Lise McClendon’s Bennett Sisters Mysteries are for anyone wanting to lose themselves in the magic of France with heart-warming family stories involving – like Jane Austen’s Bennetts – five daughters.

Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and in Binge Reading today Lise talks about the latest book in the series, Château Des Corbeaux, or in English, Castle of Ravens. Pascal’s dreams of owning his own vineyard come crashing down with a murder very close to home.

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Links for this episode:

Lise McClendon Books in Order:https://www.fictiondb.com/author/lise-mcclendon~21845.htm

The Bennett Sisters Cookbook: https://www.amazon.com/Bennett-Sisters-French-Cookbook-Mysteries/dp/1792884850

Thalia Press: https://lisemcclendon.com/the-books/thalia-press/

Alice Hoffman: https://alicehoffman.com/

James Lee Burke: https://www.jamesleeburke.com/

Ellen McGarrahan: Tow Truths and a Lie: www.Amazon.com/Two-Truths-Lie-Ellen-McGarrahan/dp/0812998669 

William Deverell:Arthur Beauchamp legal thrillers: Stung:   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55407906-stung

Martin Walker: To Kill A Troubadour: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/58467284-to-kill-a-troubadour

Where to find Lise McClendon:

Web site:  https://lisemcclendon.com/

Facebook:  @LiseMcClendon Author

Twitter:  @LiseMcClendon:  https://www.bookbub.com/profile/lise-mcclendon

What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to the show notes in The Joys of Binge Reading.com for important mentions.

But now, here’s Lise.

Introducing mystery author Lise McLendon

Jenny Wheeler: Hello there Lise, and welcome to the show. It’s great to have you with us.

Lise McClendon - popular mystery author

Lise McClendon: Thank you for having me, Jenny.

Jenny Wheeler: You have written a wonderfully lively series of French mysteries. We are talking about the latest one today, which is Château des Corbeaux, Castle of Ravens, which is just out. Theoretically, it's number 17 in the series, but we'll talk a little bit about some of the slight complications within that 17.

At the beginning, you had five strong-willed sisters who are all lawyers as their father and grandfathers were before them. When you started out, did you have any idea of how long these five sisters were going to be running?

Lise McClendon: Absolutely not. I envisioned five books, one featuring each sister. I wrote the first one, a New York publisher gave me some money to write it, and then he decided he didn't like it, so I ended up going independent, but that took a little while.

Then it seemed like it was just a standalone because Blackbird Fly, the first book, is more of a women's fiction than a mystery. It’s a lot of self-discovery, a lot of reinventing yourself after a tragedy. In that way it stands alone, or it could stand alone, and it did for about five years.

Then I decided to go back and revisit the characters again. After I did a walking tour in France, in Burgundy, with a group of women, I decided I would have the sisters going on a walking tour together. That's how it got started again.

Merle's shock of sudden widowhood