Please join us in welcoming award-winning author Maggie Toussaint today! The talented Maggie has written numerous books of mystery and suspense–including the most recent Seas the Day, and we’re so happy to have her visiting us today.
River Holloway’s On The Case!
I’m a sucker for old family photos! I love to look at faces and see what people were doing way back when.
In my family, for instance, our several beach trips stand out in my mind because going to a beach here was a big production. Georgia’s marshy coast is protected by barrier islands, so it’s a boat ride, and for our 40-50 person extended family, we took a shrimp boat. We kids had the run of the boat, usually ending up atop the pilot house telling pink elephant jokes. Then it was ferrying small groups ashore in a jon boat because the shrimp boat had too deep a draft. We ran all over the deserted beaches of Blackbeard, Sapelo, and St. Catherine’s Islands, picnicking, swimming, making sandcastles, seining for fish, and of course, surf fishing. On the way home us sunburned kids napped in the forward part of the hold.
My beach-going memories came in handy as I crafted my catering sleuth, River Holloway. When her childhood friend that she fished and beached with on Shell Island goes missing, River promises his mom she’ll search for him. River’s relieved when a friend and a deputy join her to barhop and find out if anyone knows what happened to Chili.
Viv and River are quite the pair, with Viv’s desperate-for-a-date vibe and River’s more earthy hearth-and-home persona. The deputy assures their safety in exchange for news about the case. However, the two women approach everyone in the nightlife crowd over the course of two nights without so much as a bread crumb for a lead. The only positive response came when one patron mistakenly thought River asked if he wanted a bowl of chili.
As the hours turned to days, River doggedly searches for her island friend, but her memories of their childhood days help her get to the bottom of the case.
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Maggie Toussaint serves up a fun and captivating read in Seas the Day, the first in her Seafood Caper Mystery series! Complete with Southern recipes.
Caterer River Holloway has talents beyond her to-die-for cooking. She is also known among friends and family on Shell Island as a “finder” of things. Which is why a desperate mother begs River to track down her grown son, Chili Bolz, who’s seemingly vanished.
Deputy Lance Hamlyn, a newcomer to Shell Island, has hit a dead-end in trying to locate the missing man. Familiar with River’s reputation, he attempts to team up with her, hoping that her inside track with the locals might aid his investigation. But the simple missing person case begins to boil over into something far more frightening when Chili’s mother falls victim to a brutal assault. Worse, her dying words to River seem to incriminate more than one of River’s friends in both kidnapping and, now, murder.
While Deputy Hamlyn conducts the formal criminal investigation, River uses her time between catering events to do some sleuthing of her own. Her efforts are hampered by the unexpected return of her absentee boyfriend, who has his own reasons for wanting her to stay safely in the kitchen. With the number of suspects growing longer than her food shopping list, River soon finds herself caught in an unsavory recipe for disaster. She must locate the missing Chili and discover who killed his mother before her own goose is quite literally cooked!
A scientist by training, a romanticist at heart, award winning author Maggie Toussaint loves to solve puzzles. Whether it’s the puzzle of a relationship or a who-dun-it, she tackles them all with equal aplomb and wonder. Maggie writes cozy mystery and romantic suspense under her own name, and science fiction under the pen name of Rigel Carson. For more information about her Guardian of Earth series, Visit RigelCarson.com. Besides being a member of Washington Romance Writers, she’s also a member of First Coast Romance Writers, Southeast Mystery Writers of America, and Low Country Sisters In Crime. For more information, please visit maggietoussaint.com.
Chicks on the Case 
What fun childhood vacations you had, Maggie! You brought back memories of a few of my own, but they were on the Cape, Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket, closer time my NY home. Thanks for visiting Chicks today!
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Thanks, Ellen, for such a warm welcome to Chicks on the Case. This is my first time here and it’s a thrill for me!
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Congratulations on the start of a new series, Maggie! I love reading culinary mysteries and a seaside setting also attracted me since I live in land-locked Ontario. I ordered Seas the Day from our national bookstore chain in April, but it is in delivery limbo somewhere in Canada! So I will have to wait a while longer before reading about River and Shell Island.
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Bless you, Grace, for being so patient for book delivery. I hope you enjoy Seas the Day as much as I do. I am new to the culinary mystery field, and I’m hoping all three books of this series (and possibly more!) have a great run. River is a character who values family and friends. We share that trait, and I am delighted to be honored by a Chicks on the Case appearance.
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Maggie, loved hearing about your family beach holidays! Congrats on Seas the Day, and thanks for hanging out with the Chicks today!
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Thanks so much, Vickie, for opening the door here. It is a delight to visit with Chicks on the Case. 2020 has been a strange year for several reasons, but I must say it is wonderful to feel the support of the mystery writing community when one has a book releasing during a pandemic! I’m glad to know you, and I look forward to our continuing acquaintance!
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I grew up close to the beach, so we used to go often. We had a lot of good times there! Your book sounds great, and I love the catchy title.
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So glad the setting of this book resonates with you, Marla. I hope you’ll check out the story. I can’t wait to get back to the beach!
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Well, it’s no surprise that I adore culinary mysteries, and your new series sounds wonderful! Congrats, and thanks so much for visiting the Chicks today!
Your story brought back memories of when our two sets of cousins would beg together when we were kids. The nine of us only saw each other three or four times a year, so it was always a big deal–whether we were camping in Yosemite or running wild around Balboa Island (where Arrested Development was filmed many years later), where my cousins lived. Wonderful memories.
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I loved your recolleciton, Leslie. Cousins are the best, aren’t they? I’m glad that we also share a love of culinary mysteries. Thanks for the encouraging words about this new series, the Seafood Caper Mysteries.
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Oh, how I want to walk on a beach! That’s one of the things I miss most here in land-locked Colorado. Last summer, we took a trip back east and spent some time on the edge of the Atlantic. It was glorious. Thank you so much for visiting us today, Maggie, and huge congratulations on Seas the Day!
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Hi Cynthia! I have family in Colorado and I know you have lots of stunning moutain vistas to enjoy. Still, there’s nothing like the beach for refreshment. For me it is an immersive experience (not intended to be a pun), in that I enjoy the beach with every one of my senses. I think it clears out my allergies too. I’m glad to have met you and I hope our paths keep crossing in a good way!
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Beaches are healing–so agree! And I hope our paths cross too and am so happy to have meet you as well. xo
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Your vacations sound wonderful. I love cozies that capture that vacation feeling.
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Thank you, Mark. I would like to be on one of those vactions now where someone else is cooking all my meals!
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Welcome, Maggie, and congrats on debuting your new series! (What a fantastic title!!)
Such wonderful seaside memories you have! I absolutely love visiting the Oregon Coast. (I’m in the middle of the state, so not terribly far away.) It’s wild and beautiful and, as you and Cynthia said, so healing. I can’t wait to go back.
Thanks for hanging out with us!
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I very much appreciate the warm welcome, Kathleen. What a great crew here at Chicks on the Case. Vacations are my jam, even though I’m a homebody. I’m so glad I get to write a story based on an island.
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I want to ride in a shrimp boat! Where do you think they park them in Colorado?
I have a big extended family too and while we didn’t get to have reunions on the beach, we did have the run of a farm one time and we kids thought it was hiLARious to switch nametags. Still not sure if my dad actually knew who I was….
Thanks for visiting us today, Maggie! Best of luck with the new series!
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Oh, Becky! That sounds like so much fun. I love the switching nametags gimmick too. If you want to see a shrimp boat, be sure not to wait too long. Because our country imports so much shrimp, shrimp boats are going the way of the dinosaurs. Far as I know, nobody is making them anymore. The crop of boats in GA are mostly 30-50 years old. The steel hull and fiberglass boats have a bit more longevity. Not so much for the wooden hulled trawlers.
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Congrats on your new series, Maggie! I haven’t gone on a shrimp boat before, but I did do some crab fishing with friends. It was a spontaneous trip and a lot of fun!
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Hi Jennifer! Spontaneous trips can be the best of all, then you’re working from a blank slate with no specific expectations to meet. I love going crabbing and so do my grandkids.
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Maggie, My apologies for being late to the party. We Chicks were so honored to have you visit–and your new series sounds FANTASTIC! Congrats! I’m a beach girl myself, though here in NH we have a very short coastline. I grew up in a town with 5 beaches, but sadly the real estate there is now a tad pricier. I’m afraid my friends and I took those childhood summers a bit for granted, but we made many happy memories!
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