Today my friend, Lois Winston, joins me here to talk a bit about her latest mystery release, Guilty as Framed, and how it came about:

By Lois Winston 

I write a cozy mystery series featuring a reluctant amateur sleuth who works as a crafts editor at a women’s magazine. I’m also what you might call a newsaholic. As such, many of my plots are inspired by news and human-interest stories I read about in the newspaper and see on the evening news. A story that piques my interest will often become the inspiration for a plot or subplot for one of my books.

However, for Guilty as Framed, the latest book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series, I’ve veered from being inspired by an actual crime to creating a plot that revolves around an actual crime. For decades, I’ve been fascinated by the burglary that occurred at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990. I followed the investigation as it unfolded and have read countless articles on this still unsolved crime. I’ve also watched several documentaries about the burglary and the efforts to find both the perpetrators and the missing artworks. Thirty-two years later, it’s still considered the largest art heist in history. To this day, not only haven’t the perpetrators been caught, but none of the artworks have ever been recovered. Hampering the ongoing investigation is the fact that many of the witnesses and persons of interest have since died, some of natural causes, and at least one of not-so-natural causes.

When I was mulling ideas for the eleventh book in my series, I wanted to incorporate the museum heist into the plot. I set myself quite a challenge. How could I tie a factual Boston cold case into the plot of a contemporary cozy mystery series that takes place in New Jersey?

That’s the beauty of writing fiction rather than true crime. I invented some new characters, changed the names of others (to protect the innocent and not-so-innocent), and wove various events from the actual crime into the plot that became Guilty as Framed.

Too bad along the way I couldn’t solve the mystery of the missing paintings. There’s still a huge outstanding reward for information leading to their recovery.

Guilty as Framed

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 11

When an elderly man shows up at the home of reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack, she’s drawn into the unsolved mystery of the greatest art heist in history.

Boston mob boss Cormac Murphy has recently been released from prison. He doesn’t believe Anastasia’s assertion that the man he’s looking for doesn’t live at her address and attempts to muscle his way into her home. His efforts are thwarted by Anastasia’s fiancé Zack Barnes.

A week later, a stolen SUV containing a dead body appears in Anastasia’s driveway. Anastasia believes Murphy is sending her a message. It’s only the first in a series of alarming incidents, including a mugging, a break-in, another murder, and the discovery of a cache of jewelry and an etching from the largest museum burglary in history.

But will Anastasia solve the mystery behind these shocking events before she falls victim to a couple of desperate thugs who will stop at nothing to get what they want?

Buy Links

Paperback: https://amzn.to/3QLEYU5
Hardcover: https://amzn.to/3Ans5s6
Kindle: https://amzn.to/3tLnT3d
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/guilty-as-framed
Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/guilty-as-framed/id6442846272
Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/guilty-as-framed-lois-winston/1141500980?ean=2940185728703

Bio:

USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry. Learn more about Lois and her books at her website www.loiswinston.com where you can also sign up for her newsletter and follow her on various social media sites.