Favorite Handbag and Book welcomes author Susan Van Kirk: Have You Bought Something When Traveling and Treasure It? and her book!

 About the Handbag:

My favorite handbag is a straw purse about 6”(H) by 9”(W). In 2007, I drove from Illinois with one of my friends, and we visited several cities on the East Coast. I had been a history major in my undergrad years and had taught American Literature for almost four decades by then. We visited Boston, Providence, Salem, Block Island, and Newport. We indulged in many of the historical sites like the Freedom Walk, the Old North Church, the Granary Burying Ground, King’s Chapel, and the U.S.S. Constitution. 

Literary sites were also on the list with The House of the Seven Gables and Spenser’s Boylston Street. When we got to Newport, we had to visit two Vanderbilt houses and the Marble House. We took the Cliff Walk and marveled at all the history from my favorite historical period, The Gilded Age. In a gift shop in Newport, I bought this straw purse, and every time I use it, it reminds me of this trip and the amazing time we had. 

 

About the Book:

Poisons, Poppets, and the Past. Oh, My!

Retired teacher Grace Kimball is elated when former student Fiona Mackenzie returns to Endurance to make burial plans for her recently deceased mother, Sybil Mackenzie. But this will be no ordinary funeral because Fiona’s mother—a self-proclaimed witch—died in prison following a sensational Endurance murder trial ten years earlier. Detective TJ Sweeney doesn’t need witchcraft or visions to know Sybil Mackenzie’s presence—dead or alive—will rekindle anger in the residents of the small town.

 

When the judge from Sybil’s trial is poisoned, the evidence points toward Fiona, the witch’s child. Who else has a garden full of poisonous plants? Who else lost her mother to ten years in prison? Who knows the kind of dark magic the witch’s child can create? Her mother put a curse on all involved in her trial. Has Fiona returned to get revenge?

 

TJ finds other suspects ripe with motives to murder. Add vicious whispers and malicious rumors in the local coffee shops, pushy reporters looking for a story, and clashing opinions on social media. The town of Endurance is like a tinderbox just waiting for someone to light a match. Can Grace and TJ find the judge’s killer before that match is struck?

 

About the Author:

Susan Van Kirk is the President of the Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime and a writer of mysteries. She lives at the center of the universe—the Midwest—and writes during the 

ridiculously cold and icy winters. Why leave the house and break something? Van Kirk taught forty-four years in high school and college and raised three children. Miraculously, she has low blood pressure. She has written the Endurance Mysteries composed of four novels and a novella, and A Death at Tippitt Pond. Level Best Books will be publishing the first book of her Art Center Mysteries, Death in a Pale Hue, on June 7, 2022. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime.

Questions:

Red, White or Blue?  Blue—it’s always cool colors.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter?  Spring in the Midwest

Cake or Pie?  Definitely pie

Coffee, Tea, or Champagne?  Coffee

Country music or Michael Buble? Not really. Classic Rock

Pencil or Pen?  Pencil

 

Find The Witch's Child at: Amazon

Find Susan Van Kirk at:  Website