Bookplate Author Events During Dickens Weekend

The Bookplate plans to host two speakers in town during Chestertown’s “Dickens of a Christmas” Festival Weekend. Both events will be held in the Kent Cultural Alliance’s Raimond Cultural Center on Spring Street.

On Friday, December 1st at 6pm, all are invited to the Raimond Center to meet popular local author Wendy Sand Eckel as she discusses her newest mystery. In Killer in a Winter Wonderland, the much-anticipated holiday-themed fourth book in the Rosalie Hart Cozy Mystery Series, Wendy once again brings the fictional town of Cardigan, Maryland to life and delights with suspense, humor, and mouth-watering menus.

Wendy Sand Eckel

Holidays are fickle things — often good, but sometimes not so good. It’s December in the quirky town of Cardigan, and Rosalie Hart has been thrown several curve balls. For one, her ex-husband has booked a semester break vacation to Dubai with their only daughter, Annie, leaving Rosalie alone for Christmas. And following a renovation, Rosalie’s restaurant, the Day Lily Café, is open for business with an expanded dining room and a chef with an inflated ego. To make matters worse, when her head waiter and best friend Glenn Breckinridge is concerned about a neighbor who hadn’t returned home, they learn he had been murdered while riding his bike on River Road. In the midst of the holiday hustle and bustle, Rosalie and Glenn pair up once again to uncover who killed Bill Rutherford on that raw wintry night.

With delectable menus, high stakes sleuthing, and the rich atmospheric scenes only the holiday season can provide, Killer in a Winter Wonderland is a cornucopia of delicious fare, compelling new and returning characters, and a fast-paced tale that will keep one riveted to the last page.

Degrees in criminology and social work, followed by years of clinical practice, helped Wendy Sand Eckel explore her fascination with how relationships impact motivation, desire, and inhibition. Combined with her passion for words and meaning, writing mystery is a dream realized. She is the award-winning author of the Rosalie Hart Mystery Series. Murder at Barclay Meadow and Death at the Day Lily Café were published by Minotaur Books in 2015 and 2016. Death at the Day Lily Café was selected “Best Cozy of 2016” by Suspense Magazine. She is an active member of the Mystery Writers of America and the International Association of Crime Writers.

Katie Charles

Eckel lives on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in her dream house where she alternately gazes out her windows at the Chester River and hovers over the stove, creating succulent, sometimes experimental, meals for family and friends. She lives with the love of her life and two rescued orange tabbies, Frodo and Sam.

Then on December 2nd at 11 am, all are invited back to The Raimond Center to meet Assistant Professor of Literature, Katherine Charles, as she lectures on The Making of A Christmas Carol.

Katie Charles is Associate Professor of English at Washington College, where she has taught for the past six years. Her teaching and research concentrate on eighteenth-and-nineteenth-century literature written in English, with a special focus on the history of the novel and experimentations in novel form. Before returning to graduate school, Katie was a journalist, a professional background that contributes to her affinity for Charles Dickens, another jobbing writer who was under the pressure of continual deadlines.

For more event details visit Dickens Weekend Schedule (mainstreetchestertown.org/dickens-festival/) or contact The Bookplate at 410-778-4167 or [email protected]. These events are free and open to the public. Reservations are not required. The next author event sponsored by The Bookplate is on 12/13 with Peter & Evan Osnos and will be held back at The Kitchen at The Imperial. The Raimond Cultural Center is located at 101 Spring Avenue in Chestertown, Maryland.