Hello and Welcome All!

Today I’m very lucky to be interviewing Iris March author of Secrets, Songbirds, & Succulents.

For those readers not familiar with you, would you please tell us a bit about yourself?

Hi, Angel! Thank you so much for having me on your blog! My name is Maureen Wise and my pen name is Iris March. I work in the sustainability field and live in Ohio.

What do you do when you are not writing?

I love hiking, running, and reading. I love reading mysteries the most, of course.

Is there any particular author or book that influenced you in any way, either growing up or as an adult?

I read most of the Baby-sitter Club books when I was in middle school and then got into fantasy in high school and college and read the Wheel of Time novels. As a young adult, I read all the Sherlock Holmes mysteries and was hooked. I felt like I found my genre. However, I kept getting thrillers and mysteries confused for a long time and didn’t

thrillers. I finally found cozy mysteries and started on Sara Rosett’s art heist/ travel mystery books and then her location scout books set in England. I recommend them all. From there, I’ve read too many cozy mysteries to start listing them. Sir Conan Doyle has been my biggest influence.

Give us an insight into your main character. Who are they? What makes them tick?

My main character is Molly Green, garden center manager and part owner. She has the greenest thumb and cares about living an eco-friendly lifestyle. She hates crowds and knows she’s socially awkward so frequently has to give herself pep talks when meeting new people. Like me, Molly loves chocolate and hates spiders. Her twin sister, May, does all the marketing and financial work for the garden center and is also a part owner.

Without revealing too much, what is your favorite scene in the book?

My new book – Secrets, Songbirds, and Succulents – starts during a town festival celebrating the Buckeye Trail. (The Buckeye Trail is a real trail that snakes around Ohio, but my town and garden center are fictional.) My favorite scenes are events from the festival, especially the haunted trail. It’s a joint fundraiser for the high school’s drama club and basketball teams so all the actors are high schoolers. Molly was really nervous and scared at the start of the trail, but then enjoyed herself by the end. It was a really fun event to imagine and I wish we had a haunted trail nearby.

Thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to take part in this interview.

Secrets, Songbirds, and Succulents

A Succulent Sleuth #3
Cozy Mystery
Setting – Ohio
Publisher: Wandering Gingko Press
Publication Date: January 23, 2025
Pages: 250

The annual Buckeye Trail Town Festival. A trail construction site. And one dead naturalist.

The charming town of Hawthorn Heights is celebrating its connection to the Buckeye Trail with a weekend-long town festival. When a local naturalist is found dead at the bottom of a ravine off the trail, amateur sleuth and garden center manager Molly Green finds herself tangled in a murder investigation – again.

As the Trail Festival concludes, Molly unearths unexpected secrets about the bird-obsessed naturalist’s life along with other people in her small community. When the police focus on who Molly knows is the wrong suspect, she starts her own investigation with her flock of fellow amateur detectives. Will Molly and her team identify the killer or will they fly away free?

Secrets, Songbirds, and Succulents is a heartwarming and suspenseful cozy mystery that will keep readers guessing until the very end. Perfect for fans of small-town mysteries and amateur sleuths with both birding and eco-friendly themes.

Amazon

The first 2 books in the Succulent Sleuth Series are on SALE for 99cents during the tour.
Grab your copies today!

Iris March has a reputation for killing houseplants and now she’s killing people off in books? Coincidence? Perhaps not. Iris has spent two decades working in the sustainability field and is usually either reading a book or on a trail. She lives in Ohio with her husband, son, and three cats.

Author Links
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