Little Luxuries by Krista Davis

Lucy Burdette: Most of you will have met my good friend Krista Davis in previous posts--she writes the delightful domestic diva mysteries, and she's also the brain behind a culinary mystery website, Mystery Lovers Kitchen, and she helps run Killer Characters. Don't even ask me where she found the time to write a brand new series, but it's coming in December and it sounds like so much fun! So I invited her here to talk about her inspiration. Welcome Krista!

Krista Davis: So pleased to be here! 

Have you seen the TV show Million Dollar Shoppers? Personal shoppers buy clothes for women who have more money than the national debt. Recently, one woman simply had to have a Birkin purse. More specifically, a purple crocodile Birkin purse.

Where have I been that I haven’t heard of these handbags? They’re nice looking rather proper ladies-who-lunch sort of bags made by Hermès. Very structured and elegant. Grace Kelly would have carried them. Definitely not for the slouchy shoulder bag or ginormous tote gang. Turns out there’s a waiting list for these babies. You can’t even look at them at Hermès online. Here’s the kicker. You can expect to pay $20,000 or more. Definitely more for purple crocodile, like around $82,000.

That started me thinking about luxuries. Would I even want an $82,000 purse? Are they like cars? Does the value go down as soon as you walk them out of the store?

In my new mystery series, the protagonist, Holly Miller, lives and works at the Sugar Maple Inn. There are drawbacks to living at your job, of course. Bed and breakfasts, inns, and hotels are the ultimate 24/7 businesses. If you live there, you’re on call all the time.

Years ago, I was an assistant manager at the largest convention hotel in Washington, DC. Fabulous hotel, and it was a wonderful job – the kind where you can’t believe they pay you to go to work every day. The general manager and regional manager lived on the premises, which meant they both showed up for crises, even in the middle of the night.

There were some nice perks to living there, though. Daily housekeeping of their apartments. On site dry cleaning. Bellmen to walk their dogs. If they felt like fresh strawberries and French pastries in the winter at nine o’clock at night they just popped into one of the kitchens and helped themselves. The Sugar Maple Inn isn’t quite that large but living there comes with some lovely perks. In the second book, I’ve added an aged English butler who delivers croissants and piping hot tea to Holly’s quarters in the morning while she’s still sleeping. Isn’t that heavenly? It’s like being a princess!

The fridge in the private kitchen is always well stocked with leftovers from breakfast, lunch, and teatime, so Holly rarely needs to cook. And her apartment is cleaned daily, even the litter box. Of course, she can’t afford a purple crocodile Birkin. But I don’t think she would even want one.

So what one luxury (only one, it may be imaginary but we don’t want to be greedy) would you truly love to have?

a) A purple crocodile Birkin
b) Croissants and hot coffee or tea delivered just before you wake.
c) Daily housekeeping.
d) A personal chef.
e) A personal driver.
f) Someone to do laundry and iron.
g) A personal assistant (no housework included)

And breaking news: To celebrate the launch of their mom's new series, Buttercup, Queenie, and Baron and their cat siblings, Mochie and Twinkletoes, are looking for dogs and cats to join their street crew. They're giving away Murder, She Barked bandanas to dogs and cats all month long! One lucky dog or cat who leaves a comment here today (it’s okay if their people leave comments for them) will win a bandana.

 Photos of winners (hopefully wearing their new Murder, She Barked bandanas) will be posted on Krista's website and on a Pinterest board so winning dogs and cats can share with their friends.

Krista Davis’s new series for animal lovers debuts on December 3rd, with MURDER, SHE BARKED. Like her characters, Krista has a soft spot for cats, dogs, and cupcakes. She lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia with three dogs, two cats, and no Birkins. The Diva Frosts a Cupcake is the seventh book in her Domestic Diva Mystery series. Three of those books have been nominated for Agatha awards and three have made the New York Times Bestseller list.  You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.

 and PS from Lucy: Tonka has already joined the street team:)--he thinks it's a blast!