Handbag and Book: guest author Leslie Wheeler - Do You Pick a Bag for Utility or Beauty?

 I picked this handbag for its utility rather than its beauty. My travelling companion to Italy spotted it at a AAA office, where we went to plan our trip a couple of years ago. Having been to Italy before and knowing that pickpockets were a real threat, I wanted a handbag that would keep my belongings safe. 

This bag, made by a company called Pacsafe, is designed to do just that. It is made of cut proof materials—lightweight steel mesh, no less. There are two lockable zipper compartments, a padded and suspended interior sleeve, two zipper interior pockets and two outside pockets for small water bottles or an umbrella. The bag can be worn crossbody, which was how I wore it, or as a backpack, by adjusting the strap. The size is 13.8"H x 10.2"W x 4.3"D, and the weight: only 1.18 lbs. Of course, it weighed more with all my stuff in it. My hairbrush and cosmetics went in the front zipper compartment, while my phone, which I used as a camera, went in the back zipper compartment, to keep it safe but also for ease of access. My wallet and other valuables went in the interior sleeve and pockets. The color of mine is black, but other colors are available. Two years later and long since returned to the U.S., I’m still using this handbag, because I found the arrangement of compartments so helpful. 

A woman goes to the Berkshires to rekindle her romance with a local man, but finds herself battling a real estate developer with a shady past. 

 

Boston library curator, Kathryn Stinson returns to the Berkshires, hoping to rebuild her romance with Earl Barker, but ends up battling a real estate developer, bent on turning the property she’s been renting and that she grown to love into an upscale development. The fight pits her against Earl, offered the job of clearing the land. When a fire breaks out in the woods, the burned body of another opponent is discovered. Did he die attempting to escape a fire he set, or was the fire set to cover up his murder? Kathryn’s search for answers leads her to other questions about the developer’s connection to a friend of hers who fled New York years ago for mysterious reasons. The information she uncovers puts her in grave danger.

More about Leslie Wheeler: 

Award-winning writer Leslie Wheeler is the author of the Berkshire 

Hilltown 

Mysteries, Rattlesnake Hill and Shuntoll Road, and the Miranda Lewis Mysteries, Murder at Plimoth Plantation, Murder at Gettysburg and Murder at Spouters Point. Her mystery shorts have appeared in such anthologies as Mystery Most Geographical, Noir at the Salad Bar, Day of the Dark, and the Best New England Crime Stories anthologies, published by Level Best Books, where she was a co-editor for six years. Leslie is now a co-editor at Crime Spell Books, the new publisher of the Best New England Crime Stories anthologies. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, and a founding member of the New England Crime Bake Committee. Leslie divides her time between Cambridge, Massachusetts and a home in the Berkshires, where she does her best writing in a house overlooking a pond. 

 

Answer these questions: 

Red, White or Blue? blue

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter? fall

Cake or Pie? pie

Coffee, Tea, or Champagne? tea

Country music or Michael Buble? country music

Pencil or Pen? pen

 

Find Shuntoll Road at: Amazon

 

Find Leslie Wheeler at: Website