Today Arabella Carpenter is visiting Ascroft, eh? to tell us about Where There’s A Will, the latest novel in the Glass Dolphin mystery series.

Welcome, Arabella. Let’s get started, shall we?

Tell us about the novel that you live inside. Is it part of a series? If so, please tell us about the series too.

Thank you for asking me. I am one of the main characters in Judy Penz Sheluk’s Glass Dolphin cozy mystery series. The Glass Dolphin is the name of my antiques shop, which is located on historic Main Street in the small town of Lount’s Landing. The town is named after Samuel Lount, a real-life politician who was hanged for treason in the nineteenth century. The first book in the series is The Hanged Man’s Noose (that’s the name of a local pub), followed by A Hole in One (dead body found during a charity golf tournament), and the most recent, which released on Nov. 10, 2020, is Where There’s A Will.

Something that is fun is that Judy Penz Sheluk also writes another series, the Marketville Mysteries. These involve cold cases, though still with a cozy vibe, and the books in the series are Skeletons in the Attic, Past & Present, and A Fool’s Journey. Anyway, I have a minor role in all three books, which is pretty cool, don’t you think?

Does the writer control what happens in the story or do you get a say too?

Judy calls herself a pantser, which means she lets the story take her where it takes her. Because of that, I sometimes steer her in a direction she hadn’t been expecting.

How did you evolve as the main character?

I was actually the sidekick in book 1 (Noose), sharing the stage with Emily Garland, a journalist who is now my business partner. In book 2 (A Hole in One), we switched roles. In Where There’s A Will, we share the role of protagonist equally, alternating our points of view. It was great fun doing it that way, because we weren’t always aware of what the other was doing, and that created some problems. What’s a mystery without some problems?

Do you have any other characters you like sharing the story with? If so, why are you partial to them?

Besides Emily, there is my ex-husband, Levon Larroquette, an antiques picker by trade. Everyone seems to think we are perfect for each other, but we’re both too stubborn to admit it. Levon is a major character in all three Glass Dolphin books, and he adds a hint of romance. He’s also drop dead gorgeous. Judy really enjoys writing about Levon, but honestly, some of the situations she puts us in…it’s just not fair!

What’s the place like where you find yourself in this story?

Lount’s Landing is a small town about 90 minutes north of Toronto, Canada. But like most small towns within a commutable distance to a major city, there are signs of development. In fact, in the first book, The Hanged Man’s Noose, a greedy developer came there to build a mega-box store on our historic Main Street. As if we’d let him get away with that.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell readers about you and the book?

I thought you’d never ask! Here’s the official blurb:

Emily Garland is getting married and looking for the perfect forever home. When the old, and some say haunted, Hadley house comes up for sale, she’s convinced it’s “the one.” The house is also perfect for reality TV star Miles Pemberton and his new series, House Haunters. Emily will fight for her dream home, but Pemberton’s pockets are deeper than Emily’s, and he’ll stretch the rules to get what he wants.

While Pemberton racks up enemies all around Lount’s Landing, Arabella Carpenter, Emily’s partner at the Glass Dolphin antiques shop, has been hired to appraise the contents of the estate, along with her ex-husband, Levon. Could the feuding beneficiaries decide there’s a conflict of interest? Could Pemberton?

Things get even more complicated when Arabella and Levon discover another will hidden inside the house, and with it, a decades-old secret. Can the property stay on the market? And if so, who will make the winning offer: Emily or Miles Pemberton?

Thank you for answering my questions, Arabella, and good luck to you and your author, Judy Penz Sheluk, with Where There’s A Will, the latest book in the Glass Dolphin mystery series.

Readers can learn more about Arabella and her author, Judy Penz Sheluk by visiting the author’s website and her Facebook, Goodreads, Bookbub, Instagram and Pinterest pages. You can also follow her on Twitter.

The novel is available at the following online retailers:

Amazon  –   B&N –   Kobo –  Apple

About Judy Penz Sheluk: A former journalist and magazine editor, Judy Penz Sheluk is the author of two mystery series: the Glass Dolphin Mysteries and the Marketville Mysteries. Her short crime fiction appears in several collections, including The Best Laid Plans and Heartbreaks & Half-truths, which she also edited. Judy is a member of Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers, the Short Mystery Fiction Society, and Crime Writers of Canada, where she serves as Chair on the Board of Directors.