Murder Goes to Market

April 6, 2020
Set in the seaside town of San Elmo, Calif., Bateman’s entertaining debut and series launch introduces former software engineer Claudia Simcoe, who now runs a marketplace for independent businesses selling “local and/or artisanal” products. Claudia has the unsavory task of confronting Lori Roth, owner of Lori’s Handmade Creations, when she discovers that Lori’s merchandise is in fact made in factories and available online at significantly cheaper prices. The next morning, Claudia arrives to open the marketplace and finds Lori dead, hit on the head with a pickle jar and garroted with a cheese-slicing wire. Unfortunately for Claudia, police chief Bill Lennox, a “man with a face like a disappointed frog,” wants to pin the death on her. Evidence starts stacking up, and Claudia has no choice but to investigate on her own. Another death raises the stakes. Claudia’s lively and often highly amusing narration presents plausible potential suspects and motives galore—all this plus intelligent furry and feathered friends. Cozy fans will eagerly await Claudia’s next adventure. Agent: Abby Saul, Lark Group.

April 15, 2020
A farm-to-table marketplace owner falls back on the computer skills she thought she'd left behind to solve a murder. Claudia Simcoe used to work as a software engineer but gave it all up for the quiet of a small Sonoma coastal town, where she ekes out a living running a market and lives in a tiny cottage that came with the property. When someone leaves Claudia proof that her stall holder Lori Roth's handmade products are actually cheap knockoffs, she's forced to confront Lori, who's naturally furious at being forced out. Next morning Claudia finds Lori dead, garroted with a cheese cutter from the Cow Cheese Company stand. The local police chief, who's both incompetent and nasty, clearly has Claudia in his sights. Although his attractive deputy is more sympathetic, Claudia quickly realizes it's up to her to solve this crime before she's arrested. Luckily, she has plenty of free time now that the market's shut down. Because none of her other tenants profess to know anything about Lori's background, Claudia calls on her computer search skills. One of the boxes Lori had left in the empty cottage Claudia uses for extra storage contains personal property, including a notebook with some cryptic notes and a photo of Lori's BFF. The arrival of Lori's ex-husband only complicates the case. But Claudia soldiers on with moral support from friends and her newly adopted puppy. A pleasing debut for a complicated sleuth in this up-to-date take on the cozy mystery.

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