It’s a real pleasure today to join the blog tour for The Development, the third in the Cora Baxter Mysteries series from Jackie Kabler, published on 10th May for kindle and in paperback by Accent Press. I still haven’t managed to catch up on this lovely looking series – but the cover endorsement from Linda’s Book Bag is more than enough to make me want to squeeze one in!
After a stressful week, TV reporter Cora Baxter is ready for a quiet weekend. But what she hadn’t counted on was witnessing the shocking death of a young woman on her way home. She discovers seventeen-year-old Leanne had been protesting against a new housing development, angering the powerful establishment. Leanne’s death is ruled a suicide, but when puzzling information comes to light, Cora decides to investigate further.
She doesn’t know what an unscrupulous businessman, a suspended police officer and hate-mail sending neighbours have to do with the case – but she knows there is a news story there.
With her eccentric camera crew on hand to help, can Cora tie the strands of Leanne’s case together – or will other forces interfere?
Jackie tells me that the Cora Baxter Mysteries series combines murder mystery with a touch of humour and romance, and that Cora does tend to get herself into some sticky situations – here’s an example!
‘I still don’t know how you managed it, Cora. I mean, who gets stuck in the back of their own car? Lucky that salesman came along, eh?’
Cora sighed. It had been a slightly ridiculous incident, even for her. She’d picked up her new car, a sleek black Audi TT, just three weeks ago, to replace the BMW she’d driven since she started at Morning Live. As a roving reporter most of the time, unless she was covering on the newsreader’s desk in London, she was on the road five or six days a week, and the job was tough on cars – she’d clocked up well over two hundred thousand miles in less than four years. She’d been thrilled with the new Audi, and with her surprisingly good trade-in deal, but it was when she’d been transferring her belongings from the old vehicle to the new one on the garage forecourt that things had gone slightly awry. For reasons even she wasn’t completely sure about in retrospect, she’d clambered right into the rear of her new two-door car to stash her de-icer, car blanket and other bits and pieces in the storage compartments and on the back seat. But when she was satisfied that all was neatly arranged, and attempted to exit the cramped space, she’d found herself well and truly trapped, unable to reach the mechanism that slid the front seats forward. She’d struggled for several minutes, then decided to attempt to squeeze through the narrow gap between the two front seats instead. It was at this point that a bemused salesman had cautiously opened the car door, to find a red-faced Cora in a semi-horizontal position, feet on the rear seat and head hovering over the gear stick as she endeavoured to make her escape. He’d obligingly hauled her out of the car, politely asking if she was alright, but a mortified Cora could see that he was struggling to suppress his laughter.
‘Bet he absolutely pissed himself when you’d gone,’ Rodney added now.
‘Yes, yes, OK, I’m an idiot. Now, if you’ve both finished packing up, can we go and find some breakfast? I’m starving.’
Giveaway
With thanks to Jackie and tour organiser Jenny at Neverland Tours, I’m delighted to offer the chance to win a signed bundle of Jackie Kabler’s entire Cora Baxter series of books. The giveaway is international: here’s the rafflecopter for entry:
About the author
Jackie Kabler is a journalist, TV presenter and author. She spent twenty years as a TV news reporter for GMTV, ITV and BBC news, and now works as a presenter for shopping channel QVC and is author of the Cora Baxter Mysteries, a series of murder mysteries set in a television newsroom. The Development is her third novel. Jackie lives in Gloucestershire with her husband, who is a GP.