Toasting Tina

In this delightful cozy, suspects abound when the hated book publisher becomes toast after someone throws a toaster into her bath.

"Jane Marple for the millennium."—Kensington Publishing

Schemer Tina Vale, publisher of Corsair Books, slept her way to the top, making many enemies on the way. Now she’s going after an old enemy, single mom and literary agent Jane Stuart. I’ll get even at last! What on earth did Jane ever do to get Tina so riled up? Nearly twenty years ago, Tina lost out to Jane when Jane married Kenneth, someone Tina wanted. She never forgave Jane for that!

Now Tina makes Jane pay for it. She cancels Jane’s multi-million-dollar publishing contract with Corsair. That destroys the author’s career and empties Jane’s bank account, but Tina goes further, spreading false rumors about Jane. Jane is damaged financially, but by having the past stirred up, Jane finds new heartache as she recalls her cherished memories of Kenneth who died a few years ago.

Tina and Joan are both at the annual RAT Convention (Romance Authors Together), where the hotel venue is struggling to handle all the romance authors as well as this year’s featured cat show. Jane and Winky, her trusted tortie, want to win the cat show contest and Jane tries to forget all about Tina and stay out of her way.

But soon Jane has more serious matters to worry about. After Tina fails to make her grand entrance at the award ceremonies, her body is discovered in the bathtub, along with one of her prized collectible vintage toasters she was an avid collector of. Tina was always the lavish spender when it came to herself, with some of her collection being worth a pretty penny, and this one sure sizzled! It was still plugged in.

Who put the toaster in the bath? This time, Jane herself is a suspect.

“You have to admit you have motive,” says police detective Stanley Greenberg, Jane’s boyfriend.

But as much as Jane hated Tina, she never would have wasted a good toaster on her.

Jane sets out to unravel the mystery of Tina’s death. Many of Tina’s enemies had access to her top toaster collection.

Before the toaster killer strikes again, Jane must find out which of Tina’s enemies hated her enough to say, “Tina’s toast.”

This edition contains a bonus excerpt from CRUSHING CRYSTAL by Evan Marshall.

3.56 average rating all editions, 57 ratings, 7 reviews, added by 142 people, 43 to-reads, 86% of people like it–Goodreads

3.6 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)–Amazon

"Miss Marple Lite."—Kirkus Reviews

"Sparkling!"—Publishers Weekly

The Jane and Winky series is as cozy as a kitten–with tiny sharp claws.”—Jill Churchill

"TOASTING TINA is cozy in every sense of the word…."—I Love a Mystery

“The writing style is one that I like, just enough action going on to keep me turning pages to see what would happen next, keep me in suspense until the end to find out who did it. I liked it enough to go looking for one of the other books in this series.”—Ivy M, Goodreads

Evan Marshall, president of The Evan Marshall Agency, is author of The Marshall Plan For Novel Writing, the international bestseller on commercial novel writing now in its 20th anniversary edition. He is author of 10 commercially published mysteries, the Manhattan Mysteries Series and Jane & Winky Suburban Sleuths Series, called “Miss Marple Lite” by Kirkus Reviews. His books appeal to fans of Janet Evanovich, Lilian Jackson Braun, Agatha Christie and Alexander McCall Smith. You can reach him at evan@evanmarshallagency.com.