Virtual Book Tour and Giveaway: Campaigning Can Be Deadly (A Discount Detective Mystery #2) by Charlotte Stuart

Welcome to my stop on the virtual book tour for Campaigning Can Be Deadly by Charlotte Stuart. This tour was organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. On my stop, I have an excerpt as well as a guest post. There's also the tour wide giveaway for a chance to win a $25 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for more content. Enjoy!

--

Title: Campaigning Can Be Deadly

Series: A Discount Detective Mystery #2
Author: Charlotte Stuart

Publisher: Walrus Publishing

Publication Date: September 29th 2020

Print Length: 300 pages

Genre: Cozy Mystery

~

What begins as a prank ends in murder.

The campaign for the U.S. Congressional seat was referred to in the press as “Mr. Smith goes to Washington versus the carpetbagger.” The popular local candidate gets the majority of endorsements, but his opponent’s wealthy, out-of-state family is willing to do whatever it takes for him to win.

Penny-wise Investigations, a discount detective agency located in a mall, is hired to find out who is stealing the local candidate’s political signs. Two of their investigators, Cameron Chandler and Yuri Webster, not only catch the thieves in the act, they find a body next to a pile of stolen signs, proving that Campaigning Can Be Deadly. 

Goodreads * Amazon *

Barnes & Noble * Book Depository *

Books-A-Million * IndieBound * Kobo

---

EXCERPT:

Shortly after the evening news, it happened. An event that would change our lives.

A barking dog shattered the silence of early evening. It barked and barked, right outside our front door. Under normal circumstances I would have simply gone out to see what was happening. But for all we knew, it was a trap. What kind, I wasn’t sure. Jason and Mara both wanted to take a look. Then Mom came down to complain, and I finally got up the courage to see what the commotion was all about.

When I opened the door a crack, a black, moist nose tried to pry the door open more. The barking changed to whining.

“It’s a dog, Mom,” Jason said. “He wants in.”

That much was obvious, but why?

“Oh, just open the damn door,” Mom said. She grabbed the doorknob and a medium-sized black and white dog came bounding in and ran right into Jason’s outstretched arms. I was staring at Jason, trying to figure out what was happening, while he rubbed the dog’s head and buried his face in the dog’s neck fur. That’s why I didn’t notice the dark figure looming in our doorway until Mom said, “You might as well come in. The damage is done.”

When I saw Yuri standing there, all I could think of to say was, “You didn’t.”

---

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

In a world filled with uncertainty and too little chocolate, Charlotte Stuart has a passion for writing lighthearted mysteries with a pinch of adventure and a dollop of humor. Her first discount detective mystery, Survival Can Be Deadly, was a Foreward INDIES finalist. Why me? Chimeras, Conundrums and Dead Goldfish was a semi-finalist for the Chanticleer Murder and Mayhem contest before it was published. She began her career in academia with a PhD in communications. Then, she and her husband decided to build a commercial boat and go fishing for salmon in Alaska. Currently she is the VP for Puget Sound Sisters in Crime and lives and writes on Vashon Island in Washington State’s Puget Sound. She spends time each day entertained by herons, seals, eagles and other wildlife.

Website * Amazon * Facebook *

Goodreads * Instagram * Twitter

---

GUEST POST:

- If you were running for president in the US, what would your campaign slogan be and why? 

In high school I ran for office and discovered that my first name doesn’t rhyme with anything politically desirable: harlot, scarlet, and starlet topping the list. Varlet was also suggested at the time, and I had to look up its meaning to eliminate it as a possibility. I ended up with something lame. My opponent, on the other hand, came up with a terrific slogan, and I lost the election.

So, today, when asked what my campaign slogan would be, I decided to begin by looking at past slogans to see what worked and what didn’t, well aware that I was setting aside substance for artifice. But without a little artifice substance seldom has a chance of winning. 

It didn’t take long to find campaign slogans for President going back to 1840. I was instantly drawn to some of the catchy sounding ones such as Tippecanoe and Tyler Too (1840), Ma, Ma, where’s my Pa? (1884) and All the way with LBJ (1964). They roll off the tongue like song lyrics. But after several hours of humming and lip-synching I was forced to give up on that approach due to lack of creativity. I turned to self-praise slogans.

Unfortunately, self-praise seemed to have had a short shelf life. After slogans such as I’m just wild about Harry (1948), I like Ike (1952) and I still like Ike (1956), they all but disappeared from the political scene. I was forced to set Everyone loves Charlotte aside.

Looking back, even some fairly straightforward promises seemed doomed to failure from the start.

1860 – Vote yourself a farm and horses (Abraham Lincoln)
1928 – A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage (Herbert Hoover)
1988 – Read my lips, no new taxes (George H.W. Bush)

Making promises is still a popular approach for campaign slogans, but I wouldn’t want to make a promise I couldn’t keep.

Inspirational slogans seemed the last viable but solid option. After all, Ronald Reagan’s Let’s Make America Great Again (1968) was so successful, Trump borrowed it for his 2016 campaign and continues to use it to this day. And Obama’s Yes We Can (2008) was not only simple and motivational, it was a great chant. But I was disturbed by the fact that the inspirational slogan I was most drawn to was one made popular in 1968 by President Nixon: This time vote like your whole world depended on it. Not only was it used by someone who is destined to go down as one of the most corrupt presidents ever, the weight of responsibility implicit in the message sent shivers down my spine. Did I really want to take on something that onerous? 

Thus, in spite of the fact that I care about the fate of our country and of the world, that I’m concerned about the environment and people living in poverty, and that I live in fear of pandemics, nuclear war and the invasion of killer hornets, I feel I only have one option. I’ve decided not to run. My slogan is Don’t vote for me.

---

GIVEAWAY:

Charlotte Stuart will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter after the tour. To increase your chance of winning, leave a comment at a different stop on the tour each day. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway