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The Holiday Photo Murder book tour includes a character guest post and a giveaway. Comment, share, follow.
The Holiday Photo Murder: A Robyn Cavanagh Mystery
Cozy Mystery
3rd in Series
Setting – New York
Independently Published (November 11, 2025)
Print length : 272 pages
Digital ASIN : B0FQ3C8GST
Portrait Photographer Robyn Cavanagh has had a busy fall season taking a record number of
client photos for holiday cards. She’s ready for a quiet December to do her own Christmas
preparations, but she has one more job to close the year. It’s the best gift of the season: taking
photographs at wealthy Natalie Hoffmann’s holiday party.
Excited to be the official photographer at the party held at the publisher’s estate overlooking the
majestic Hudson River, Robyn hopes the event will win her new clients. Everyone will want to
forget the evening, however, after Natalie’s companion, Russell Nowak, is found dead in the
garden.
Who among the guests wanted the successful businessman dead? While everyone counts down
to Christmas, Robyn’s wish list is filled with suspects. She teams with her friend Will Vonderlin
to catch the killer and restore her holiday spirit in time to enjoy the festive season.
About Jeanne Quigley
Jeanne Quigley is the author of the Veronica Walsh Mysteries and the Robyn Cavanagh
Mysteries. Unlike her fictional sleuths, she has never been a soap opera star, accountant, or
professional photographer, but she has worked in the music industry, for an educational
publisher, and in a county agency. She lives in New York’s historic Hudson Valley.
Author Links
Website www.jeannequigley.wordpress.com
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/jeannemquigley
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/jeannequigleyauthor/
Purchase Links:
Amazon Barnes & Noble Kobo Apple
Book Excerpts THE HOLIDAY PHOTO MURDER
Per Julia’s instructions, I did a circuit around the dining room while the guests went through
the buffet and found their seating assignments. I then sat with Julia and Audrey in the smaller
dining room and enjoyed a meal from the buffet. Julia and I lingered at the table a few minutes
after Audrey left with her empty plate. We talked about working in the city, her job at Hoffmann,
and the twenty years I spent at another publishing house in Manhattan. After we brought our
plates into the kitchen, Julia and I stood in the music room’s doorway. Most of the guests had
finished their meals, and several had gotten up and formed small conversation groups around the
room.
Russell joined us. “Did you ladies enjoy your dinner?” After Julia and I declared we had, he
said, “You did your usual terrific job, Julia. Everyone’s having a wonderful time.”
“Thanks, Russell.”
He went into the living room, and Julia approached Natalie’s table to chat with her boss. I
lingered in the doorway and imagined past parties in the room. Who sat here and enjoyed the
Hoffmann’s hospitality? I pictured F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, Gertrude Stein, and Edith
Wharton among the luminaries, though none had been Hoffmann authors, and there was no
record of any of the literary giants ever visiting Bookends. I liked the fantasy, however, that I
stood in the same space they’d once occupied.
A couple in their thirties approached me. “Would you mind taking our photo by the tree?”
The man held up his phone.
“My pleasure.”
The couple posed by the music room’s Christmas tree. I took two photos with his phone and
then offered to take a shot with my camera. I took the picture and also a shot of the man’s
business card so I could email him the photo.
Other guests followed and asked me to take their photos by the tree. After about fifteen or
twenty minutes, I had over twenty shots of business cards to go with the photos I’d taken.
“One more photo, please,” Dennis said from behind me.
Tess, her cheeks flushed, stood beside him. He put his arm around her shoulder; she stroked
her bare arm before encircling it around Dennis’s waist.
After I took a shot of the pair, I went back to the dining room and took photos of the head of
the catering staff slicing and plating Patti’s cakes.
Julia came over and watched the woman’s moves. “I can’t wait to dig into a slice. Have you
seen Russell in the last few minutes?”
“No. Not since we spoke with him.”
“I bet he’s outside smoking.”
We walked to the kitchen and while Julia went outside, I used the bathroom off the kitchen
and then was standing at the island and chatting with Audrey when Julia returned.
The side door opened with a swoosh and bang, and she stumbled into the hall. Without
closing the door, she rushed to the island.
“I think Russell is dead!”
“Dead?” I asked, dumbstruck.
Julia’s body gave a powerful shiver and her pale blue eyes were dark with fear. “I don’t
know! Maybe! He’s lying on the patio by the fire pit. The fire poker… He didn’t move when I
touched him.”
I dashed to the door, Julia close behind me. In silence we rushed across the lawn to the patio.
Russell lay on his stomach a few feet from the fire pit. His outstretched left arm reached for
the cigar that was an inch from his grasp. A fire poker protruded from his backside.
Character Guest Post
A Not Very Merry Christmas Party
The holiday season starts early for me, before pumpkins have been carved into jack-o’-lanterns
and baked into pies, sometimes even before football season starts, when air conditioners are still
on full blast and shorts and flip flops are everyday attire. I’m Robyn Cavanagh, a portrait
photographer who has built a career taking Christmas card photos in my hometown of Garland,
New York. I’ve had sessions with families dressed in matching plaid pajamas. Couples on hay
rides or cruises on the Hudson River. Dogs wearing Santa hats. Babies nestled in sleighs. My
photography work is done by the time the actual holiday season arrives, and I can start preparing
for my own Christmas celebration.
This year is different, however. I was hired to photograph a December event, an evening that
promised to be the most pivotal in my career. The photos wouldn’t be for greeting cards; I would
be the official photographer at publisher Natalie Hoffmann’s holiday party. Hers is no typical
Christmas bash, with Santa on the roof in a sleigh led by reindeer, rum-loaded egg nog in a
punch bowl, and holiday music cranking through the stereo speakers. No, Natalie’s soirée, an
event held every year at Bookends, her spectacular mansion overlooking the Hudson River, is
elegance personified. No one arrives wearing an ugly Christmas sweater or antlers (though what
a photo that would be of the guest standing beside Natalie looking gorgeous in a green chiffon
pantsuit and dazzling emerald and diamond jewelry) . Men come dressed in their best suit and
festive tie and women in a cocktail dress bought for the occasion.
I know many on the guest list—clients, friends, and acquaintances—while others I know from
what I’ve read about them in the newspaper, like Russell Nowak, a Manhattan real estate
developer and Natalie’s longtime companion. I photographed each guest, first in the reception
line in Natalie’s grand entrance foyer, and then throughout the cocktail hour in posed and candid
shots. The guests were all smiles, fueled by the spirit of the season, the delight of being invited to
Bookends, and the beverages served in crystal glasses. Everyone put on their “best face” for the
camera, even the few who weren’t in such a festive mood. I got a few glimpses that not all was
merry during the cocktail hour, but nothing alarmed me or distracted me from my work.
There certainly was no hint that someone was feeling murderous. And then Russell was found
dead on the back lawn. He’d been beaten with a poker from the fire pit. I didn’t find Russell,
thank goodness. I’ve twice found bodies in the course of my photography work. That’s two times
too many. It was bad enough that Natalie’s assistant, Julia, found him and pulled me outside to
confirm that Russell wasn’t breathing.
The party was over and a murder investigation opened. At the request of Garland’s police chief, I
handed over a thumb drive containing all the photos I’d taken that evening. Copies of the
photographs, because though I hate finding dead bodies, I have a knack for finding the person
responsible for the victim’s condition. It chilled me that my camera’s memory card may hold a
clue to who attacked Russell. I conducted my own study of the photographs, scrutinizing each
one to the minutest detail. It’s not wise to play Photo Assumption, but that’s what I did with
every shot. I analyzed every expression, gaze, and gesture.
If only solving a crime were as easy as sitting at my kitchen table and browsing photos of well-
dressed people at a Christmas party. My photographs held no clues, but they supplied me with a
roster of people to interview and a list of guests who couldn’t have assaulted Russell on the back
lawn because they were in the living room with me, posing for after-dinner photos by the
Christmas tree.
Not everyone, however, had an alibi. I had to be careful in how I posed questions and delicate
about whom I suspected of killing Russell. He wasn’t the only powerful person at the party.
Garland’s town supervisor and council members were there, along with executives from
Hoffmann Publishing and one of Natalie’s best-selling authors. Point a finger at the wrong
person and my hope of winning new clients would be a Christmas wish unfulfilled.
The spirit of the season wasn’t fully dampened. I did find time to savor the anticipation and joys
of the season. I went Christmas tree shopping with my friend Will, indulged in cookies and
chocolates, had a Christmas card photo session with that famous author, and reveled in a
boisterous Christmas Eve celebration with my family. Please join me for the intrigue and fun of
this Christmas adventure. The more the merrier!
Happy holidays, everyone!
TOUR PARTICIPANTS
November 12 – Ascroft, eh? – AUTHOR GUEST POST
November 12 – fundimental – SPOTLIGHT
November 13 – Jody’s Bookish Haven – SPOTLIGHT
November 13 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT
November 14 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT
November 14 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
November 15 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – SPOTLIGHT
November 15 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – SPOTLIGHT
November 16 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
November 17 – Sarandipity’s – CHARACTER GUEST POST
November 17 – @bibliophile_foodie – REVIEW
November 18 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW
November 18 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
November 19 – FUONLYKNEW – REVIEW
November 20 – Baroness Book Trove – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
November 20 – Salty Inspirations – AUTHOR GUEST POST
November 21 – Sarah Can’t Stop Reading Books – REVIEW
November 21 – Novels Alive – REVIEW
Giveaway
2 Digital Copies of The Golden Hour Murder: A Robyn Cavanagh Mystery by Jeanne Quigley. US ONLY
