Masher of Ceremonies book tour is through Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours and includes a guest post from the author. Share, follow, and leave the writer a comment.
Book Details
Cozy Mystery
13th in Series
Setting – Michigan
Publisher : Beyond the Page
Publication date : May 19, 2026
Print length : 254 pages
Digital
ISBN-13 : 978-1966322535
ASIN : B0GXGQV1L4
Paperback
ISBN-10 : 1966322542
ISBN-13 : 978-1966322542
A fundraiser for the local historical society nearly goes bust when someone fills the coffers with blackmail and murder . . .
The annual Tea With the Queen fundraiser always makes for a festive weekend in Queensville, drawing visitors from far and wide and giving local shops a welcome boost. This year, vintage kitchenware collector Jaymie Müller is running the event, and she’s got her hands full organizing old and new volunteers along with a surly catering crew. Then her master of ceremonies tells her he’s being blackmailed but can’t go to the police, and before Jaymie can sort that out she stumbles over a dead body at the tea.
Despite the demands of keeping the event up and running, Jaymie can’t help puzzling over the murder. There’s no concrete evidence linking the cretin behind the blackmail scheme to the dead body, so she begins questioning everyone connected to the blackmail, hoping to expose the killer. And just as she discovers a web of relationships that leads her to the culprit, she realizes that the Tea With the Queen may have been a royal pain, but outwitting a blackmailer and catching a killer may be the death of her . . .
Includes a vintage recipe!
About Victoria Hamilton
Victoria Hamilton is the pseudonym of nationally bestselling romance author Donna Lea Simpson. Victoria is the bestselling author of three mystery series, the Lady Anne Addison Mysteries, the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries, and the Merry Muffin Mysteries. She also writes a Regency-set historical mystery series, starting with A Gentlewoman’s Guide to Murder. Visit her website at victoriahamiltonmysteries.com.
Social Details:
Website: http://www.VictoriaHamiltonMysteries.com (Sign up for her newsletter for all the latest!)
On Substack (Sign up for newsletter… always FREE!): Go to: https://substack.com/@victoriahamiltonmysteries and ‘Subscribe’ for the FREE Victoria Hamilton Mysteries newsletter!
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VictoriaHamiltonMysteryAuthor
On BlueSky: @mysteryvictoria.bsky.social
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mysteryauthorvictoriahamilton/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/598635.Victoria_Hamilton
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Victoria-Hamilton/e/B007T7LGAU
Purchase Links
Ebooks:
Amazon CA AmazonUS Kobo Barnes & Noble Smashwords Google Play Books
Paperback Books:
AmazonCA: Not yet available. AmazonUS
Barnes and Noble
TOUR PARTICIPANTS
May 16 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – CHARACTER GUEST POST
May 16 – Twirling Book Princess – RECIPE
May 16 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – SPOTLIGHT
May 17 – Jody’s Bookish Haven – SPOTLIGHT
May 17 – Guatemala Paula Loves to Read – SPOTLIGHT
May 18 – Read Your Writes Book Reviews – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
May 18 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – RECIPE
May 18 – Sarandipity’s – AUTHOR GUEST POST
May 19 – Ascroft, eh? – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
May 19 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
May 20 – Sarcastically Yours, Jen – RECIPE
May 20 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT
May 21 – Cozy Up With Kathy – CHARACTER GUEST POST
May 21 – Salty Inspirations – AUTHOR GUEST POST
May 21 – Sarah Can’t Stop Reading Books – SPOTLIGHT
May 22 – Melina’s Book Blog – REVIEW
May 22 – View from the Birdhouse – REVIEW
May 22 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
Adventures in Online Auction Bidding
By: Victoria Hamilton
Jaymie Leighton Mṻller, heroine of my Vintage Kitchen Mysteries, is a lover of antiques and
vintage items, especially kitchen collectibles and vintage cookbooks. So she has attended many
auctions alone, with her husband, and most especially with her sister Becca and best friend
Valetta. I opened the Vintage Kitchen Mystery series with them all attending an auction, in fact.
Becca, as owner of QFA or Queensville Fine Antiques, specializes in higher end antique items
like furnishings, art glass, antique radios (her husband Kevin’s speciality) and… fine china. I,
like Jaymie, really adore vintage Pyrex, Corning Ware, and kitchen utensils.
But in truth, my heart does a little pitta-pat when I see vintage china, especially teacups and
teapots. That goes back to a time when I worked at the Simpsons (a Canadian higher end chain
store, now defunct) store downtown in the china and crystal department and fell in love with
china patterns. My favorite thing to do was to arrange the display wall. Maybe the other ladies
didn’t enjoy it as much as I did, because I was often given the task! I even took the pattern books
home to study, I was so enamoured of it.
In most Vintage Kitchen Mystery books I have the fun of describing things that Becca is setting
out in her store. In fact, one of the very first things I had Becca do in the series was purchase a
set of Crown Derby Royal Imari! Exquisite china, with dark blue, rich red and glinting gold trim.
Gorgeous. I finally saw in real life when I visited an auction house to collect my winning bid
items… more on that below!
Masher of Ceremonies (Vintage Kitchen Mysteries #13 – Beyond the Page – May 19 th , 2026) is
all about an annual tea party event in the town of Queensville, Tea with the Queen, that queen
being one of two Queen Victoria impersonators! Picture a lovely May day on a green lawn under
a blue sky, and a dozen tables set out with fluttering white cloths and lovely china teapots and
cups and saucers. Sounds like heaven to me.
Recently I decided I just had to try bidding at an online auction when I saw the perfect lot for
me. It was a box of Royal Albert dishes containing Old Country Roses, and serving pieces in a
gorgeous pattern called Silver Birch. I didn’t want the OCR, but the Silver Birch pattern always
spoke to me because I love Birch tree. I already had a teacup, but the serving pieces are so
pretty! So I really wanted the Silver Birch serving pieces.
The irresistible bonus was, there were also four cups and saucers in a lovely pattern called Petit
Point, with bread and butter plates as well. Picture the heart eyes emoji on me! I registered and
bid. Then I went a little crazy when I saw another auction lot that was a lovely tea table for a
reasonable price. I bid on that, too! And THEN I saw another lot with a tea kettle in it. Oh my
gosh, I recognized it as a Mackenzie Childs Teakettle! Those are worth a lot, so I bid on that too.
Got outbid a few times on all the lots, but bid again. I was outbid on the teatable and came to my
senses: I didn’t have room for it. Really. Small house = no space.
It came down to the final hour. I was outbid on the teakettle, so I bid again. And again. Until it
went over what I was willing to spend. I realized I had to let it go. Sigh. So depressing.
But the china lot was still mine. I waited with bated breath, certain that I would be outbid. Ten
minutes. No bidding. Five minutes. No bidding.
Two minutes and counting… and then I won! So I am the proud owner of china that I don’t
really have room for but I love so much. Isn’t that the way with obsessed collectors everywhere?
Then I had to figure out what to do with the OCR pieces?
Well, I sold the Old Country Roses and doubled what I spent on the auction lot, then turned
around and bought, on Facebook Marketplace, a Royal Albert Petit Point tea set with luncheon
dishes, paying… well, a lot more. I’ve gone a little mad, I’ll admit, but it all makes me soooo
happy!
Is there anything you love to collect but don’t have room for? Have you ever done online
auctions? If so what did you buy? Inquiring minds want to know!
Giveaway
Prize – 1 (one) $50 USD Amazon gift card. Giveaway is open to Canada and the USA.
