Hammers and Homicide

by Paula Charles

Overview

Perfect for fans of Kate Carlisle and Victoria Gilbert, when a body is found in a hardware store, will Dawna Carpenter’s sleuthing measure up to find the killer?

Recent sexagenarian widow Dawna Carpenter thought running her own hardware store after the death of her husband was hard enough. With her adult daughter, April, moving back into town, and Darlene, the annoying boutique owner next door to her shop poking around, Dawna has her hands full. But when she finds a dead man in the bathroom of her store, with a framing hammer by his side, she’s in way over her head.

The victim, Warren Highcastle, was a land developer who was looking to purchase the old theater in town to build a new hotel. Dawna and April, worried about the implications of the crime scene at the hardware store, put themselves on the case. They soon learn that Warren had made quite a few enemies in his short amount of time in town. As the suspect list starts growing, so too do the threats against Dawna and April. Can Dawna and April nail the killer before they strike again?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781639105991
Publisher:	CROOKED LANE BOOKS
Publication date:	01/16/2024
Series:	A Hometown Hardware Mystery
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.60(h) x 2.00(d)

About the Author

When Paula Charles isn’t writing under the towering trees of the Pacific Northwest, she can be found in the garden with her hands in the dirt or sitting on her front porch with a good book and a glass of iced tea. She has a love for small towns, ghost stories, and pie. During her childhood, she grew up in a town suspiciously resembling the fictional Pine Bluff, Oregon where she trailed behind her grandmother in the family’s hardware store until her grandmother would get fed up and put her to work counting nails. She is a member of Sisters in Crime. Paula lives on a small farm in Southwestern Washington with her husband, two furry dogs, two naughty goats, a handful of cackling chickens, a teeny tiny bunny rabbit, and one adventurous kitty cat.

Editorial Reviews

11/13/2023

In this breezy debut, Charles introduces Dawna Carpenter, a widow in her 60s who has taken over her family hardware business in downtown Pine Bluff, Ore., population 1,200. Pine Bluff is abuzz with gossip about Warren Highcastle, a real estate entrepreneur and ladies’ man who has recently rolled into town to make an offer on its long-vacant opera house. Not long after Dawna witnesses a heated discussion between Highcastle and a local real estate agent, she finds the developer dead in the bathroom of her shop, done in by a hammer blow to the head. Aided by her youngest daughter, April, Dawna decides to investigate Highcastle’s death, though she’s overwhelmed by his many enemies and unsettled by the threats that come her way as soon as she starts poking around. For the most part, Charles goes easy on the investigation and heavy on trips to the local café for pie and coffee, conversations with the ghost of Dawna’s husband, and supernatural visits from her deceased cat, Lilac. Pine Bluff is a charming place to escape for a while, but readers shouldn’t expect many thrills, surprises, or even recipes. This one’s strictly for die-hard cozy lovers. Agent: Dawn Dowdle, Blue Ridge. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Hammers and Homicide:
“A deftly crafted and fun read from first page to last.”
—Midwest Book Review

“This is a fun start to this new series.”
—Red Carpet Crash

“A woman of a certain age who knows how to swing a hammer, and solve a murder that occurred in her hardware store? Yes, please! Don’t miss Hammers and Homicide, a charming and welcome addition to the do-it-yourself cozy scene.” 
—Juliet Blackwell, New York Times bestselling author of The Haunted Home Renovation Series

“Paula Charles nailed it with this cute and clever cozy mystery featuring a hard-working hardware store owner and her daughter. Loads of small-town charm and plenty of laughs are found in this tale of tools and murder.”
—Jennie Marts, USA Today bestselling author of the Bee Keeping Mysteries

“Paula Charles hits the nail on the head with this intriguing series debut. Despite her daughter’s doubts, sixty-something hardware store owner Dawna Carpenter doesn't have a screw loose, at least nothing that prevents her from chiseling away the doubts about who murdered a local developer and left his body on her property. Cozy mystery fans of Kate Carlisle and Sarah Graves will delight in a new addition to the home improvement-plus-murder subgenre.”
—Maddie Day, bestselling author of the Country Store Mysteries

“This folksy mystery is loaded with captivating characters and small-town charm, with the perfect touches of humor and magical realism. I can’t wait to see what Dawna and her daughter April are up to next!”
—Angela M. Sanders, author of the Witch Way Librarian mysteries

“This fun and well-paced mystery has a sleuth that is sassy and smart. Murder with some old fashioned charm and a tiny hint of the paranormal. Toss in some laugh out loud humor and you have a fabulous debut cozy mystery.”
—Christina Romeril, author of Killer Chocolate Mysteries

From the Publisher

2023-11-04
A small-town hardware store owner turns sleuth when a man is found dead in her shop.

Dawna Carpenter is a widow who talks to her husband and feels his presence, which isn’t surprising, since she had a ghost as a childhood friend. She runs the store in Pine Bluff, Oregon, with the help of Steve Harrison, her only employee, who is uncharacteristically late for work one day. The neighboring store with which Carpenter’s Corner shares a bathroom is a boutique owned by snarky Darlene Lovelace, who, when she runs into Dawna in the hallway, brags about a date she had with Warren Highcastle, the new man in town. Highcastle is planning to turn the old opera house into a hotel, among much controversy, but Darlene calls him “one interesting specimen.” A little while later, Dawna finds Highcastle dead in the shared bathroom, beaten to death with a framing hammer. Police chief J.T. Dallas has a liking for Dawna’s youngest daughter, April, who runs a design and restoration business, but unfortunately his first suspect is Bill Wilder, Dawna’s late husband’s best friend, although Steve—who finally turns up—is a close second. On top of that, Dawna gets a certified letter from a bank she’s never dealt with saying the business owes $25,000. Certain that Bill is not the killer (even though his prints are on the murder weapon), she and April set out to prove it and soon have a list of suspects. A bit of research shows that Highcastle not only had a wife but left a long string of people cheated in crooked real estate deals in his wake.

Scads of red herrings and mixed motives make for a puzzling mystery, never mind the mysterious bank loan.

Kirkus Reviews