Review, Guest Post & Giveaway: Social Insecurity by Kate Eileen Shannon

Social Insecurity

Social Insecurity
Brigid Kildare Mystery, Book 1
Kate Eileen Shannon

Genre: Cozy Mystery Serial

Date of Publication: March 26, 2013

Number of pages: 244

Available at the following retailers:
Amazon     BN

Brigid Kildare is not your typical hard boiled private eye. But she doesn’t pretend to be. No matrimonial. No child custody. No bodyguard or surveillance work. No process serving. Brigid is strictly data. Asset searches, background searches, computer security, pre-employment screening, and basically any type of records research is what she deals in. And you really could not expect anything else. After all, your average five foot tall, blue eyed, blond (one friend describes her as looking like a Christmas tree angel) is rarely the person you would send out after a bail jumper. Oh, and there is that whole one leg thing – ADA aside, most people don’t think of an amputee as the go to person for a security job.

But in SOCIAL INSECURITY, the first in the Brigid Kildare Mystery Series, professional PI, Brigid Kildare, turns amateur sleuth when old ladies in the Federal Hill area of Providence start to go missing and she can’t get the police to believe her. As her assistant and long time friend, Kevin, puts it: “Honey, if an old lady like Jessica Fletcher can do it, a one-legged PI and her gay PA can do it too!” Brigid solves the mystery, along with an odd cast of friends and family, but not before four old ladies have died, she has caught the eye of a handsome Providence detective, and she discovers that not everyone who is close to her is what they appear to be.

Guest Post: 

Thank you Judy for inviting me to be a guest on your blog.

I’m on this blog tour to get out the idea that my ‘series’ is really a ‘serial’. Which essentially means it is one continuous story from book to book without repetitive backstory enabling a book to be a stand alone. It would be very boring for you and me though, if I said the same thing at every stop so the first stop gave a broad explanation and every stop reveals a bit more about that or the book or me. So today I thought I would talk about my covers.

So far, I’ve managed to make my own, on my own. You can see the first three on my website or blog and the fourth will be up soon – just as soon as I remember how I resized and got them to work in that scrolling thingie on the side of my blog. I’m pretty good at figuring out how to do new things but I should take notes because by the time I need to do it again, I’ve completely forgotten how I did it the first time and I have to figure it out all over again.

Originally, my first cover for SOCIAL INSECURITY was very different. And it was good. But it just didn’t do it for me. I went to a professional cover designer and her ideas were fantastic, just not me. So one night I was just sort of mindlessly staring at the bookcase opposite my couch. I started to notice the book covers were all ‘shades’ of colors. With the exception of some mysteries that went with the tried and true black with red lettering. So I decided to go with strong, true colors. Only the primary and secondary colors as background colors. I wanted them to pop out of a sea of shades of color.

The images are a combination of things. Some I drew digitally on a tablet. Some I took photographs and digitally manipulated them. And two elements are stock photos that I purchased and digitally changed and manipulated so they in no way look like the original photo. I hate the use of stock photos. There is one Victorian house that I have seen on so many cozies at this point. If you look at the body with the knife in his chest on the cover of book two, MEDITATED MURDER, that is my husband. I made him lie down and took his picture. Removed all the background, added some blood, and that is my favorite butcher knife I stuck in his chest – digitally of course! Then I took this very altered photograph and used photoshop and some other programs I have to get just the look I wanted using a combination of different filters.

I did go to art school so I suppose it would be stupid to hire someone else but I worry I will eventually run out of ideas. Or the ability to execute them. The digital stuff is self taught. They weren’t teaching that in art classes when I went to college. Let me tell you, it’s not easy putting a wedding veil on a cow! (third book)

Thank you again Judy for having me here and let me just mention the second book, Meditated Murder, will available shortly. Be sure to comment at each stop to increase your chances of winning one of the books and be sure to leave your email address. . I’ll be announcing the winners on my blog one week after the tour closes, on September 9th.

Review: 

This is the first book in the Brigid Kildare Mystery Series, or I should say Serial. There were basically two POVs in this story, Brigid's and Earl's.  Brigid is a high energy miniature dynamo.  If she wasn't genuinely a caring person, she would be a tyrant.  She even has the nickname of The Dictator.  Earl on the other hand is a very down to earth, laid back detective.  His logic and level headedness works as a great counterpoint to Brigid's intuition and emotion.

The story begins with Brigid and Earl meeting.  Earl is one of the detective's of her Police Chief father and has recently moved into the small compound she owns.  As it turns out there is cute back story to them that they knew each other in kindergarten and became inseparable until her mother moved her away for First grade.  Earl's grandmother called them Blondie and Dagwood.  It is now 25 years later and the two are becoming reacquainted.  There is plenty of chemistry between the two, but the books does stay very much PG.

Brigid gets Earl to look into a situation where 4 of her "old ladies" have disappeared through what she feels is mysterious circumstances.  Brigid's father and another detective from the force haven't taken her seriously and basically patted her on the head.  Brigid manages to get Earl to put a fresh set of eyes on the case and really take a look.  As it turns out, she was on to something.  Something has happened to the older ladies that Brigid had taken under her wing.  Using her intuition and luck and Earl's logic and know how, they will work together to find out what happened before someone else goes missing.

I liked this book.  There was a lot of great dialogue and their histories and back story came out in a very natural way, as they got to know each other and start dating.  My only concern was that there weren't transition markers for where time passed and it made it slightly confusing.  For example, they were discussing getting on the road and in the next paragraph they have been traveling for about 30 minutes.  It took me a minute to figure out where we were.  Other than that and some early on fears about Mary Sue-isms, that were quickly dispelled, I really enjoyed the book.  It kept me entertained and I actually read the entire thing in one sitting.  Since I can't remember if the ebook I got was an ARC or not, I am not going to figure any technical issues into my review and go with 4 stars on Goodreads.

Giveaway: 

Kate will be giving away 5 autographed Paperback copies of Social Insecurity.

So follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning.

Book Tour Info: 
Don't forget to check out the other stops on the Book Tour:

August 19:
Omnimystery News - Guest Post

August 20:
Kaisy Daisy's Corner - Review & Guest Post

August 21:
Socrates' Book Review Blog - Guest Post

August 22:
Mommasez... - Review & Guest Post

August 23:
readalot - Review & Guest Post

August 25:
Chloe Gets A Clue - Interview

August 27:
Musings and Ramblings - Review & Guest Post

August 28:
Melina's Book Blog - Guest Post

August 31:
Must Read Faster - Review & Guest Post

September 1:
A Chick Who Reads - Review & Guest Post

September 2:
THE SELF-TAUGHT COOK - Review

Author Bio:

Kate Eileen Shannon is a Writer, Artist, and sometimes Real Estate Agent – as she says, ‘a purveyor of ephemera and bagatelle’. Trifles. Little things. Here today, gone tomorrow. In other words, a little of this, a bit of that.

She has had three husbands and two children; lived in Ireland, Rhode Island, and Florida; owned a brake repair shop, an art gallery, a farm, and a boat building business; been a Realtor, a title examiner, a real estate closer, and a government employee which led her straight to being unemployed, laid off, made redundant.

Kate is currently living in Rhode Island overlooking the water and a lighthouse; with her husband, Dick Thomas (who won’t let her have a cat); where she spends her time painting, drawing, and of course working on the next book in the Brigid Kildare mystery series, MEDITATED MURDER.

To connect with the author online:

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