Monday, April 14, 2014

LET'S GET COZY! MURDER AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY: A PREVIEW AND GIVEAWAY


GIVEAWAY ENDED
MURDER AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY
An Elizabethan Mystery
BY AMANDA CARMACK
ABOUT THE BOOK:
1559. Elizabeth is about to be crowned queen of England and wants her personal musician Kate Haywood to prepare music for the festivities. New to London, Kate must learn the ways of city life...and once again school herself as a sleuth.

Life at the center of the new royal court is abuzz with ambition and gossip—very different from the quiet countryside, where Kate served Elizabeth during her exile. Making her way among the courtiers who vie for the new queen’s favor, Kate befriends Lady Mary Everley. Mary is very close to Elizabeth. With their red hair and pale skin, they even resemble each other—which makes Mary’s murder all the more chilling.

The celebrations go on despite the pall cast over them. But when another redhead is murdered, Kate uncovers a deadly web of motives lurking just beneath the polite court banter, and follows the trail of a killer whose grievance can only be answered with royal blood. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Amanda has been in love with the Tudors ever since an accidental viewing of “Anne of the Thousand Days” on TV as a kid! Now she just wishes she could live with them all the time—but there has to be time for writing about them too.

She also writes as Amanda McCabe and Laurel McKee, and her books have been nominated for many awards, including the RITA Award, the Romantic Times BOOKReviews Reviewers’ Choice Award, the Booksellers Best, the National Readers Choice Award, and the Holt Medallion. She lives in Oklahoma with a menagerie of two cats, a Pug, and a very bossy miniature Poodle, along with far too many books.

When not writing or reading, she loves taking dance classes, yoga, collecting cheesy travel souvenirs, and watching the Food Network—even though she doesn’t cook. 

AN EXCERPT FROM MURDER AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY:
Prologue—London, January 1559

“Out of my way, you foul hedge pig!  Ain't you ever been told to give way to ladies before?”  Nell shoved at the thick crowd clustered ahead of her, using her elbow or a well-placed heel to wriggle her way in.  She had never seen a real-life queen before, and she wasn't going to miss it.


Nell's grandmother, who had been a toothless old crone when Nell was a toddler, good for nothing but sweeping the floor and boiling the linen of the bawdy house, once saw this new queen's mother, Queen Anne Boleyn, ride past in her own coronation procession.  She'd told Nell all about it, and Nell remembered it now.  Her grandmother's stories of Queen Anne's gown, all silver and gold, sparkling as she sat up high in her chariot with her black hair loose and twined with jewels.  The music and the flowers, the wine that flowed free at every fountain.


“There were few enough to cheer for her, Nellie,” her grandmother had always finished the tale, with a rueful shake of her gray head.  “For all that they drank her wine enough, there were too many as missed good Queen Katherine of Aragon.  But she was a glorious sight to see.  She knew how to put on a show, did that one.  They say she started from naught, too.  Think what you could do, my Nellie, with the right man...”
TO READ THE REST OF THIS EXCERPT, VISIT AMANDA CARMACK'S WEBSITE HERE. 

ANOTHER BOOK BY AMANDA CARMACK:
GIVEAWAY
THANKS TO KAYLEIGH AND THE GOOD FOLKS
AT BERKLEY PRIME CRIME AND PENGUIN BOOKS,
I HAVE ONE COPY OF MURDER AT WESTMINSTER
ABBEY, TO GIVE AWAY TO A LUCKY READER
 
--U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY 
--NO P. O. BOXES
---INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
IN CASE YOU WIN!
--ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE TO
 

COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE!

  
HOW TO ENTER:


+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON WHAT YOU READ ABOVE ABOUT MURDER AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY THAT MADE YOU WANT TO WIN THIS BOOK, AND DON'T FORGET YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS

+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG AND/OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND COME BACK HERE AND LEAVE ME YOUR LINK

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FIND INTERESTING AT AMANDA CARMACK'S WEBSITE HERE 

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ONE WAY YOU FOLLOW MY BLOG. IF YOU FOLLOW MORE THAN ONE WAY, YOU CAN COMMENT SEPARATELY AND EACH WILL COUNT AS AN ENTRY 

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON A CURRENT GIVEAWAY THAT YOU HAVE ENTERED ON MY BLOG. IF YOU ENTERED MORE THAN ONE, YOU MAY COMMENT SEPARATELY FOR EACH TO RECEIVE MORE ENTRIES

GIVEAWAY ENDS AT
6 PM, EST, APRIL 28
  GOOD LUCK

47 comments:

Unknown said...

I love the time and place for the setting of the is mystery.
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Unknown said...

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Carol N Wong said...

I love to read about the times of Elizabeth the 1st but even more I love read about herself. I have a fat biography sitting on my TBR shelf as an extra treat. In the meantime, I have read a lot of books that tell about her through others' eyes.

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Carol N Wong said...

I tweeted: http://t.co/FyqfWaE2pB

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Carol N Wong said...

I enjoyed reading the history behind the book.

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Carol N Wong said...

I follow with a RSS feed on my Yahoo page.
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Carol N Wong said...

I follow with Networked Blogs
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I follow with Twitter.
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Carol N Wong said...

I entered for "Sugar and Iced".

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I entered for "Blossom Street Brides".

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I entered for "Death on Eat Street".

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Carol N Wong said...

+5 April FB Bonus Entry #2

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Carol N Wong said...


+5 April FB Bonus Entry #4

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Carol N Wong said...

+5 April FB Bonus Entry #5
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cyn209 said...

this cover is AMAZING!!!

thank you for the giveaway!!

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rhonda said...

Would love to read it.lomazowr@gmail.com

rhonda said...

E-mail follower lomazowr@gmail.com.

cyn209 said...

entered The Blackwoods Farm Enquiry giveaway.......

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Patricia said...

I loved that she fell in love with the time after seeing Anne of a Thousand Days as a kid. I loved that movie as a kid too!

patricia dot mariani dot esq at gmail dot com

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Sue Farrell said...

I haven't read a mystery set in the Tudor period for quite some time so this would be a pleasant change.
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Sue Farrell said...

I am an email subscriber.
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Sue Farrell said...

I follow on twitter as @Suekey12.
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Sue Farrell said...

I follow on Networked Blogs as Suzan Morrow Farrell.
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I follow on facebook as Suzan Morroq Farrell.
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holdenj said...

Entered Second Helping of Murder
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holdenj said...

I think the idea of the historical cozy is great! Thanks!
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holdenj said...

Email subscriber.
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GFC follower.
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