Showing posts with label Baxley Powell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baxley Powell. Show all posts

Monday, July 9, 2018

Book Club Questions for Confound It

Is your Book Club interested in reading Confound It, a paranormal cozy? Here are discussion questions to get the party started! (This book is available through Ingram, through Baker and Taylor, online vendors, and Epicenter Press.) I am also available to Skype into your meetings!



1. We are often quick to judge others. For instance, what if a young mother found a lucrative way to provide a future for her son, but then couldn’t get out? Soon she becomes a homicide statistic. We automatically look at what she did-making drugs-and label her a bad person. Now that you know character Mandy Patterson’s backstory, do you feel empathy for her? Do you think others care if a meth cook dies?


2. A man she met on vacation, Deputy Sam Mayes, visits my sleuth Baxley Powell and her family. Like her, the man has extrasensory abilities, and she wants to learn from his experiences. He, on the other hand, is abiding by her lets-be-friends decree, but he’s made it clear he’s interested in a romantic relationship. As a woman, would you pursue the friendship?


3. For the longest time, Baxley has lived in relationship limbo. Her elite soldier of a husband went missing on a military mission. After a year went by, the Army declared him dead. As someone who can traverse the Veil of Life, Baxley knows he isn’t dead, only she can’t find him in the land of the living either. She worries he’s hurt. That’s the only way she knows that he wouldn’t come home to her and their young daughter. People say she should start dating again, but Baxley is married. Her honor and integrity demand that she honor her vows. What would you do in that situation?


4. In-laws and Outlaws is a phrase I’ve often heard applied to some extended families. In Confound It, discord rules amongst the victim’s family members. There’s love, but there’s also envy, greed, jealousy, and lust. Does your family always get along? What’s the usual bone of contention? Examples: curfew, bedtime, heirloom, elder care, employment, authority, money, respect…


5. We expect those who care for us to comfort us when troubles occur. But Confound It’s Mandy Patterson is trapped in a desperate situation, and she’s afraid of her boyfriend. What advice would you give someone like Mandy?


6. In Confound It, Mandy’s sister makes no bones that she wants what her sister has, only June is mostly talk and no action. Plus, she believes the world owes her. She gets mad when Mandy won’t continue to give her money. Do you believe in Tough Love? Why or why not?


7. My sleuth Baxley Powell is a Dreamwalker. She taps into her extrasensory abilities to learn more about a person, place, or thing in this world or the next. In reality, psychics often have one strong extrasensory skill. In the Dreamwalker Series, I take liberties so that Baxley explores a new paranormal aspect in each book. Confound It is book five in this series. Usually in other books, she must hold an item of the victim to make contact with his or her spirit. In this book, Baxley has several spontaneous visions causing her no end of confusion. What characteristic of Baxley’s do you most admire and why? (Her traits include loyalty, adaptability, courage, patience, composure, self-sufficiency, perceptiveness, honesty, fairness, or her curiosity).


8. Deputy Sam Mayes is a Cherokee. He carefully treads his way in both his native world and the white man’s world. Baxley doesn’t understand the issues he faces, doesn’t know how hard he is to appear to be solidly in both worlds, or that it costs his tribes when he is less than fully theirs. Assimilation used to be the American Way. Our society is a melting pot of immigrant groups. Why does assimilation hurt Native American tribes? Don’t people have to live and make a living in the twenty-first century?


9. Baxley’s household has a menagerie of animals: a Shih-Pooh named Muffin, a chihuahua named Elvis, black lab named Maddy, a Maine Coon cat named Sulay, and a tabby named Ziggy. Her ghost dog, Oliver the Great Dane, puts in appearances now and then. Occasionally, one of her pet-sitting clients leaves their animals with her, so she has even more animals at home. With such a variety of dogs and cats, which animal is the boss and why?


10. In a series mystery like this one, as the series goes along, the amateur sleuth gains more of a familiarity with the criminal world, though she still says firmly grounded in her community. Although Baxley has gained experience as a dreamwalker, one of her abilities, being able to perceive lies, happens automatically. This can be a bonus for her police work, but this (and her other skills) makes people leery of her. If you had a special skill that made people nervous, would you use it or hide it?


This book is currently available in print and ebook formats. It will be released in Large Print at a later date still to be determined.

Don't delay! Get your copy today!

Kindle     Nook     Kobo     iBooks



Thanks, and I hope you love reading this mystery!

Maggie Toussaint



Friday, June 1, 2018

Confound It is now Available

I'm happy to report my latest Dreamwalker Mystery, Confound It, book 5 in the series, is out now at the venues listed below.

Here's the book blurb:

While hosting out-of-town guests at her Georgia home, Dreamwalker Baxley Powell is called upon to help investigate a suspicious fire. One of her guests, close friend and fellow dreamwalker Deputy Sam Mayes, accompanies her to the scene.

A meth cook is dead, and when Baxley visits her beyond the Veil of Life, she determines that the woman was murdered. Baxley pities Mandy Patterson, a single mother with aspirations for her teenage son Doodle. Unconcerned about the death of a criminal, the authorities pursue the drug-supply chain angle. Baxley worries about Doodle and vows to find out who killed his mother.

As the case grows more baffling, Baxley struggles against her attraction to Sam. Although her husband is missing and declared dead, she does not feel free to love again until she is sure of his fate.

Two suspects have the strongest motive, but Baxley has reason to believe they are pawns in a deeper game. And unless she can stop them, the world will never be the same.

This book is currently available in print and ebook formats. It will be released in Large Print at a later date still to be determined.

Don't delay! Get your copy today!

Kindle     Nook     Kobo     iBooks

Saturday, October 1, 2016

The reviews are starting to arrive for my upcoming release, DOGGONE IT, and I'm pleased to share with you today the entire Kirkus Review for book 3 in my Dreamwalker Mystery Series. (the paragraph indentations are mine to provide ease of reading)



“In Toussaint's (Bubba Done It, 2015, etc.) third Dreamwalker adventure, a woman with an unusual job risks her life to unravel a mystery. Baxley Powell works as a dreamwalker for her high school friend Wayne, who's now the sheriff for their small Southern town.

Her psychic powers have helped Wayne close several previous cases, and she's come to depend on the money from her dangerous part-time job. The Army has declared her husband dead but refuses to release his pension, leaving her to wonder where he really is while she works as a gardener and petsitter to pay the bills for her daughter, Larissa, and herself.

Now tales of a buried pirate treasure have prompted someone to dig holes all over town, and when Baxley's best friend, Charlotte, a reporter bucking for a promotion, begs her to look for clues in June's Folly, a reportedly haunted house, the visit nearly kills her. Only the interventions of Rose, a powerful spirit, and Oliver, a friendly canine ghost, save her from being overwhelmed by evil forces.

Meanwhile, a film company has spent a lot of money in the area to make a movie about the fabled pirate treasure. But not everyone is happy they've come. When someone viciously murders a film-crew member and a local boat captain, suspects abound.

Baxley's father, also a dreamwalker, and her mother, whose crystal therapy has helped Baxley recover from other dangerous encounters, warn her to be careful. But she knows she has to be a force for good no matter how dangerous the task, and she attempts to muddle through with some timely assistance from a suicidal medium and a Chihuahua. Plenty of hair-raising action as the likable, gutsy lead battles forces of evil.” – Kirkus Reviews

I couldn't be more pleased! Thank you, Kirkus for such a wonderful review.

Pre-order of the hardcover available now at Amazon and Barnes&Noble. The digital format is not available on pre-order. It will release on October 19, 2016.

I have a blog tour booked with Great Escapes (Schedule is posted on my website's home page) and I'll be hosting a Facebook Launch Party. Folks within driving distance of coastal Ga, keep an ear out for my booksigning in Darien in early November.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Maggie Toussaint