book details

Book: The Body on the Barstool (A Top Shelf Mystery) by Lolli Powell

categories: Book, Ohio, Bar Setting, Humor, Satire, Amateur Sleuth, Cozy Mystery

Lolli Powell

about this book: I've enjoyed writing all my books, but I have to say I think I enjoyed writing The Body on the Barstool the most. It's my first attempt at a cozy mystery and the first book I've written in first person. My intent was to write a decent mystery sprinkled with humor, and if my reviews are to be believed, I succeeded. It's the first book in a cozy series I've titled Top Shelf Mysteries, and I'm currently working on the second book, Whiskey Kills.

I had a real thrill on April 2 when I got word that Body had taken a bronze award in The Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards. The contest is judged by reading groups in London and Stockholm, not by a panel of judges, and I find it very rewarding to know that "normal" people enjoyed my book enough to vote it a winner.

Cozy mystery is an interesting genre in that it's almost a throwback to a gentler time when books typically adhered to the no swearing/no-explicit-violence/no-explicit-sex rule. It's also a popular genre. My theory is that there's a lot of readers out there who have had enough of the sex and violence on TV and in books today—and that includes the sex and violence on the nightly news and in newspapers. So, while characters in my other books don't watch their language, my cozy characters do. I find I like that about them!