Book Description
Converting the old Beacon Point lighthouse into a bakery is as adventurous as Lindsey cares to get. Her mother, Ellie, a former 80s fashion model, likes her creature comforts even more—until she sees a business opportunity for her Beacon Harbor fashion boutique when she’s invited by the Mitten Kittens Glamping Club on a woodsy getaway.
Far from roughing it, the ladies will be warm and cozy in chic vintage campers. Ellie insists Lindsey come along to win the campfire cookout contest. Campfire cooking has come a long way from bacon and beans. Soon Lindsey is making pizza, berry cobbler, and gooey Carmelita camping bars.
But the festive spirit is soon dampened when a body is found in Ellie’s camper. It seems like an accidental death until everyone’s tires are slashed and it’s clear the glampsite has become a crime scene. With no cell service to call for help, it’s up to Lindsey to smoke out the killer around the campfire . . .
Because no one is out of the woods yet.
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Elise’s Thoughts
Murder At the Campfire Cookout by Darci Hannah will be the last in this series, kind of, because there will be a spinoff. This series is ending, but the characters readers have come to love will be back in a spinoff, still set in Beacon Harbor.
The author had the characters step out of their comfort zones, away from the bakery. Lindsey left her boyfriend Rory at home but also Welly, her Newfoundland dog. Lindsey, her friends Kennedy and Colleen, Lindsey’s Mom Ellie, and Ellie’s friend Betty all go glamping. Far from roughing it, the ladies will be warm and cozy in chic vintage campers and Lindsey was chosen to participate in the campfire cooking contest. The campground is way off the grid. Not long after they arrive, bad things begin to happen. Their cars are vandalized and they are stuck there with no phones or internet. Then one of the campers is found dead and soon everyone realizes it was not an accident.
One of the fellow glampers ends up dead from a sabotaged oven. Lindsey and her friends are determined to put the pieces together so they can escape the horror show unfolding at the glamping site and get home. The women realize they need to find who among them could have done this horrible act. They are also worrying about their own safety since a series of suspicious acts also occurs, adding to the tension.
Readers will get the feeling of a locked room mystery with the claustrophobia atmosphere of the isolated campground, a suspicious death, tires slashed, no phone service, and surrounded by trees and a lake in the woods. Everyone quickly realizes they are stranded in the woods with a killer and before others get hurt or killed, they need to find the murderer, with Lindsey knowing she must ‘smoke out the killer.’
As with the previous books, the ending has a twist, but unlike the others, the tension slowly ratchets up over the course of the story. Since this is a cozy mystery, the tone is lighter than a typical suspense, thriller, or mystery. There are funny moments, but the story also will have readers getting edgy with the feeling of those telling ghost stories around a campfire.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for the story?
Darci Hannah: I thought it would be fun to take the girls away on their special trip, and travel to the Upper Peninsula in Michigan, which is a very beautiful area. I went to school up there. It’s very remote. I’ve been camping up there when I was younger. And it’s just pristine and gorgeous and very isolated. There’s still some dense wilderness up there. So, I thought I wanted to take them camping.
EC: Why glamping?
DH: I used to work at our library, near my town, gosh, years ago. This woman came in, and she had this old historic license plate, but it had never been registered to a car. It was from 1976. And she asked if we could register it. She said, ‘Well, I’m in a glamping club, and I have a glamper, and I want to put it on that.’ What they would do is get these old Airstreams very cheaply or campers, and they would gut them. She was showing me all these pictures of her camper, that she had renovated. And then they would rebuild them by themselves, or maybe with their husband’s help, and just make them almost like she sheds. I thought I would like to write about this someday. And this was probably in 2018.
EC: What is a She Shed?
DH: A she shed is often converted from a garden shed. These spaces serve as cozy areas for relaxation, creativity, or hobbies, providing a sanctuary away from daily responsibilities, specifically for women. It was just a very feminine space. And so that’s what these things are.
EC: How did you incorporate glamping into the story?
DH: I figure that my characters are kind of fancy girls especially, Lindsay’s mother, Ellie. She’s not the type of person who would ever go camping, but glamping would work. And so, I thought it would just kind of be fun to have them go on this isolated trip, to just get away and work on some new ideas for a line of clothing.
EC: Kennedy, the best friend, also went on the trip, but seemed out of place?
DH: She is one of those city gals who is overconfident, a diva, overwhelmed where she is right now. High maintenance, likes to be the center of attention, impatient, obstinate, foolhardy, and brazen. And she’s also a loyal friend. She is just so loyal to Lindsey. That’s why their friendship works, because she’s opposite of Lindsey. And in this story, she can’t deal with their situation.
EC: What about the stalker?
DH: They are the motivation behind everything that’s going on. They have a driving need to connect with the person they target. wanting to be a part of their lives through manipulation and controls. It’s a one-sided attraction. But a stalker doesn’t believe it, because they’re delusional.
EC: How does the setting play a role?
DH: I want the reader to be submersed in this beautiful, almost pristine environment. It’s almost like a closed room murder, with a finite number of people, and then, there could be somebody out there. So that’s always a danger in the woods. You don’t know who’s out there. You don’t know what’s out there. You don’t know what animals are around us who’ve been in that area.
EC: Why didn’t you have Wellington, the dog, go with them on the trip?
DH: If I brought Welly, he would sniff out the murder right away. Dogs know things. They have senses and so I didn’t want to cheat. I had to make it tough for the characters. and uncomfortable so they would push themselves to these limits.
EC: Is this the last in the series?
DH: Yes, because the publisher decided it, probably when I started this book. These books came out in mass market but bookstores do not want to carry mass market. And it’s very heartbreaking, because the reason this series ended was strictly because of the format. They told me if I wrote another one, that the bookstores would not carry it, and if the bookstores aren’t going to carry your book, there would be a loss of sales.
EC: So, what about the next book?
DH: It will be a spinoff of this series: same character, same setting, and they didn’t give me much to go on. They wanted what I’m writing, but they wanted it with just a new hook, so they could remark it and repackage it. And so, finally, one day, I thought the next logical step would be just branching Lindsey into catering. There will be a little bit of a break before the next book. It’s going to be the same type with just a little different spin. I hope it works. It’ll be a trade paperback.
THANK YOU!!
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BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
