15 Things to Know about the Pearly Girls Mysteries
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I am so excited! My new series, the Pearly Girls Mysteries, launches on March 18. This is my Veronica Mars meets the Golden Girls mysteries. It’s set in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains.
Here are some things to know about Cassidy and her team at Celebrations at Ivy Springs.
Ivy Springs is a fictitious tiny town nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia near Staunton.
Staunton is the real-life home to the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, the American Shakespeare Center, and the Frontier Cultural Center.
Cassidy inherits her grandmother’s property and event planning business, Celebrations at Ivy Springs.
The property has a refurbished farmhouse/office, glamped up barn, serenity garden, amphitheater, cave, and the remnants of the old family honky-tonk that burned down in the 1980s.
The four Pearly Girls got their collective nickname from a school mate in the sixties who teased them about wearing their pearls like Jackie O. or Audrey Hepburn. The name has stuck for generations.
The four Pearly Girls are named for my grandmothers (Ruth and Aileen), my great-grandmother Roxie Belle, and my grandmother Aileen’s best friend (Kate). These four spunky women taught me a lot of life lessons.
Cassidy’s sidekick is a brown and tan Chihuahua mix named Elvis. He is modeled on my sister’s dog, Bingo. Both are mighty mites with big personalities.
Bingo in his car seat
8. Cassidy’s relatives used the cave and other hiding places on the property for their bootlegging business during Prohibition.
9. The honky-tonk was the place to be in the heyday of country and western music. Famous singers and musicians would sign the bar and always pose for a photo or two.
10. Before the interstate, state roads along this corridor were often on the route of bands heading to and from Nashville.
11. Prior to becoming an event planner, Cassidy worked in marketing in Washington, DC.
12. Cassidy refurbished the top floor of her grandmother’s farmhouse for her on-property apartment. The downstairs is the office space and conference rooms for Celebrations at Ivy Springs.
13. The septuagenarian Pearly Girls have more tattoos than Cassidy does.
14. While the Pearly Girls may not be hip to all the new technology and platforms, they are plugged into Ivy Springs’s gossip grapevine. Nothing happens in this small town that they don’t know about.
15. Roxie had a very public fling with a musician in her past, but the secret doesn’t stay buried for very long.
Murder Strikes a Chord is available now for preorder at your favorite bookseller!
