tugging him closer to me. “I thought maybe we could start on the sofa and then move to the bed.”
He scooped me up in his arms and we kissed. And just like that, I was back in the game.
Reader’s Discussion Guide
1. By the end of the first chapter, Madison hears a woman accuse Tex of being responsible for the abduction and subsequent murder of her daughter. Did the accusation surprise you? Do you think it is possible for a police officer to use his role to commit horrible crimes?
2. Officer Nasty cautions Madison from blindly believing in Tex. She warns that he is not the man Madison thinks he is. Do you think Nasty’s advice is rooted in jealousy? Do you think she still has feelings for Tex?
3. Madison is experiencing a mild bit of celebrity now that she’s been involved in two high-profile cases. Do you think she is wise to try to help Tex, or do you think she should lay low and let him handle things himself?
4. In addition to spending time with Tex, Madison works with new clients and has the opportunity to endorse a collection of mid-century modern paint colors. In this sense, she seems to be keeping her business as a top priority. Do you think it helps her or hinders her to be a smart businesswoman in the middle of everything going on around her? Do you think she should close the doors to Mad for Mod and move out of Dallas?
5. What does it say about Madison that she is willing to risk her own safety to spend time with Tex? Would you have done the same thing? Or would you have distanced yourself from the abductions?
6. Throughout this book, Madison is expected to trust law enforcement and independent security companies, even though there is a constant threat that the people hired to protect her might be the same people behind the abductions and killings. Do you think it was easier for Madison to trust the police because of her previous involvement with them?
7. Hudson returns to Dallas at a time when Madison least expects it. If he hadn’t come back, do you think Madison would have made different decisions at the end of the book? Or do you think the events with both Tex and Hudson shook her up enough to push her forward?
8. Do you think Madison’s self-inflicted emotional isolation is entirely behind her now, or do you think she will have trouble getting past what happened in this book? If you’d been through what she’s been through, how do you think it would affect you? Would it change how you interacted with your current loved ones? Would you try to move on, or would you seek out people who might understand what you felt?
9. Do you think Madison and Tex could make it as a couple? Do you think Madison and Hudson could?
10. At the book’s end, Madison is a forty-eight-year-old independent woman about to embark on a new relationship. Despite personal tragedy, she appears to be moving on. Do you think she can? Do you think this will lead to her happily ever after, or do you think there is more turmoil ahead for her?
From the Author
I have always felt that something special happened when I first wrote
Pillow Stalk
, and it’s been important to me to honor those characters who first sprang off the page in 2012. As much as each book is a mystery, it is also about personal growth, learning about ourselves, and taking chances.
With Vics You Get Eggroll
asks the question: how well do we know the people we think we know? Over the course of three books, I’ve fallen a bit in love with Madison, Tex, and Hudson, and I hope you have as well.
About the Author
After two decades working for a top luxury retailer, Diane Vallere traded fashion accessories for accessories to murder. She is a Lefty Best Humorous Mystery Nominee and, in addition to the Mad for Mod Series, writes the Material Witness and Style & Error Mysteries. Diane started 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 a character in a Doris Day movie, 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
Don’t Miss the 2
nd
Book in the Series
THAT TOUCH OF INK
Diane Vallere
A Mad for Mod Mystery (#2)
When mid-century modern interior decorator Madison Night receives a five thousand dollar bill in the mail, she knows it’s a message from her past. Watching Doris Day movies helps with inspiration for her business, but her favorite actress can’t help when Madison’s lover comes back.
After finding a corpse at a local numismatist, she follows a circuit of rare dollars and common sense to expose a kidnapping plot, a counterfeit operation, and the true price of her independence.
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
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Henery Press Mystery Books
And finally, before you go...
Here are a few other mysteries
you might enjoy:
THE DEEP END
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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.
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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
BOARD STIFF
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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
DINERS, DIVES & DEAD ENDS
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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