Today I'm thrilled to welcome author Kirsten Weiss as she shares about stumbling across the perfect town in which to host a murder.

If I asked you about the perfect town for a murder mystery, you’d probably think of something gloomy, strange, and well, mysterious. But when it comes to cozy mysteries, which are low-violence and high-humor, the specifications change. Small towns are ideal for cozies, and the quirkier and cuter the better.

So when I was driving down I-70 a few years back and stopped in Casey, IL, I realized I’d found the perfect setting for a cozy murder. Once upon a time, Casey was a typical, dying small Midwest town, its main street lined with empty storefronts. And then a local businessman decided to try and revitalize it. He and a local artist created a series of “world’s largest” objects to attract tourists. Now, you can find the world’s largest rocking chair, wind chimes, mailbox, seesaw, and more along its Main Street. The golf course has the world’s largest golf tee. The candy shop has the world’s largest wooden shoe. The knitting shop has the world’s largest knitting needle AND crochet hook. Buses bring tourists to shop and snap photos.

In the knitting shop, I got to chatting with the owner, who told me the story of the town’s revitalization. Smiling, she admitted it was a quirky town, and she’d never thought she’d work anywhere like it. “Quirky” was the buzzword that made me realize it was the perfect town for a murder.

But. I don’t like setting my mysteries in real places. I’m doomed to get things wrong when describing locations, so I’d rather make up my own town with my own map. So I took the idea of Casey and moved it to an imaginary town on the Nevada side of the Sierra Nevadas called Nowhere. The locale for my newest mystery/comedy, Big Shot, was born.

Not wanting to step on Casey’s toes, I came up with my own “world’s biggest” attractions for Nowhere, including a pizza wheel, corkscrew, can of peas, and bowling pin. Like Casey, my fictional town also has some objects which are big but not “world’s biggest,” including a park filled with Alice-in-Wonderland sized mushrooms. Nowhere’s park used to have the world’s biggest koi fish, but they don’t like to talk much about what happened to poor Karl the koi…

If you find yourself driving down I-70 through Illinois, take the exit for Casey. Main Street isn’t far off the freeway, and its oddball downtown is well worth the look.

BIG SHOT

Small Town. Big Murder.

The number one secret to my success as a bodyguard? Staying under the radar. But when a wildly public disaster blew up my career and reputation, my perfect, solo life took a hard left turn to crazy town. And to bodies. Lots of dead bodies.

I thought my tiny hometown of Nowhere would be the ideal out-of-the-way refuge to wait out the media storm.

It wasn’t.

My little brother had moved into a treehouse. The obscure mountain town had decided to attract tourists with the world’s largest collection of big things... Yes, Nowhere now has the world’s largest pizza cutter. And lawn flamingo. And ball of yarn...

And then I stumbled over a dead body. 

All the evidence points to my brother being the bad guy. I may have been out of his life for a while—okay, five years—but I know he’s no killer. Can I clear my brother before he becomes Nowhere’s next Big Fatality?

Buy this quirky, fast-paced mystery series now!

Murder mystery game included in the back of the book.

Kindle: https://amzn.to/2SbppvH

Apple Books: https://apple.co/3wXKIQq

Nook: https://bit.ly/3uM72uv

Google Play: https://bit.ly/3Kup2mc

Kobo: https://bit.ly/3vP7vgN

About Kirsten

Kirsten Weiss writes laugh-out-loud, page-turning mysteries. Her heroines aren’t perfect, but they’re smart, they struggle, and they succeed. Kirsten writes in a house high on a hill in the Colorado woods and occasionally ventures out for wine and chocolate. Or for a visit to the local pie shop.

Kirsten is best known for her Wits’ End, Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum, and Tea & Tarot cozy mystery books. So if you like funny, action-packed mysteries with complicated heroines, just turn the page…