{"id":19497,"date":"2024-03-26T00:01:40","date_gmt":"2024-03-26T07:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.themysteryofwriting.com\/?p=19497"},"modified":"2024-03-17T17:26:28","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T00:26:28","slug":"the-witless-protection-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themysteryofwriting.com\/2024\/03\/26\/the-witless-protection-program\/","title":{"rendered":"The Witless Protection Program"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Witless Protection Program<\/em>,\u00a0a Catering Hall Mystery<\/em><\/strong> by Maria DiRico\"The<\/p>\n

Character Guest Post + Book & Author Info<\/h2>\n

Don\u2019t miss any\u00a0blog tours, click the link here<\/a> to read more!<\/h3>\n
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The Witless Protection Program<\/em><\/h2>\n

\"TheMia Carina has steered her Italian-American family\u2019s Astoria, Queens, catering hall, Belle View Banquet Manor, into becoming the borough\u2019s premiere party site, and nothing could make her happier\u2014except her boyfriend proposing. There\u2019s just one presumed-dead obstacle in the way . . .<\/strong><\/p>\n

A strong, independent woman and respected entrepreneur, Mia never imagined she\u2019d pine for a marriage proposal. Yet lately, with her beloved Shane, she\u2019s on tenterhooks. It\u2019s especially surprising, considering Mia\u2019s first husband, Adam, was a philandering grifter, assumed lost-at-sea after a boating disaster. But everyone knows what happens when you assume . . .<\/p>\n

While working a huge wedding expo in Manhattan, Mia is shocked to spot the man who nearly destroyed her life. The one who\u2019s supposed to be sleeping with the fishes. But she loses him in the crowd. And when it happens again the next day, it\u2019s time for an emergency meeting with the family\u2014and the Family. Because if Adam is alive, Mia is still married . . .<\/p>\n

Everyone wants Adam dead. Everyone except Mia. She\u2019s dealt with enough police for a lifetime. Mia needs to be a divorc\u00e9e, not a widow. But someone out there disagrees, and if Mia doesn\u2019t discover who, she may never be free to marry Shane\u2014or anyone else . . .<\/p>\n

Italian recipes included!<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Witless Protection Program (A Catering Hall Mystery)<\/a><\/strong>
\nCozy Mystery<\/strong>
\n5th in Series<\/strong>
\nSetting \u2013 New York<\/strong>
\nKensington Cozies (March 26, 2024)<\/strong>
\nMass Market Paperback \u200f : \u200e 304 pages<\/strong>
\nISBN-10 \u200f : \u200e 1496744624<\/strong>
\nISBN-13 \u200f : \u200e 978-1496744623<\/strong>
\nDigital ASIN \u200f : \u200e B0C9W8W668<\/strong><\/p>\n

To purchase The Witless Protection Program<\/em> click any of the following links: Amazon<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0B&N<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Kobo<\/a>\u00a0\u2013Bookshop.org<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Kensington<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n
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THE MYSTERY OF WRITING<\/h3>\n

Character guest post: Mia Carina<\/h3>\n

Hi, Mia Carina here. I\u2019m the senior event planner at New York\u2019s Belle View Banquet Manor, with its lovely view of the Flushing Bay \u2013 and the LaGuardia Airport runway.<\/p>\n

I run parties and give tours that I hope entice people to hold their weddings\/Sweet Sixteens\/anniversaries\/Bar or Bat Mitzvahs\/funeral luncheons at our welcoming establishment.<\/p>\n

The thing about Belle View, though, is it\u2019s owned by the Boldano crime family. But it\u2019s a legit business! Really! My dad, who was a lieutenant for \u201cthe Family,\u201d got the Belle View \u2013 no relation to Bellevue, the infamous NYC psychiatric hospital \u2013 as payment for a gambling debt. If I\u2019ve heard the joke, \u201cYou\u2019re making me an offer I can\u2019t refuse\u201d once, I\u2019ve heard it a bazillion times. But hey, if this place goes belly up, Dad\u2019ll be back doing things he can\u2019t tell me about, so I grit my teeth and laugh like it\u2019s the first time I ever heard that Mob clich\u00e9. I want Dad to stay clean and Belle View to triumph as a premiere \u2013 and very legitimate – event destination.<\/p>\n

Anyhoo, despite all this, I wake up every morning thanking the universe that I\u2019m in Astoria, Queens, and not Palm Beach, Florida, where my cheating husband disappeared with his mistress, and I got pegged as a \u201cperson of interest\u201d in said disappearance by the police. Lucky for me \u2013 but not so much for his girlfriend \u2013 a boat washed up with her body in it, and I was off the hook when the police declared Adam Grosso presumed dead by drowning.<\/p>\n

But guess who\u2019s suddenly showed up?! That\u2019s right. Just as I\u2019m about to embark on a lifetime of happiness with my new love, former model and fellow Belle View employee Shane Gambrazzo, Adam Grosso has reappeared determined to win me back. Trust me, it ain\u2019t gonna happen. But that doesn\u2019t mean Adam isn\u2019t gonna make my life difficult.<\/p>\n

One sobering thing I\u2019ve learned since moving back to New York is this: if there\u2019s ever a murder at your establishment or even within your vicinity, you can vehemently declare you\u2019re not involved with \u201cFamily\u201d activities in any way, and the police will still assume that you are. Which means you and your loved ones will end up primary suspects in said murder.<\/p>\n

Especially when the victim is a husband whose very existence could ruin your life.<\/p>\n

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Maria DiRico \u2014 Author of The Witless Protection Program<\/em><\/h2>\n

\"TheMaria DiRico<\/b>\u00a0is the pseudonym for Ellen Byron, author of the award-winning, USA Today bestselling Cajun Country Mysteries. Born in Queens, New York, she is a first-generation Italian-American on her mother\u2019s side and the granddaughter of a low-level Jewish mobster on her father\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

She grew up visiting the Astoria Manor and Grand Bay Marina catering halls, which were run by her Italian mother\u2019s family in Queens and have become the inspiration for her Catering Hall Mystery Series. DiRico has been a writer-producer for hit television series like Wings and Just Shoot Me, and her first play, Graceland, appears in the Best Short Plays collection.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s a freelance journalist, with over 200 articles published in national magazines, and previously worked as a cater-waiter for Martha Stewart, a credit she never tires of sharing. A native New Yorker who attended Tulane University, Ellen lives in Los Angeles with her husband, daughter, and two rescue dogs.<\/p>\n

To learn more about Maria, click on any of the following links: Website<\/a>\u00a0\u2013<\/b>\u00a0Chicks on the Case<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Facebook<\/a> &<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n
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a Rafflecopter giveaway<\/a><\/h2>\n