Thursday, March 3, 2016

Virtual Tour & #Giveaway for Deadly Scandal by Kate Parker

Welcome to my stop on the Virtual Tour, presented by Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours, for Deadly Scandal by Kate Parker.  Please leave a comment or question for Kate to let her know you stopped by.  My review is running late but will post later this week – please be sure to check back for that.  You can follow all of the stops on Kate’s tour by clicking on the banner above.  

The Story Behind Deadly Scandal by Kate Parker

Back in the 1970s or 1980s, I read a story in Parade Magazine about two English women who, in the late thirties, had smuggled furs and jewels out of Nazi Germany to England for their Jewish owners. As well as I remember the story, if these German Jews had assets in England that would support them so they wouldn’t take away jobs from Englishmen, they could get entrance visas into England. The Nazis, obviously, were eyeing the assets of Jews because they planned to confiscate them.

The English, on the other hand, were just shaking off the worst of the Great Depression, and jobs were still scarce. Letting in immigrants who would take jobs away from locals, even for the best of motives, was “not on,” to use an expression from the time.

The two women from the article would fly into Germany on a Friday night, take in the opera, and take the train and ferry out on Sunday wearing their newly acquired goods. They decided the people who flew never took the train and ferry, and vice versa. Therefore, they could go in dressed as ordinary citizens and leave dressed richly, and no one would ever notice.

No one did. They rescued 38 people this way before World War II brought an end to their efforts.

You wouldn’t know it from traveling by plane or train now, but in the thirties, people dressed up to travel. Travel was an experience above and beyond whatever you might find once you arrived at your destination. This cultural change must be remembered to understand how this works in Deadly Scandal.

Early in the story, my heroine, Olivia Denis, finds herself in the position of helping the family of an old friend leave Nazi occupied areas ahead of the looming war. She uses the same technique I read about thirty or forty years ago, carried out by those two brave women.

Read more about Olivia’s first adventure, with of course a traditional mystery woven in, in Deadly Scandal.

Kate Parker has been previously published in the ongoing Victorian Bookshop Mysteries and in the Christmas Revels anthologies. She can be reached at www.KateParkerbooks.com

Deadly Scandal
By Kate Parker
The Deadly Series, Book 1

Publisher:  JDP Press
Release Date: January 14, 2016
Genre: Cozy Historical Mystery
Length: 338 Pages
ISBN-13: 978-0996483124
ASIN:  B01AU0KC8E


An exciting new series from the author of The Victorian Bookshop Mysteries.

Purchase Links: Amazon  B&N



About the book:

Olivia Denis is a contented young wife with a carefree life in late 1930’s London. Then her world is shattered with the violent death of her husband, Reggie. The police want to call it a suicide and close the case, but Olivia knows Reggie couldn’t possibly have fired the fatal shot.

Further mysteries surface surrounding her husband’s death. Did the trustworthy Foreign Office employee betray government secrets? Was his murder linked to the death of a German embassy clerk the same night? And who searched their flat?


Her desire for answers and her need to support herself cause her to break away from the pampered life she’s known and take a job. But with the much-needed paycheck as a society reporter for a newspaper comes a secret secondary assignment—one that involves her in the increasingly dangerous world of European politics as the continent slides toward war.



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kate Parker has wanted to travel to 1930s England since she read her mother’s Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers mysteries when she was a schoolgirl. After many years of studying science, she decided a time travel machine was out of the question so she found herself limited to reading about the period and visiting historic sites. Her love of this fascinating and challenging period led her to the research from which the Deadly series grew. Eventually, she found it necessary to spend several days in the British Library reading old newspapers, which meant another trip to England. Near Christmas. A sacrifice she’d gladly make every year.

The first story in the series is Deadly Scandal, and she is hard at work on the sequel.

Author Links:



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8 comments:

  1. This captivating novel interests me greatly. The era, the story and the locale are all fascinating and makes this story come alive. What an extremely talented author and great feature.

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  2. LOVED the Georgia Fenchurch series. Really looking forward to this as well.

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  3. I am new to this series and author. I like the era 1930s..pre-WWII London is exciting. I, too, am a fan of Agatha Christie's Poirot and Marple, and if that influenced Kate Parker, I know her book will be great. Thanks.
    kat8762@aol.com

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  4. I'm a huge fan of the Georgia Fenchurch series, so very excited to read the 1930s! Kate is a great author.

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  5. I love this kind of mystery. The setting sounds great. Can't wait to read.

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  6. I am really looking forward to reading this book. Thank you for sharing.
    Connie
    cps1950(at)gmail(dot)com

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  7. I like the Victorian Bookshop mysteries a lot, and while I'll miss Georgia and Blackford (and the rest) this series looks nice as well.

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  8. I am looking forward to this debut! Olivia sounds like a great character and the time period one I like to read about for historical mysteries! Thanks!
    JHolden955(at)gmail(dot)com

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