Interview: Emmie Lyn (Crime and Croissants) ~ #BookTour #Giveaway

Hello and Welcome All!

Today I’m very lucky to be interviewing Emmie Lyn author of Crime and Croissants.

Please share a few Fun facts about yourself:

I’m a chaos gardener. I love flowers and color, but neat rows and perfectly manicured gardens aren’t really my thing. I’m much happier letting things grow together and seeing what happens.

I also write stories starring my grandkids. They’ve had all kinds of adventures on paper, and it’s become something fun we share.

I have perpetually cold feet—even in the summer—which leads to the occasional fashion mistake of wearing sheepskin slippers with shorts. It’s not a great look, but my feet are warm.

And summer weather doesn’t stop me from making hot chocolate. I make mine with chocolate chips, baker’s chocolate, and a splash of coffee. Apparently, hot chocolate season lasts twelve months at my house.

Who are your favorite authors? Why?

I love J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series for the characters, the magical world, and the sheer magnitude of the story arc across seven books. Interestingly, I’m not usually much of a paranormal or fantasy reader, but that series completely pulled me in.

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is another favorite. It’s a story about so many things—family, learning about life, standing up for what’s right, and seeing the world through someone else’s eyes. It’s one of those books that stays with you.

And for something completely different, I love Spencer Quinn’s Chet and Bernie mysteries. The stories are told from the perspective of Chet, a police-dog-school dropout who solves mysteries alongside his human partner, Bernie. Seeing everything through Chet’s wonderfully dog-centered view of the world makes the series funny, clever, and completely different from anything else I read.

What do you do when you are not writing?

Nothing terribly exciting—there’s enough excitement going on inside my head!

I love being outdoors, especially gardening, hiking, and bird-watching. But my favorite way to spend my time away from writing is with my grandkids. They keep me laughing, keep me busy, and, apparently, keep providing me with material for more stories.

Please share the opening lines of this book…

I arrived at the lake house for the first time in ages with my best friend, Carla. It looked haunted. Shadows stretched long and thin across the porch, the clapboard siding weathered to a tired gray. Still, my chest tightened with that strange mix of fear and hope you feel when you’re about to step into a dream you’ve been picturing for years. This wasn’t just a house. It was my chance to start over. I planned to spend the rest of my life here. To be Milly Rosebush, no longer Harry’s wife or the woman who baked pies for the neighborhood potluck.

“You expect me to stay here for the weekend, Milly?” Carla said, incredulity lacing her voice. “You promised me an elegant getaway while helping you settle into your new place.” She swept her manicured hands over her immaculate pale blue outfit. “Look at me. The cobwebs alone will ruin my highlights, never mind what the dust will do to this linen jacket.”

I looked at my best friend since, well, forever, and couldn’t help chuckling at her reluctance to enter my New Hampshire abode. I’d negotiated for this lake house in my divorce, letting Harry keep our Massachusetts colonial—a house I never wanted to set foot in again. Not with his mother recently moving in right next door. No thanks. In contrast, the lake house had lived rent-free in my imagination for years. Summer sunsets dripping gold over Moonshadow Lake, the woodsy hush broken only by loons, quiet winter nights with the fire crackling. A place where my daughter, Laney, and I could breathe.

I hefted my wicker basket to eye level, my bribe to get Carla inside. “How about we talk about the state of my lake house over some food and wine?”

When she eyed the basket, I could see her wavering, practically drooling.

Bingo, I thought. My cooking always brought her around.

“Milly? What did you bring?”

I looped my free arm through hers, knowing I’d won this battle, and tugged her toward the steps leading onto the porch.

Carla inhaled deeply, as if screwing up her courage. We inched forward, stepping over a missing board. When we reached the porch, a loud hiss made me jump nearly out of my skin. Carla’s nails dug into my arm.

“Do you have a monster here?” she yelped, her voice jumping a full octave.

“Not that I know about.”

Two green orbs glowed from a mass of black fur curled up on a dirty cushion. The cat flicked its tail and bared its teeth, letting out another warning hiss.

“Only a kitty,” I assured her, just as surprised by the intruder as Carla, but I liked animals and tried to put on my friendliest voice. “Maybe it’s hungry,” I said.

I tried to sound calm for Carla’s sake, even though my heart still pounded like the drummer leading a holiday parade. She wasn’t a fan of animals. She liked them fine—as long as they kept their distance, didn’t shed, slobber, or, in this case, hiss like something out of a horror movie.

“You brought cat food in that basket?”

“Of course not, but I’ve got lemon honey chicken. Let’s get inside, and I’ll cut some up for her. I’d rather make friends than have her decide to take a bite out of our ankles.”

“Her?”

I shrugged. “A wild guess.”

Carla relaxed enough to flash one of her million-dollar grins.

Carla and I were born on the same day forty-four years ago, in the same hospital, in adjoining rooms, but we couldn’t be more different. Carla, barely over five feet tall and maybe a hundred and five pounds soaking wet, always looked like she’d just stepped off the cover of a high-end fashion magazine. Her perky blonde bob, designer wardrobe, and chatty personality only added to her always-put-together image.

Me? I was half a foot taller, auburn hair to her bottle blonde, comfortably curvy. Sexy, according to Carla, since she always tried to boost my confidence, especially after Harry walked out, trading me in for Gigi, a much younger model. Good riddance, I’d told Carla, but deep down? I wanted to kill him. Or his twentysomething girlfriend. Take your pick. I’d even vented my anger in a note to Gigi, with no intention of mailing it, of course. Just a way to purge some unhealthy emotions.

But this weekend was about my new beginning, and I felt a surge of excitement to get settled into my lake house.

That’s when I noticed the door cracked open a few inches.

Harry, my ex-husband, meticulously locked the place after he left—or so he’d claimed. But he’d mentioned Gigi—a name more suited to a Pekinese than his girlfriend—planned to come by to pick up her things before I moved in. Clearly, she forgot to lock up.

I pushed the door open all the way, inhaling the almost-forgotten scent of cedar. Beneath it lingered something else. Stale air, dust, maybe even the faintest trace of something metallic. The air felt cooler inside. Afternoon light slanted in through the tall lake-facing windows, catching on dust motes and the copper sheen of the fireplace tools. I’d barely been here since Harry and I had first purchased it almost ten years ago. Too busy with life and raising our fifteen-year-old daughter, Laney. But that would change today.

We stepped inside.

Please share a few fun facts about the book…

• The Cooking Club started as a way to bring people together over food. Of course, once this particular group gets together, cooking isn’t the only thing they end up doing.
• Tango Mango, Milly’s border collie, is very much part of the investigative team. He has a habit of noticing things before the humans do—and he’s equally interested in clues and anything edible.
• The fictional town of Fox Hollow, New Hampshire, grew out of my love for small New England towns—the kind of place where people look out for one another but also tend to know everyone else’s business.
• Food isn’t just window dressing in the series. Cooking gives the characters a reason to gather, talk, share information, and build friendships. And sometimes an innocent conversation over food produces a surprisingly useful clue.
• Crime and Croissants was the beginning of the whole Cooking Club Murder Mysteries world. What started with cooking, a library, a small community, some quirky characters, and a smart dog somehow turned into a group of amateur sleuths.

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

It’s hard to choose one favorite scene without giving too much away, but I especially love the scenes when the Serving Up Trouble Cooking Club gathers in the library kitchen. By then, you have this quirky mix of personalities cooking, talking, teasing one another, and inevitably trying to figure out something they probably should leave to the police. Tango is usually right in the middle of it all, conducting his own investigation—or hoping someone drops something edible.

Those scenes are some of my favorites because they capture what I love most about the series. Yes, there’s a mystery to solve, but underneath it is a group of very different people becoming friends and a community. And, of course, things are rarely quiet when Ivy and Nadine are involved.

 

Crime and Croissants

Cooking Club Murder Mystery #1
Emmie Lyn
Publication: September 16, 2026
Genre: Mystery

Milly Rosebush thought the hardest part of starting over would be moving into the lakeside home she once owned with her ex-husband. In a small New Hampshire town where everyone knows her history, she’s determined to rebuild her life—with good food, fresh starts, and her best friend by her side.

Then she finds a woman in her upstairs bedroom. Dead.

Worse, a stranger walks in to find Milly holding the murder weapon—and just like that, she’s the prime suspect.

As gossip spreads faster than a kitchen fire, clearing her name means asking questions no one in Fox Hollow wants answered. Because the deeper Milly digs, the more unsettling the truth becomes.

With the help of her cooking club—a group with sharp opinions and sharper instincts—plus a too-helpful neighbor, Milly finds that every gathering comes with good food… and a side of suspicion.

But in a town built on secrets, getting too close to the truth can be dangerous.

If Milly wants a second chance, she has to catch a killer—before she ends up on the menu.

With lakeside charm, mouthwatering recipes, and a dash of danger, the Cooking Club Murder Mysteries serve up the perfect bite of cozy crime.

Amazon

 

USA Today bestselling author Emmie Lyn has written several cozy mystery series and a romantic suspense series.

Emmie lives in a small New England town, the kind where everyone knows your name—and your secrets. It’s no surprise that her fictional worlds are filled with the same charm: scenic, close-knit communities full of quirky, unforgettable characters. She loves crafting mysteries laced with clever twists and turns, the kind that keep readers guessing and turning pages well into the night.

She lives with her husband and a black cat who rules the house with a velvet paw and a terrible attitude. Their twelve-acre homestead is a haven for deer, bunnies, turkeys, and a chorus of songbirds. When she’s not plotting fictional murders, she’s out hiking wooded trails, or spending time with her grandchildren.

Website * Facebook * Amazon Author Page * Goodreads

 

There is a King Sumo Giveaway for this tour. Prize – Giveaway Prize Paperback Copy of Crime and Croissants (Cooking Club Murder Mystery) by Emmie Lyn , bookmark, $5 Amazon gift card, tote. (U S only)