Lisa Kinley is a cozy mystery author who lives in the Pacific Northwest with her two ginger cats and spends (probably too much) time crafting. Between embroidery, crochet, reading, and enjoying true crime podcasts/shows, Lisa loves writing happy little murder stories set in Oregon's Willamette Valley.
Her debut, Meet Cutes and Murder, comes out December 2021. It's the first in the Hazel Hastings Mystery Series and follows plus-sized Hazel as she leaves her life in Wisconsin to relocate back to her hometown of Chinook Falls, Oregon. She tries to balance solving murder mysteries between a new teaching job at the local college, publishing romance novels, keeping her cats entertained, and managing her donut Instagram (just don't call her an influencer!).
If you love cats, humor, gorgeous settings and small towns, and hunky archaeologists, you might love this series!
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Romance author, donut influencer, and cat mom Hazel Hastings loves adding a dash of mystery to her novels, but she never expected her sleuthing skills to leave the page.
When Hazel left Chinook Falls in her rearview mirror, she hoped it was for good. Now, years later, returning to her Oregon hometown is slightly better than sharing a zip code with her soon-to-be—but not soon enough!—ex-husband.
But trouble finds Hazel on her first day at a new college teaching job and not only in the form of a distractingly hunky archaeology professor. On her way to a book signing at work, a jerk hits her car and refuses to share his insurance information. Once Hazel realizes the fender-crunching jerk is the visiting author, she plots to publicly call him out on his atrocious driving etiquette. Before she can put her plan into action, she discovers his body in the student union.
With her proximity to the murder putting her dream job at risk, Hazel must act to uncover the killer. As long as sleuthing doesn’t interfere with meeting the deadline for her next novel, navigating her new job in academia, and keeping her cats flush in premium kibble, she’ll be fine. After all, she’s a millennial with a viral donut Instagram account. Finding a murderer should be a piece of cake… er… donut.