I am so excited to have Paula Paul here at Paranormal and Romantic Suspense Reviews with a Spotlight.
Thanks Paula and Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours for allowing me to join your For Dead Men Only Blog Tour!
Please take it away, Paula!
Dr. Gladstone Does Her Duty
I am Dr. Alexandra Gladstone, the protagonist in the cozy mystery series called, appropriately enough, Dr. Alexandra Gladstone Mysteries. Paula Paul is the author of that series, and she asked me to write a short essay for her. She says she doesn’t have time to write it herself because she is busy trying to work out the plot for another adventure for me and Nancy, my maid-of- all-work.
I agreed to do this for her since, so far at least, she has succeeded in keeping me alive through all those situations she’s gotten me into. However, I suspect the real reason she wanted me to write it for her is because she’s a bit shy. I think she’s afraid that composing an essay about writing the series will force her to talk about herself somewhat, and she’s reluctant to do that. I can understand that since I am a rather reticent myself. However, since she is my creator, I am compelled to do as she says. Up to a point at least. I must confess that there have been times when I have forced Paula to write things my way when she had plans for the story to go another direction. Without fail, she has confessed that she is glad I insisted because it invariable makes the story better.
Sometimes I have to visit her in her dreams in order to make her understand certain matters. For example, I did not like that gown she dressed me in for the first adventure in the series, which she called Symptoms of Death. I was at a dinner party given by the Fifth Earl of Dunsford at Montmarsh, his country estate that happens to be just outside the village of Newton-Upon-Sea where I live and have my medical practice. She dressed me in rose-colored silk. Of course I love silk gowns, but I could scarcely afford it. I had to explain that to Paula in the dream. I am a medical doctor in a small village. The rose silk cost me almost two months income, and Nancy had to take time away from helping me in my practice to stitch the dress by hand. The style was wrong as well. Low enough in the front to show décolletage! What was she thinking? That style was decades out of style. Not that I am so terrible conscious of style, but I do have my principles. Décolletage indeed!
At first, her description of the village was disconcerting to me. She kept changing the distance between certain sites, not to mention their locations. I become positively dizzy trying to find my way around until I instructed her in yet another dream to draw a map of the town. I am loathe to say that Paula is a terrible artist, and the map was almost incomprehensible at first, but we both came to comprehend it eventually.
After several books, we have come to understand each other much better, and I believe we could become rather good friends if circumstances allowed us to cross centuries and meet as equals. As I have already mentioned, we are both somewhat introverted and shy, but we both also have voracious intellectual appetites and love learning new things. For example, we both had a great deal to learn about anthrax poisoning in the book Half a Mind to Murder. I only regret that my own education came at the expense of the lives of some of the villagers. There is certainly more that we each have had to learn, but I won’t go into it here. Paula instructed me that I am not to give away everything because she wants you to read the books. Certainly I do as well. I have a much fuller life when it is shared with readers, rather than with Paula alone who spends far too much of her time in front of that device she calls a computer to be truly sociable. She really needs to get out more.
For Dead Men Only: An Alexandra Gladstone Mystery
2nd in Series
Historical Cozy Mystery
Random House LLC
Alibi (April 12, 2016)
E-Book ASIN: B01208WOJ4
Synopsis
The Temple of the Ninth Daughter sits on a hill at the edge of Newton - upon-Sea, an aura of mystery lingering over its tall, gray silhouette. Villagers whisper about the treasure housed inside, protected by local Freemasons who are bound by clandestine oaths.
Dr. Alexandra Gladstone has no time for such nonsense. Between the patients in her surgery and the rounds she makes with her faithful dog, Zack, her days are busy enough. But Alexandra has no logical explanation when the Freemasons start dying, one by one, with no sign of foul play other than smears of blood on their Masonic aprons. And what to make of reports that a Knight Templar rides through the village before each passing?
After the constable disappears in the midst of the crisis, Alexandra reaches out to her dashing, diligent friend, Nicholas Forsythe, Lord Dunsford, for assistance. Is someone after the treasure, or might a more sinister game be afoot? In order to solve this puzzle, Alexandra must somehow catch a killer who shows no remorse — and leaves no witnesses.
Praise for Paula Paul’s Alexandra Gladstone mysteries
“I love the way real personalities from the past keep popping up to intermingle with Paul’s fictional characters.” — Lois Duncan, award-winning and bestselling author of Killing Mr. Griffin and I Know What You Did Last Summer
“A lively mixture of ruling-class murder, Victorian morals, and love.” — Bestselling author Tony Hillerman
“I would recommend this to fans of the Maisie Dobbs series. There’s a strong female character in a historical setting. She’s determined, logical, intelligent and faces an unusual situation.” — The Reader’s Hollow
About The Author
Award-winning novelist Paula Paul was born on her grandparents’ cotton farm near Shallowater, Texas, and graduated from a country high school near Maple, Texas. She earned a BA in journalism and has worked as a reporter for newspapers in both Texas and New Mexico. She’s been the recipient of state and national awards for her work as a journalist as well as a novelist. Her previous novels featuring Dr. Alexandra Gladstone, including Symptoms of Death, have appeared on bookstore and online bestseller lists. She is also the author of the Mystery by Design series, which she wrote as Paula Carter. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Author Link:
Webpage – http://www.paulapaul.net/
Purchase Links:
Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Men-Only-Alexandra-Gladstone-ebook/dp/B01208WOJ4/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1456255044&sr=1-1
B and N – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/for-dead-men-only-paula-paul/1122800337?ean=9781101883228
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