Cool Change
by  Kevin Zelenka

I reviewed Cool Change by Kevin Zelenka for this Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour and loved it so much that I immediately read the prequel, “Steal Away.” After reading the author’s guest post “Why Cozies?”, I could see why the town of Flat Rock seemed so real.

The author has a fun GIVEAWAY for this tour that is a little bit different from the usual Enter to Win format. Enter for a chance to win one of three digital copies of Cool Change, but every entrant will also receive a free copy of the exclusive Flat Rock prequel, Steal Away.

Every reader leaves with something, whether they win or not! So after you read his article and learn all about the book, make sure you enter the Giveaway at the end of the post.

Why Cozies?
A guest post by Kevin Zelenka

It’s not what you feel. It’s what you don’t.

That’s the best way I know to describe growing up in a small town in the Midwest. You know the sidewalks. You’ve seen the storefronts. You recognize the people walking toward you before you even see their faces. Nothing is strange. There’s nothing setting off alarms. Your senses dull in the best possible way, wrapped in the comfort of the familiar.

And that, I’ve come to believe, is exactly where murder hides in my books.

I came to cozy mysteries the way a lot of readers do, by accident. I was an early teenager, deep into Louis L’Amour and Choose Your Own Adventure books, when I first picked up Lilian Jackson Braun. I was hooked immediately. Then came Sue Grafton. I stumbled onto G is for Gumshoe at a garage sale and started saving up to go back and buy the earlier books in the alphabet. Later, John Sandford’s Prey series pulled me in. They aren’t cozies, but they’re set in Minneapolis, a world I knew and could feel. I understood the streets, the weather, the rhythm of it.

Years later, when I was staring at another unfinished manuscript, something clicked. It hit me that the best mysteries aren’t just about the crime, they’re about the world in which the crime happens. And the most unsettling crimes are the ones that happen in places where you never expected to be looking over your shoulder.

They say write what you know. I know small towns. I know the Midwest. I know what it feels like to walk down Main Street where the grocery store has been in the same spot for three generations. Where you wave at a passing car without knowing who’s driving, and everyone knows your business and shows up anyway with a hotdish (aka: casserole) when things go wrong.

That’s the feeling I try to capture in Flat Rock, Minnesota, the fictional small town at the heart of my series. It’s not based on any one place, but it’s built from all of them. Every small town I ever walked through, every county fair, every hardware store with a screen door that slaps shut behind you.

Garrison Keillor spent decades making people long to explore a place they’d never visited. Lake Wobegon felt so real that listeners genuinely grieved when it went quiet. That’s what I’m reaching for with Flat Rock. Not just a setting, but a world. A place readers come back to not just for the mystery, but because it feels like somewhere they’ve already been.

Because that’s the thing about small towns, and about cozy mysteries…the danger was always there. You just weren’t looking for it. Your senses went quiet, and somebody counted on that.

About Cool Change

After ten years as a Military Police investigator, Tony DeLucca thought coming home would mean peace and quiet. He was wrong.

Days after returning, Tony finds himself at the center of a murder investigation—not as an investigator, but as the last hope for his new landlord's son. When local musician Derek Paulson is found dead and Ryan White is arrested for the crime, Tony can't shake the feeling that the wrong man is behind bars. What starts as a favor to a desperate father quickly unravels into something darker. Gambling debts, a missing guitarist with a violent past, and someone who seems just a little too helpful all point to secrets worth killing for. With Ryan's preliminary hearing looming and the deputy chief determined to shut him down, Tony must navigate a tangled web of lies, grudges, and secrets. The evidence points one way, but his instincts say another. Trusting the wrong one could cost an innocent man his freedom.

A small-town mystery where solving a murder becomes more than a case—it's the beginning of everything Tony didn't know he was looking for.

Storybook Lady
Review

Cool Change
by Kevin Zelenka

Kevin Zelenka has offered up a Cool Change for mystery fans. The Tony Delucca mysteries are cozy, but not cutesy. Flat Rock is not a cookie cutter small town full of quirky characters like most contemporary cozy mysteries. Like Garrison Keillor‘s Lake Wobegon, it feels as real as any small town that you may have visited. The characters aren’t funny and quirky, they feel like people you may know. The coziness in the book is the charm provided by all the details that ring true. The strength of the mystery story is also in the details. The protagonist, Tony Delucca, was an investigator in the military police, but unlike Lee Child‘s Jack Reacher, he is calm, thoughtful and not violent at all. Tony doesn’t rely on physical action for the answers. He actually investigates, asking questions and picking up answers that eventually add up. The clues are there for the reader as well. But Zelenka does a good job of blending the subtle clues within the narrative. Although I suspected the culprit before the guilt was revealed to the sleuth, the conclusion is not obvious before hand. Zelenka weaves the mystery plot within the larger story of Tony’s return home after leaving the military. He is settling in, courting a new girlfriend and even picks up some vintage vinal albums along the way. The author has a playlist of some of Tony’s favorites on his website. If you are in the mood for music and murder, get this novel and listen to the music mentioned too.

Want to read more of my reviews?

Interested in my reviews? I also have a Goodreads shelf dedicated to Cozy Mysteries. Want to read my reviews for books in other genres? I’ve got you covered. There are almost two thousand reviews on Goodreads. Just check out Julie Ditton on Goodreads.

• Goodreads

About Kevin Zelenka

About Kevin Zelenka

Kevin Zelenka is an avid reader, amateur chef, and expert procrastinator. A former parenting writer and editor, he’s had an unfinished manuscript (or three) rattling around in his head for decades. Originally from Minnesota, he eventually escaped the cold and settled in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he lives with his wife and their twin sons.  Cool Change is Book 1 in the Originally Pressed Series.

Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Instagram | Threads

Purchase Link – Amazon 

TOUR PARTICIPANTS

July 22 – Storybook Lady – REVIEW, AUTHOR GUEST POST

July 22 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW

July 22 – Baroness Book Trove – SPOTLIGHT

July 23 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – CHARACTER INTERVIEW*

July 24 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT

July 24 – Guatemala Paula Loves to Read – SPOTLIGHT

July 24 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

July 25 – Books1987 – SPOTLIGHT

July 25 – Sarandipity’s – CHARACTER INTERVIEW*

July 26 – Book Hookup – REVIEW

July 26 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT

July 27 – Ruff Drafts – SPOTLIGHT

July 27 – StoreyBook Reviews – CHARACTER GUEST POST

July 28 – Sarcastically Yours, Jen – SPOTLIGHT

July 28 – Romance Novel Giveaways – AUTHOR GUEST POST

Tony Deucca Mystery
Giveaway

The author is offering a tour wide GIVEAWAY – Four winners will receive a Cool Change ebook, however EVERYONE WHO ENTERS will receive an ebook of the prequel, Steal Away.

Enter to win
one of four copies of Cool Change, and automatically receive an ebook of the prequel, Steal Away.

In Steal Away, Army investigator Tony DeLucca returns home to Flat Rock for a funeral, only to find himself pulled into a mystery that refuses to stay buried. This is the origin story of the Originally Pressed Mysteries. The book before the records, and the mystery that sets everything in motion.

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