Fried Chicken Castañeda book tour is through Great Escape Virtual Book Tours and includes a character interview. Share, comment, follow.
Book Details
Fried Chicken Castañeda
Historical Culinary Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – Las Vegas, New Mexico, in June 1929
Publisher : Artemesia Publishing, LLC
Publication date : May 6, 2025
Print length : 228 pages
Paperback
ISBN-10 : 1963832051
ISBN-13 : 978-1963832051
Digital
ISBN-13 : 978-1963832242
ASIN : B0DZC47WJQ
At the Castañeda Hotel you’ll find romance, gourmet dining, bootleggers, and murder!
Bored with her conventional middle-class life, Prudence Bates escapes Cleveland by heading
west to qualify as a Courier for the Southwestern Indian Detours. On the California Limited she
meets Jerry Begay, a charming Navajo school teacher. They feel an instant rapport, but he’s
headed for Gallup, so it’s but a brief encounter.
In Las Vegas, New Mexico Prudence is befriended by Castañeda Hotel Harvey Girls Martha and
Anne and desk clerk Clara. They take Prudence under their wing and invite her along to dances
and the local hot springs.
Four days later, Martha’s brother, Tom, is found murdered. Was it because of his bootlegging
activities? Or his amorous relationship with Liz Kearney, daughter of the richest man in the area
and rumored mob boss? And was that really Jerry Begay whom Prudence saw meeting with Tom
in secret the day before he was killed?
Following in the footsteps of her favorite fictional detectives, Tommy and Tuppence, Prudence is
determined to solve the murder. But one wrong step and she may end up in the sights of the
bootleggers.
About Suzanne Stauffer
After 20 years as a librarian and 20 as a professor of library science and library historian,
Suzanne Stauffer has moved on to a third career as a mystery novelist. She currently lives in
Albuquerque with her Australian husband and brown and white spotted rat terrier dogter, Treme.
Her debut novel, Fried Chicken Castañeda (Artemesia Publishing, May 2025), won the CIPA
EVVY Bronze Medal in Mystery/Crime/Detection and the New Mexico Book Award for Cozy
Mystery.
Author Links
Blog https://couriersseries1926.blogspot.com/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/couriers1926/
Substack Newsletter Amuse-Bouche https://smstauffer.substack.com/
Sarandipity’s Character Interview
Describe yourself.
My name is Prudence Bates and I’m a 25 year-old librarian from Cleveland, Ohio. I like helping people find information and new books to read, but, honestly, most of the time, it’s kind of boring. I was born in 1904. I’m an only child. My father died from heart problems when I was 16, so it’s been just me and my mother since then. Some people would say that I’ve led a sheltered upper-middle class life and I can’t disagree with that. I majored in Anthropology in college and have always wanted to travel, so when I heard about the Indian Detours in the Southwest and the Couriers who guide them, I knew that I had found what I was looking for!
What makes you laugh?
Vaudeville comics, P.G. Wodehouse novels (especially Jeeves and Wooster), E.F. Benson’s Dodo and Mapp and Lucia novels. Anything silly or absurd, but nothing that embarrasses others or is nasty or vicious.
Are you afraid of anything?
Now that I’m here in the Southwest, rattlesnakes! When the man pointed the gun at me, I was definitely afraid.
Do you have a special talent or gift?
Oh, I don’t think I’m particularly special. Possibly my curiosity.
Do you have a secret?
I suppose Jerry is a secret, but only from my mother.
Tell us about your family.
My parents married young, but didn’t have me for several years. They wanted more children, but were not so blessed. My father was a bookkeeper for a large company in Cleveland. He told me before he died that his one regret was that he had focused so much on the future that he forgot the present. He invested wisely, with the goal of having a comfortable retirement, and then became ill. He left Mother and me well-provided for, so he could take comfort in that. Mother is a typical housewife. She’s a wonderful cook and a charming hostess. She is active in her church ladies’ league and belongs to a women’s literary club. Her dearest wish is that I marry Wally Carver and settle down in a house with a white picket fence and give her grandchildren.
Who is the most important person in your life?
I don’t think that I can rank people that way. Mother is very important to me and I would rush to her aid if she ever needed me. The friends I have made here in New Mexico are important to me. I suppose the most important person, if I’m honest, is Jerry.
What is your most embarrassing moment?
When Chief Taylor told me that boats cannot navigate up the Rio Grande from Mexico because it’s too shallow. I should have known that.
What do you do for fun?
I shouldn’t say this, but I love going to speakeasies and dancing and having a gin rickey or two. I’ve always enjoyed the moving pictures, and now that we have talkies – with music! – I go every chance I get. And, of course, reading murder mysteries! Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers are my favorites.
If you could change anything about your life what would it be?
I would have gone to one of the Seven Sisters, instead of Western Reserve, and would have gone on those anthropology digs when I was in college. I might still be a librarian, but who knows?
Tell me about your author.
Her father was in the military, so she got to move around a lot as a kid, which makes me jealous. She’s the oldest of five children, which I also envy. Like me, she was a librarian, but she stuck with it longer than I did – nearly 20 years! She worked in public libraries and academic libraries and special libraries in New York City and Los Angeles, which probably helped to keep her from getting bored. When she was really old (47!), she earned a Ph.D. from UCLA in Library and Information Science. She got a faculty job at Louisiana State University in 2006 – and got married that same year!
After 18 years, she retired and moved to Albuquerque with her husband and dog in 2024.
Do you like the way they write you?
I suppose so, but I wish she wouldn’t include all of my erroneous
deductions and silly mistakes when I’m trying to solve a mystery. I do like the way she includes all of my
fabulous clothes and jewelry, though.
Purchase Links:
Publisher Amazon B&N Bookshop.org
TOUR PARTICIPANTS
March 2 – deal sharing aunt – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
March 2 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
March 3 – Jody’s Bookish Haven – SPOTLIGHT
March 4 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
March 4 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
March 5 – Sarandipity’s – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
March 5 – Books1987 – SPOTLIGHT
March 6 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT
March 7 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT
March 8 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
March 8 – Guatemala Paula Loves to Read – AUTHOR GUEST POST
March 9 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – CHARACTER GUEST POST
March 10 – Sarah Can’t Stop Reading Books – REVIEW
March 11 – Ascroft, eh? – AUTHOR GUEST POST
March 12 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW, RECIPE
March 13 – Elizabeth McKenna – Author – SPOTLIGHT
March 13 – StoreyBook Reviews – CHARACTER GUEST POST
March 14 – fundinmental – SPOTLIGHT
March 15 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – REVIEW
March 15 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW, AUTHOR INTERVIEW
Giveaway
Prize – 2- Winners of a copy of Fried Chicken Castañeda by Suzanne Stauffer, with bookmarks
