It's beginning to look a lot like murder . . .

And Cassandra is knee deep in . . .

Suspects.

Her boss is dead, and the police are calling it burglary gone wrong. But when the killer comes after her, it's going to take more than a pair of furry boots to keep the smart, witty Morton College administrator, Cassandra Sato, out of the deep. . .

Snow.

Her first Christmas in Nebraska could be her last unless her friends help unravel the mystery and housebreak her dog.

Buy now for a fast-paced, holiday themed whodunit.

Dead of Winter Break is the third book in Kelly Brakenhoff's popular Cassandra Sato Mystery Series. Death by Dissertation was a 2020 RONE Award Finalist. Publishers Weekly called Dead Week, "a diverting whodunit."

Paris-the city of love, lights ... and murder? Join tour guide Lana Hansen as she escorts five couples on an unforgettable Valentine-themed vacation to France! Unfortunately it will be the last trip for one passenger...

Lana Hansen's future is looking bright. She has money in her bank account, a babysitter for her cat, and even a boyfriend. Regrettably she won't get to celebrate Valentine's Day with her new beau, Chad. Instead, she will be leading a lovers-only tour in France. Luckily for Lana, her best friend, Willow, and her partner, Jane, will be joining her.

Things go downhill when Lana's new boyfriend shows up in Paris for her tour-with his wife. Chad is not the website developer he claimed to be, but a famous restaurant critic whose love of women rivals his passion for food.

After Chad drops dead during a picnic under the Eiffel Tower, a persistent French detective becomes convinced that he was poisoned. And the inspector's sights are set on several members of the tour-including Lana!

While escorting her group through the cobblestone streets of Montmartre, the grand gardens of Versailles, and the historic Marché des Enfants Rouges market, Lana must figure out who really killed Chad before she has to say bonjour to prison and adieu to her freedom.

The Travel Can Be Murder Cozy Mysteries are heartwarming stories about making friends, traveling, and celebrating new experiences. Join tour guide Lana Hansen as she leads tourists and readers to fascinating cities around the globe on intriguing adventures that often turn deadly.

Books in the Travel Can Be Murder Cozy Mystery series:

Book 1 - Death on the Danube: A New Year's Murder in Budapest

Book 2 - Death by Baguette: A Valentine's Day Murder in Paris

Book 3 - Death by Windmill: A Mother's Day Murder in Amsterdam

Book 4 - Death by Bagpipes: A Summer Murder in Edinburgh

Book 5 - Death by Fountain: A Christmas Murder in Rome

Book 6 - Death by Leprechaun: A Saint Patrick's Day Murder in Dublin

Book 7 - Death by Flamenco: An Easter Murder in Seville

Book 8 - Death by Gondola: A Springtime Murder in Venice

Book 9 - Death by Puffin: A Bachelorette Party Murder in Reykjavik

Books 10-12 - Coming Soon!!

About the Author
Alderson, Jennifer S.: - Jennifer S. Alderson was born in San Francisco, raised in Seattle, and currently lives in Amsterdam. Her love of travel, art, and culture inspires her award-winning Zelda Richardson Mystery series, her Travel Can Be Murder Cozy Mysteries, and her standalone stories. After traveling extensively around Asia, Oceania, and Central America, Jennifer moved to Darwin, Australia, before finally settling in the Netherlands. When not writing, she can be found in a museum, biking around Amsterdam, or enjoying a coffee along the canal while planning her next research trip.

2020 RONE Award Mystery Finalist

“Death by Dissertation is a marvelous read that will make every mystery lover immediately fall for Cassandra Sato through her spunky spirit, dedication to her students, clever quips, and brilliant deduction that is brilliantly woven into the tone of the mystery." —Readers' Favorite, 5 Starred Review

"Unravelling a complex murder mystery, supported by utterly believable characters, Kelly Brakenhoff weaves an eminently readable story filled with superlative narrative and dialogue…From the first page, readers will be assured they have before them a book crafted by a professional that does not disappoint." —InD'tale Magazine 5 Star Crowned Heart

Ambitious Cassandra Sato traded her life in Hawai’i for a dream position at Morton College in rural Nebraska.

She expected the Midwestern church casseroles, land-locked cornfields, and face-freezing winters would be her biggest challenges, but it’s her job that’s rapidly becoming a nightmare.

A deaf student is dead and the investigation reveals a complicated trail of connections between campus food service, a local farmer’s beef, and the science lab’s cancer research. Together with her few allies, Cassandra must protect the students caught up in the entanglement.

Dealing with homesickness, vandalism, and a stalker, Cassandra is trapped in a public relations disaster that could cost her job, or more. No one said college was easy.

 
Author Bio:
Kelly Brakenhoff writes the Cassandra Sato Mystery series including Death by Dissertation, a 2020 RONE Award Mystery Finalist, Dead Week, "a diverting whodunit," (Publishers Weekly), and Dead of Winter Break, a holiday themed whodunit new for 2020. Kelly is an American Sign Language Interpreter whose motivation for learning ASL began in high school when she wanted to converse with her deaf friends. 

Seville-the home of tapas, flamenco, and ... murder?

Tour guide Lana Hansen is finally leading a trip to Spain-and during Easter week, no less! To top it off, she is a speaker at a prestigious travel and tourism expo taking place in Seville during the tour. Luckily, her clients-all influential travel bloggers and writers-are also attending the trade show.

Lana is excited to speak at the conference ... that is, until Chet Rogers-an eminent travel writer being honored at the expo-publicly humiliates her and several of her guests.

When Chet is killed during a workshop soon after, Lana is one of the Spanish police's prime suspects. But she is not the only one in her group who would rather see Chet out of the picture-permanently.

Can Lana sleuth out the killer's true identity and dance her way out of a jail sentence before her group's tour to Seville is over?

Books in the Travel Can Be Murder Cozy Mystery series:

Book 1 - Death on the Danube: A New Year's Murder in Budapest

Book 2 - Death by Baguette: A Valentine's Day Murder in Paris

Book 3 - Death by Windmill: A Mother's Day Murder in Amsterdam

Book 4 - Death by Bagpipes: A Summer Murder in Edinburgh

Book 5 - Death by Fountain: A Christmas Murder in Rome

Book 6 - Death by Leprechaun: A Saint Patrick's Day Murder in Dublin

Book 7 - Death by Flamenco: An Easter Murder in Seville

Book 8 - Death by Gondola: A Springtime Murder in Venice

Book 9 - Death by Puffin: A Bachelorette Party in Reykjavik

Books 10-12 - Coming Soon!!

Venice-the city of canals, masks ... and murder?

Tour guide Lana Hansen is having the time of her life leading a Carnevale-themed trip in Venice, Italy. Her merry group loves exploring the city's rich artistic and cultural heritage together, as well as sampling the sumptuous cuisine the island city is famous for.

Their invitation to a masquerade ball, complete with historical costumes and fancy masks, should be the culmination of a perfect week. Yet when the guest of honor is bludgeoned to death, all eyes are on the partygoers-including Lana and her group!

Was it an environmental protester, a corporate rival, or a disgruntled business associate that did him in? Or could someone have another reason to want the cruise ship executive dead?

Things go from bad to worse when Lana's boyfriend, Alex, unexpectedly knocks on her hotel room door and shares a shocking secret-one that gets him arrested for murder! Can Lana sleuth out the real killer's identity before her partner's visit to the Floating City becomes permanent?

The Travel Can Be Murder Cozy Mysteries are heartwarming stories about making friends, traveling, and celebrating new experiences. Join tour guide Lana Hansen as she leads tourists and readers to fascinating cities around the globe on intriguing adventures that often turn deadly.

Books in the Travel Can Be Murder Cozy Mystery series:

Book 1 - Death on the Danube: A New Year's Murder in Budapest

Book 2 - Death by Baguette: A Valentine's Day Murder in Paris

Book 3 - Death by Windmill: A Mother's Day Murder in Amsterdam

Book 4 - Death by Bagpipes: A Summer Murder in Edinburgh

Book 5 - Death by Fountain: A Christmas Murder in Rome

Book 6 - Death by Leprechaun: A Saint Patrick's Day Murder in Dublin

Book 7 - Death by Flamenco: An Easter Murder in Seville

Book 8 - Death by Gondola: A Springtime Murder in Venice

Book 9 - Death by Puffin: A Bachelorette Party Murder in Reykjavik

Books 10-12 - Coming Soon!!

Iceland—land of fire, ice…and murder?

After a nasty fight with her boyfriend, tour guide Lana Hansen takes a week off work to get her head straight. Fate brings her to Iceland and the Hotel Puffin where she hopes the magnificent natural surroundings will help heal her heart and point the way forward.

Instead of the rest and relaxation she wishes to find, Lana ends up neighbors with a group of rowdy Americans in town for a bachelorette party and wedding. Their joyous frivolity is a painful reminder of her own relationship problems, and Lana does her best to steer clear of the group.

Yet when someone in the wedding party dies under mysterious circumstances, she gets pulled into the investigation. Can Lana help unmask the killer before they strike again—or will this trip be her last?

Author Bio:

Jennifer S. Alderson was born in San Francisco, raised in Seattle, and currently lives in Amsterdam. After traveling extensively around Asia, Oceania, and Central America, she lived in Darwin, Australia, before finally settling in the Netherlands. Jennifer's love of travel, art, and culture inspires her award-winning Zelda Richardson Mystery series, her Travel Can Be Murder Cozy Mysteries, and her standalone stories. Her background in journalism, multimedia development, and art history enriches her novels. When not writing, she can be found in a museum, biking around Amsterdam, or enjoying a coffee along the canal while planning her next research trip.

A Mother's Day trip to the Netherlands turns deadly when a guest plummets from a windmill. Was it an accident or a murder? For Lana Hansen, the answer will mean freedom or imprisonment for someone close to her...Wanderlust Tours guide Lana Hansen and her mother, Gillian, haven't seen eye to eye in over a decade, ever since Lana was wrongly fired from her job as an investigative reporter. So when Lana's boss invites Gillian to join her upcoming Mother's Day tour to the Netherlands, Lana is less than pleased.What could be worse than spending ten days with her estranged mother? Lana is about to find out...The tour begins on a high note when the majority of guests bond during their visit to the Keukenhof flower gardens and a cruise around the picturesque canals of Amsterdam.Despite her initial reservations, Lana thinks this might be the best group she had ever led. Until she discovers one of her guests - a recent retiree named Priscilla - is the person who destroyed her career in journalism.All Lana can see is red. But circumstances dictate that she figure out a way to lead the tour, make peace with her mother, and not murder her guest. She doesn't know whether she can handle the pressure.Lana needn't worry. Shortly after their fight, Priscilla falls off the balcony of a historic windmill at Zaanse Schans. Was she pushed or simply careless? The investigating officers suspect murder - and topping their suspect list is Lana's mom!Can Lana save Gillian? Or will her mother end up spending the rest of her days in a Dutch prison?
The Travel Can Be Murder Cozy Mysteries are heartwarming stories about making friends, traveling, and celebrating new experiences. Join tour guide Lana Hansen as she leads tourists and readers to fascinating cities around the globe on intriguing adventures that often turn deadly.
Books in the Travel Can Be Murder Cozy Mystery series: Book 1 - Death on the Danube: A New Year's Murder in BudapestBook 2 - Death by Baguette: A Valentine's Day Murder in ParisBook 3 - Death by Windmill: A Mother's Day Murder in AmsterdamBook 4 - Death by Bagpipes: A Summer Murder in EdinburghBook 5 - Death by Fountain: A Christmas Murder in RomeBook 6 - Death by Leprechaun: A Saint Patrick's Day Murder in DublinBook 7 - Death by Flamenco: An Easter Murder in SevilleBook 8 - Death by Gondola: A Springtime Murder in VeniceBook 9 - Death by Puffin: A Bachelorette Party Murder in ReykjavikBooks 10-12 - Coming Soon!!

About the Author
Alderson, Jennifer S.: - Jennifer S. Alderson is the author of the Zelda Richardson Mystery series and Travel Can Be Murder Cozy Mysteries. She was born in San Francisco, raised in Seattle, and currently lives in Amsterdam. After traveling extensively around Asia, Oceania, and Central America, she moved to Darwin, Australia, before finally settling in the Netherlands. Her background in journalism, multimedia development, and art history enriches her novels. When not writing, she can be found in a museum, biking around Amsterdam, or enjoying a coffee along the canal while planning her next research trip.

There's a damsel in distress and accusations of attempted murder flying around, but it's not in the comfortable confines of the English countryside, it's in the very distant city of Damascus. Lennox must go and investigate, although he's not too keen on exotic locations, and his old retainer, Greggs is distinctly averse to the very idea.
Nevertheless, ex-Chief Inspector Swift persuades them and they reach the ancient city to discover a movie crew, a spy and a couple of mysterious ladies. Nobody seems to be telling the truth, they all have secrets, and there's one secret in particular that's drawn them like bees to the honeypot. But what is it? And then there's murder, and mysteries from the ancient past, and a handsome Sheik who remains in the shadows.
Heathcliff Lennox and Swift must investigate and use all their ingenuity to unravel the enigma that lies hidden in the dusty streets of ancient Damascus.
Major Heathcliff Lennox, ex-WW1 war pilot, six feet 3 inches, unruly dark blond hair, age around 30 - named after the hero of Wuthering Heights by his romantically minded mother - much to his great annoyance. Death in Damascus is the fourth book in the Lennox series.

Who knew a New Year's trip to Budapest could be so deadly? The tour must go on - even with a killer in their midst...

Recent divorcee Lana Hansen needs a break. Her luck has run sour for going on a decade, ever since she got fired from her favorite job as an investigative reporter. When her fresh start in Seattle doesn't work out as planned, Lana ends up unemployed and penniless on Christmas Eve.

Dotty Thompson, her landlord and the owner of Wanderlust Travels, is also in a tight spot after one of her tour guides ends up in the hospital, leaving her a guide short on Christmas Day.

When Dotty offers her a job leading the tour group through Budapest, Hungary, Lana jumps at the chance. It's the perfect way to ring in the new year and pay her rent

What starts off as the adventure of a lifetime quickly turns into a nightmare when Carl, her fellow tour guide, is found floating in the Danube River. Was it murder or accidental death? Suspects abound when Lana discovers almost everyone on the tour had a bone to pick with Carl.

But Dotty insists the tour must go on, so Lana finds herself trapped with nine murder suspects. When another guest turns up dead, Lana has to figure out who the murderer is before she too ends up floating in the Danube...

Introducing Lana Hansen, tour guide, reluctant amateur sleuth, and unwitting star of the Travel Can Be Murder Cozy Mystery Series. Join Lana as she leads tourists and readers to fascinating cities around the globe on intriguing adventures that, unfortunately for Lana, often turn deadly.

Book Two, Death by Baguette: A Valentine's Day Murder in Paris, and Book Three, Death by Windmill: A Mother's Day Murder in Amsterdam, are available now. Coming soon: Death by Bagpipes: A Summer Murder in Edinburgh, Book Four in the Travel Can Be Murder Cozy Mystery Series

About the Author
Alderson, Jennifer S.: - Jennifer S. Alderson was born in San Francisco, raised in Seattle, and currently lives in Amsterdam. After traveling extensively around Asia, Oceania, and Central America, she moved to Darwin, Australia, before finally settling in the Netherlands. When not writing, she can be found in a museum, biking around Amsterdam, or enjoying a coffee along the canal while planning her next research trip. Jennifer's love of travel, art, and culture inspires her award-winning Zelda Richardson Mystery series, her Travel Can Be Murder Cozy Mysteries, and her standalone stories. Visit Jennifer's website (www.jennifersalderson.com) to learn more about her books.

A single moment is about to change Sloane Monroe's life forever. On an early winter morning, college student Shelby McCoy walks the quiet, snowy path back home. A tree branch snaps in the distance. Then another. A man is there with her, following close behind, whispering her name. She looks back, sees him gaining on her, and runs. Who is this man, and why is he carrying a gun?

Third book in the New York Times bestselling Rose Gardner Investigations series. They say the road to hell is paved in good intentions, and Rose Gardner can't shake the notion she's headed there in a handbasket. She feels responsible for the death of a woman she tried-and failed-to save with her visions, and though she intends to do the "right" thing and tell James Malcolm she can't possibly accept his offer of a relationship, she hasn't yet mustered the strength. Worst of all, her sister is terminally ill, and there isn't a thing she can do to save her. When a new case falls into Rose's lap, she eagerly shifts her attention to someone else's problems-except it's Henryetta, and every person, and problem, is somehow connected. The case will bring her back into contact with James, whom she still hasn't answered, and force her to confront her past in other unexpected ways. Meanwhile, Rose and Neely Kate find themselves playing host to an unlikely house guest. Helping the stranger may require them to become more entangled with the crime world, something Rose knows she should avoid. She and Neely Kate have the very best of intentions, but are those intentions ushering them down a path they can't easily leave?

It's time for Carly to go home...

The final book in the Carly Moore series.

Carly had every intention of heading to Dallas to bring down her father, but not as Wyatt Drummond's hostage. After Wyatt kidnaps her at gunpoint and threatens to turn her over to her father-the man she's spent the past nine months hiding from-she explains that his plan will get them both killed. But then he has a surprising revelation she's not sure she should believe.

Marco Roland is devastated when he realizes his girlfriend has been kidnapped, and he'll do anything to save her. Even if it means crossing lines he never thought he'd breach.

And back in Drum, Tennessee, Max Drummond is forced to confront ugly truths about his family's past and present.

With the help of old friends, Carly must decide who can best help her confront her father with proof of his lies and deceptions. If she doesn't end up murdered first...

An adrenaline-fueled adventure set in the Netherlands, Croatia, Italy, and Turkey about stolen art, the mafia, and a father's vengeance.

When researcher Zelda Richardson begins working at a local museum, she doesn't expect to get entangled with an art theft, knocked unconscious by a forger, threatened by the mob, or stalked by drug dealers.

To make matters worse, a Croatian gangster is convinced Zelda knows where a cache of recently pilfered paintings is. She must track down an international gang of art thieves and recover the stolen artwork in order to save those she loves most.

The trouble is, Zelda doesn't know where to look. Teaming up with art detective Vincent de Graaf may be her only hope at salvation. The trail of clues leads Zelda and Vincent on a pulse-pounding race across Europe to a dramatic showdown in Turkey that may cost them their lives.

The novels in the Zelda Richardson Mystery Series are stand-alone stories that can be read in any order.

About the Author
Alderson, Jennifer S.: - Jennifer S. Alderson was born in San Francisco, raised in Seattle, and currently lives in Amsterdam. After traveling extensively around Asia, Oceania, and Central America, she moved to Darwin, Australia, before finally settling in the Netherlands. Jennifer's love of travel, art, and culture inspires her award-winning, internationally oriented mystery series-the Zelda Richardson Mystery Series-and standalone stories. Her background in journalism, multimedia development, and art history enriches her novels. When not writing, she can be found in a museum, biking around Amsterdam, or enjoying a coffee along the canal while planning her next research trip.

Book 1 in The Heathcliff Lennox series

It's 1920 and Christmas is coming. Major Lennox finds a body on his doorstep - why on his doorstep? Was it to do with the Countess? Was it about the ruby necklace? Lennox goes to Melrose Court home to his uncle, Lord Melrose, to uncover the mystery. But then the murders begin and it snows and it all becomes very complicated....

Major Heathcliff Lennox, ex-WW1 war pilot, six feet 3 inches, tousled, dark blond hair, age around 30 - named after the hero of Wuthering Heights by his romantically minded mother - much to his great annoyance. Murder at Melrose Court is the first book in the Lennox series.

About the Author
Menuhin, Karen Baugh: - "1920's, Cozy crime, Traditional Detectives, Downton Abbey - I love them! Along with my family, my friends, my dog, and my cat. At age 60 I decided to write. I don't know why but suddenly the stories came pouring out along with the characters. Eccentric uncles, stalwart butlers, idiosyncratic servants, machinating Countesses, Mr Fogg the dog, and the hapless Major Heathcliff Lennox at the center of it all. Suddenly a whole world built itself upon the page and I just followed along... I've lived an itinerate life, always on the move having grown up in the military. My two sons are Jonathan and Sam Baugh, married to Laura and Wendy respectively. Grandchildren are Scarlett, Hugo, Charlie, Joshua and Isabella Rose. We are infinitely fortunate in each other. My dear husband is Krov Menuhin, ex-US Special Forces, and documentary filmmaker. He is the eldest son of the violinist, Yehudi Menuhin."

“E.W. Cooper has written a fabulous mystery that will keep readers guessing until the end…For fans of a whodunnit set in historical New York, Murder at the Met will be right up their alley…This is an excellent addition to the Penelope Harris Mysteries, and it will be interesting to see where the series goes from here. A superbly fun story!”  —InD’tale Magazine 

"Another fabulous book by E.W. Cooper! High society secrets and a murder mystery—what could be more exciting!"  —NetGalley Reviewer 

NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 1928. No one can keep a secret like high society—especially when that secret is murder.

A month after her cousin’s headline-making party, Penelope Harris has tried to put the incident behind her. Focused, instead, on restarting her opera career, she is distracted only by the flirtations of handsome former policeman Thomas Lund. When two tickets ensure Penelope and Lund get some precious time together at the Metropolitan Opera, neither expects another murderous to interrupt their romantic evening.

Before their night at the Met is over, a failed manufacturing tycoon is found dead at the bottom of a staircase, his poisoned and dying daughter nearby. Was his death an accident, suicide, or murder?

After a fellow soprano pleads for help finding in out what happened, Penelope begins unraveling a diabolical crime, while Lund rushes to complete the investigation of a suicide on Long Island’s Gold Coast. What they both find will uncover the sordid underbelly of New York’s elite and put Penelope on the wrong side of her own gun.

"...delightful and engaging...readers will want to finish the mystery in a single sitting." —BookLife

Finley Blake thought a plum assignment in Tangier would be the perfect chance to grab some girl time with her sister, Whitt. But when a crew member from an action movie being filmed locally falls to his death, Whitt and Finley must put their heads together to figure out whether it was an accident—or murder.

During an assignment in Morocco, Finley Blake, a young travel writer still reeling from a painful breakup, and her sister, Whitt, are caught in a web of human trafficking and murder. They must decide whether to play it safe or help a handsome Interpol agent uncover the pieces of the puzzling mystery that will put the murderer behind bars.

Travel through the streets of Rabat, the alleyways of Tangier and the medina of Casablanca with these intrepid sleuths. This first in the series of Blake Sisters Travel Mysteries follows Whitt and Finley into the Kasbah for their meeting with death and a Tangier take-out.

Author Bio:

New author Carter Fielding is a millennial with an old soul. She likes old maps, old photographs, vintage records, and vintage champagnes. A Southerner, with roots in Anderson, S.C., she also likes a good mellow bourbon, a day that calls for wearing a barn jacket and wellies, and the smell of wet earth after a good rain. She started writing the Blake Sisters series during lockdown to tame a wanderlust that couldn't be satisfied by a trip to Harris Teeter and ended up building a relationship with the whole cast of characters that has taken on a life of its own.

She lives in Northern Virginia with her Boykin spaniel, Trucker, and uses her passion for books and travel to create characters she hopes readers will come to love.

Shop the Blake Sisters Travel Mystery series

2022 Readers’ Choice Book Awards Finalist - Best Adult Book

“This is a perfect novel for fans of cosy mysteries, women’s fiction, and travel fiction…. An excellent mystery, intertwined with a little romance, monkey business, and a travel adventure of a lifetime. A FINALIST and highly recommended.” —Readers’ Choice Book Awards

“The second Blake sisters adventure will satisfy readers with its tasty blend of travel, romance and mystery…. Great for fans of Jennifer S. Alderson’s Death on the Danube, Cynthia Baxter’s Murder Packs a Suitcase, and Marie Moore’s Shore Excursion.” —BookLife

Whitt and Finley Blake are heading to Sri Lanka, a place they have been before and couldn't wait to return to. But this trip, someone is killing off people wherever the sisters go. Is it a coincidence? Is someone after them like they were in Morocco? Or are they after someone the sisters know? Whitt and Finley need to find out, and quickly, before the body count gets any higher.

When Finley Blake, a young travel writer, gets a choice assignment to do a story in Sri Lanka, she snaps it up. Not only does it get her closer to Delhi, where Max, her former lover and 'new' boyfriend is working, but it also gives her some girl time with her sister, Whitt. She and Whitt had holidayed in Sri Lanka some years before and were enchanted by the picturesque countryside, the delectable food, and gracious people. But their idyllic vacation is interrupted by some strange monkey business and bodies that are hidden in the most unusual places.

Follow the Blake sisters as they trek from the elephant sanctuaries of central Sri Lanka to the tea plantations of the highlands to the game preserves of Yala, finding bodies wherever they go, in the second book of their Travel Mystery series, a tale of suspense and murder in the tea leaves.

Author Bio:

New author Carter Fielding is a millennial with an old soul. She likes old maps, old photographs, vintage records, and vintage champagnes. A Southerner, with roots in Anderson, S.C., she also likes a good mellow bourbon, a day that calls for wearing a barn jacket and wellies, and the smell of wet earth after a good rain. She started writing the Blake Sisters series during lockdown to tame a wanderlust that couldn't be satisfied by a trip to Harris Teeter and ended up building a relationship with the whole cast of characters that has taken on a life of its own.

She lives in Northern Virginia with her Boykin spaniel, Trucker, and uses her passion for books and travel to create characters she hopes readers will come to love.

Shop the Blake Sisters Travel Mystery series

“Fielding literally takes her readers on such descriptive journeys that you always feel like your right there.” —Reedsy Discovery

While working on a feature story on tribal arts in India, Finley and Whitt take a break and head to Jaipur with their significant others. A surprise visitor threatens to upend things for Finley and Max. But first, Finley must put aside her relationship woes to join her sister in finding out who is killing rich old ladies and scattering them around the hotel grounds.

Finley Blake is having the time of her life in Delhi. Not only is she working on a significant project, but she also gets to be with both her boyfriend, Max, who is based in Delhi, and her sister, Whitt, who is scouting micro-finance deals in India. When Logan Reynolds, a wealthy friend of Finley's from New York, shows up in Delhi and takes the crew to Jaipur, things head south for Max and Finley. As if that isn't enough, people start dying and wind up planted all over the hotel gardens. The sisters must pause their lives long enough to figure out who is targeting wealthy, bejeweled dowagers and not cleaning up after themselves.

Tour the iconic Pink City with these wily women in the third book of the Blake Sisters Travel Mystery series as they uncover a twisted scheme of murder and malice, gin and toxin.

Author Bio:

New author Carter Fielding is a millennial with an old soul. She likes old maps, old photographs, vintage records, and vintage champagnes. A Southerner, with roots in Anderson, S.C., she also likes a good mellow bourbon, a day that calls for wearing a barn jacket and wellies, and the smell of wet earth after a good rain. She started writing the Blake Sisters series during lockdown to tame a wanderlust that couldn't be satisfied by a trip to Harris Teeter and ended up building a relationship with the whole cast of characters that has taken on a life of its own.

She lives in Northern Virginia with her Boykin spaniel, Trucker, and uses her passion for books and travel to create characters she hopes readers will come to love.

Shop the Blake Sisters Travel Mystery series

A museum researcher must solve a decades-old mystery before she becomes the killer's next victim in this riveting dual timeline thriller set in Papua and the Netherlands.

Agats, Dutch New Guinea (Papua), 1961: While collecting Asmat artifacts for a New York museum, American anthropologist Nick Mayfield stumbles upon a smuggling ring organized by high-ranking members of the Dutch colonial government and the Catholic Church. Before he can alert the authorities, he vanishes in a mangrove swamp, never to be seen again.

Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 2018: While preparing for an exhibition of Asmat artifacts in a Dutch ethnographic museum, researcher Zelda Richardson finds Nick Mayfield's journal in a long-forgotten crate. Before Zelda can finish reading the journal, her housemate is brutally murdered and 'Give back what is not yours' is scrawled on their living room wall.

Someone wants ancient history to stay that way--and believes murder is the surest way to keep the past buried. Can she solve a sixty-year-old mystery before decades of deceit, greed, and retribution cost Zelda her life?

• Awarded a B.R.A.G. Medallion by indieBRAG's readers in December 2018
• One of Amy's Bookshelf Reviews' Top 20 Books of 2018
• Winner of a Chill with a Book Readers' Award, June 2018
• A Women Writers, Women's Books magazine's Recommended Reads for March 2018
• New Apple's 2018 Summer Book Awards, Official Selection Mystery/Thriller category
• BookLife Prize for Fiction 2018, Mystery/Thriller category, rating 8.50

Art, religion, and history collide in this edge-of-your-seat museum thriller, Book Two of the Zelda Richardson Mystery Series. The novels in this series can be read in any order.

About the Author
Alderson, Jennifer S.: - Jennifer S. Alderson was born in San Francisco, raised in Seattle, and currently lives in Amsterdam. Before settling in the Netherlands, she traveled extensively around Asia, Oceania, Australia, and Central America. Her love of travel, art, and culture inspires her award-winning Zelda Richardson Mystery Series. Her background in journalism, multimedia development, and art history enriches her novels. When not writing, she can be found in a museum, biking around Amsterdam, or enjoying a coffee along the canal while planning her next research trip.

“In this timely thriller, Beaumont demonstrates a perfected art of suspense.” —Publisher’s Weekly BookLife Prize Semifinalist

How well do you know those closest to you?

Jessica McDonald appears to have it all: a successful London banking career, a happy marriage, and good friends.

Then a terrorist bombing rocks London in the wake of the Brexit referendum.

She narrowly escapes injury and tends to others wounded at the scene, too shocked to process what has happened. Lacking support from her husband in the aftermath, she turns to her new work colleague Will Johnston for comfort, setting her personal and professional lives on a collision course with unforeseen and explosive consequences.

Jessica barely has time to recover before another tragedy hits: her beloved father suddenly dies of a heart attack in Edinburgh, and she rushes to her mother's side to comfort her.

Waiting for Jessica in her father's personal effects are instructions in code and the key to a safety deposit box. As she follows the clues her father left behind, Jessica uncovers secrets that will upend the foundations of her life--and put her in grave danger.

Forced from her home and job, Jessica flees to the Scottish coast where she tries to piece together a terrifying conspiracy that has personal and global implications.

Can she stop events that could topple the political establishment of the country? Or will terror succeed?

 

Book 2 in The Heathcliff Lennox series

Who killed Sir Crispin Gibbons? A wedding invitation and news of mischief that could be murder, takes Lennox to the Earl of Bloxford's country pile. He soon finds himself in a world of purloined artworks, forgeries and a priceless Bloxford Beauty. But who are the Bloxford Beauties? And why are they the focal point around which swirls death?

Lennox must confront life-long friends, unscrupulous artists and dealers to finally unravel a plot so complex that even his old adversary, Chief Inspector Swift of Scotland Yard, is befuddled.

Major Heathcliff Lennox, ex-WW1 war pilot, six feet 3 inches, tousled, dark blond hair, age around 30 - named after the hero of Wuthering Heights by his romantically minded mother - much to his great annoyance.

Book 3 in the Heathcliff Lennox series

Halloween 1921. A castle on a rock in a lonely Scottish loch, Braeburn has been crumbling for centuries. Someone tries to remedy the rot but uncovers a skeleton behind a wall. It wears a crown upon its skull and hides a curse within its bones. Is it the ancient King of the Isles? Or is it Black Dougal? And why is it surrounded by mystery?

As ghosts are heard and treasure seekers arrive, the Braeburn's call Major Heathcliff Lennox. He travels to the Highlands to help his old friends, taking his dog, his butler and his small cat. 
Major Heathcliff Lennox, ex-WW1 war pilot, 6 feet 3 inches, tousled, dark blond hair, age around 30 - named after the hero of Wuthering Heights by his romantically minded mother - much to his great annoyance.

"The intricate plot is ingeniously executed so that all pieces of the puzzle fit together in the end. The prose is top notch...distinctively original structure..." —The BookLife Prize 

ASSASSINATED: The crusading politician who saved hundreds of San Francisco homes from the bulldozers of a big developer.

ACCUSED: A mysterious young loner who speaks his own unique dialect of English and refuses to answer questions.

UNEXPECTED: A woman who will risk her promising future for a man without a past.

When teacher-turned-deckhand Steve Ondelle is framed for the killing of a San Francisco Supervisor, he tumbles into a world of billion-dollar deals and bizarre sexual adventures, a world where hard evidence depicts him as a misfit who turns to murder.

From the piers of Sausalito to the penthouses of San Francisco, Steve searches for answers, with unlikely allies like Leonard the Human Statue, Eli of the Coral Reef, The Prophet of Market Street...and Liam the Fog Seller.

More Reviews & Awards:

"Compelling, mysterious, tender and moving, The Fog Seller adds layers of psychological and emotional depth to what would be, on its own, an intriguing mystery story. The author's web of story is deftly woven, unveiling the protagonist's hidden depths along with the mystery, while a host of quirky, lively, vivid minor characters add color to the scene. Beautifully written, a loving ode to San Francisco and the oddballs that make it the marvelous city it is, The Fog Seller will charm the mind and warm the heart." —IndieReader

Author Bio:

Don Daglow is the Emmy® Award winning creator of Neverwinter Nights™, which ran for six years on AOL. His novel The Fog Seller has won multiple major independent book awards for fiction, and his non-fiction From Dream to Delivery books are also multiple award-winners. Don's family has lived in San Francisco and Marin for five generations, and were survivors of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire who camped out in Golden Gate Park after their home was destroyed. His passion for this unique setting shines through in The Fog Seller, which even long-time locals have described as introducing them to new places in the area. He works near the Sausalito Ferry, and he and his wife Marta have lived in three different Sausalito neighborhoods.

A mysterious, emotional women's fiction, perfect for fans of Peyton Place.

Annette Best is losing her grip. First went her business, then her house. Now, she's on the brink of losing her marriage, too.

But the forty-something realtor has one thing going for her: girl friends. The women of Apple Hill Lane show up on moving day, ready to help Annette kiss her old life goodbye... until an eerie discovery turns up in her very own backyard.

Suddenly, Annette finds herself at the center of a small-town scandal and in danger of risking the biggest sale of her career. Others on Apple Hill Lane have been down this road--but not Annette Best. After all, she is the Best on the Block.

There's a chance Annette can keep her secrets--and those of Harbor Hills--buried. But only if her neighbors are willing to share the burden of protecting a local, decades-old mystery.

Can Beverly, Quinn, Annette, and Judith make sense of the past? Or will the women get caught up in the gossip of the present?

- - -

Romance, secrets and mystery, family ties and female friendships abound in this heartwarming saga about four women who find friendship right next door.

These stories are best enjoyed in chronological order as follows:

The House on Apple Hill Lane

The House with the Blue Front Door

The House Around the Corner

The House that Christmas Made

A portrait holds the key to recovering a cache of looted artwork, secreted away during World War II, in this captivating historical art thriller set in the 1940s and present-day Amsterdam.

When a Dutch art dealer hides the stock from his gallery - rather than turn it over to his Nazi blackmailer - he pays with his life, leaving a treasure trove of modern masterpieces buried somewhere in Amsterdam, presumably lost forever. That is, until American art history student Zelda Richardson sticks her nose in.

After studying for a year in the Netherlands, Zelda scores an internship at the prestigious Amsterdam Historical Museum, where she works on an exhibition of paintings and sculptures once stolen by the Nazis, lying unclaimed in Dutch museum depots almost seventy years later. When two women claim the same painting, the portrait of a young girl entitled Irises, Zelda is tasked with investigating the painting's history and soon finds evidence that one of the two women must be lying about her past. Before she can figure out which one it is and why, Zelda learns about the Dutch art dealer's concealed collection. And that Irises is the key to finding it all.

Her discoveries make her a target of someone willing to steal - and even kill - to find the missing paintings. As the list of suspects grows, Zelda realizes she has to track down the lost collection and unmask a killer if she wants to survive.

About the Author
Alderson, Jennifer S.: - Jennifer S. Alderson was born in San Francisco, raised in Seattle, and currently lives in Amsterdam. Before settling in the Netherlands, she traveled extensively around Asia, Oceania, Australia, and Central America. Her love of travel, art, and culture inspires her award-winning Zelda Richardson Mystery Series. Her background in journalism, multimedia development, and art history enriches her novels. When not writing, she can be found in a museum, biking around Amsterdam, or enjoying a coffee along the canal while planning her next research trip.

Smart. Savvy. Retired. Bored.

The members of The Martini Club include a former CIA operative, a one-time Washington ad man, an ex-journalist, a retired brothel owner, an ex-airline pilot, and a non-practicing rabbi. This eclectic group assembles once a month to drink gin martinis, debate great issues and tell stories that may or may not be true. When an enigmatic financier offers them a chance to get “back in the game” and turn one-million dollars into untold riches, the retirees jump at the opportunity. But their plans are quickly stymied by the suspicious death of a local landowner, forcing The Martini Club to sober up and investigate potentially deadly hidden agendas. 

SCROLL FOR SAMPLE!

Author Bio:
Alan Eysen wrote for many years about real-world financial and political corruption. At Newsday, he served as a prominent member of the investigative team that won the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for exposing misconduct involving Long Island public officials. After more than thirty years in journalism, he became a political consultant and experienced the other side of the story. Today, Eysen resides in the lowcountry of South Carolina, where he continues to write and be inspired by the colorful characters and harrowing situations he experienced firsthand as a reporter. He can often be found crafting his strong fictional characters with the help of an equally strong dry gin martini.

Book Excerpt:
Chapter 1: Flying
Jay Corrigan flew lazy circles over the Parrot’s Caw subdivision. The sky was azure blue; the golf course below a winding strip of brilliant green. This was the time the retired airline pilot had been waiting for—no schedules, no responsibilities, just the pure joy of making lazy circles in the sky.
The tiny two-seat Cessna 152 responded instantly to Corrigan’s touch. He was hands-on flying in this little high winged bird. He and the plane were one body linked by touch. Corrigan no longer was managing a computer-driven commercial plane, responsible for hundreds of passengers. He was just having fun.
Oops, he thought, remembering he did have one responsibility today. He had promised the Parrot’s Caw Property Owners Association that he would take photographs of the fifteen-hundred-acre development, with its thirty miles of roads and drains, its seventy-five drainage ponds, its twenty-plus miles of walking and biking trails, and many acres of carefully trimmed flowers, bushes and trees. The association board had requested the photos as part of its preparation for negotiations with the property’s developer.
Yet he hesitated.
Instead of shooting photos, he climbed to thirty-five hundred feet to get a more panoramic view of the area. There was Parrot’s Caw, a complex of more than two thousand homes, town homes and condominiums. Its residents were upper middle class, mostly a mixture of successful businessmen and professionals—doctors, lawyers, accountants and engineers. Of course, he had met some offbeat souls, retired college professors, an ex-CIA operative, even a former journalist. Good folks to drink with.
The neighborhood’s manicured lawns, landscaped gardens and rolling golf course painted a sharp contrast to what Corrigan saw when he looked to the southeast. There, he spotted a distinctly different neighborhood. It was made up mostly of rundown shanties and mobile homes sitting on concrete blocks. Poor blacks lived there. He could make out several of them riding bikes on the slender, two-lane roads—not for the exercise, he thought, but because they can’t afford cars.
To the south lay the city of Stuarton, known to many as The Miracle City because the colonial seaport town had survived a British siege and blockade during the Revolutionary War by trickery as much as grim de­termination. Its militiamen intermixed real and artificial cannons on their ramparts to give a more formidable appearance and poked numerous unmanned rifles out of windows and over parapets to further the impression of a greater number of defenders. Some of their dead were propped up behind these weapons to add authenticity. After weeks of bombardment, the British fleet withdrew rather than test Stuarton’s defenses further by landing troops.
Today, Stuarton residents were largely middle class, earning their living from small businesses that catered either to the tourist trade or the sale of farm products. A small section was filled with venerable mansions, some still occupied by the heirs of their original builders. Most of these architectural jewels, however, were now in the hands of successful entrepreneurs and celebrities who enjoyed a certain anonymity among Stuarton’s polite, look-the-other-way citizenry.
Flying in a slow turn to the north, Corrigan was able to peer out his window far to the west. There he saw miles of farms and small ranches. Damn, he thought, I think I see some cattle and real cowboys down there. Now it’s time to play. With that, he pushed the throttle in to full power and pulled the control wheel into his gut. The Cessna’s engine roared as its nose pointed straight up to the sky. For a tantalizing moment, the plane remained motionless, stalled, as if hung on an invisible string. Then, its left wing dropped precipitously, and the plane began to spin— slowly at first, then more rapidly. It looked to Corrigan as if the earth, not the plane, was spinning more and more rapidly as it rose up toward him. He laughed, shoved the control wheel forward, leveled the wings, pressed hard on the right rudder and reduced power. As the spin stopped, he eased off the right rudder and gently pulled back on the control wheel, putting the plane back in level flight. Fun’s over. The altimeter indicated he had lost 150 feet.
He turned back to the southeast toward Parrot’s Caw and began a slow descent. He reached for his camera, an old German Leica, banked the plane over to a for­ty-five-degree angle, and began shooting. By the time he tied down the little rental plane, he was ready for a drink. Where the hell are Brady, Smyth and Ginsberg when you need them?
Chapter 2: In the Beginning
Many of Brody Brady’s personal daily rituals were the result of his creative imagination. There was, for example, his Tuesday and Thursday walking schedule. On those two days, Brady wore a towel around his neck and a headband that said FEDERER. He would start his walks at precisely 10:00 a.m., which allowed him to reach his halfway point, the development’s tennis courts, a half hour later. This coincided with the conclusion of the regular women’s doubles tennis matches. Brady would offer his towel to any attractive lady who seemed in need of such assistance. Soon the players expected Brady to arrive, and some struck up an acquaintance with “that charming man.”
On Wednesdays, Brady would borrow his neighbor’s Yorkshire Terrier for a walk. He had learned that women were attracted to small, fluffy dogs. Though the Yorkie was a male named Brute, on their walks Brady called him Lover Girl. A heavy coat of hair concealed the distinguishing male member until the dog was picked up to be cuddled. This made for lengthy conversations with women concerning male and female anatomy. After each walk, Brady returned the dog promptly to its owner, borrowing it off schedule only if a Yorkie-loving woman decided to pay him a personal visit.
Mondays and Fridays were set aside for what Brady called “conversation walks,” strolls with a special group of men more or less his age. He was seventy-eight. All the men invited on these walks were bright, well educated, mostly retired, and above all interesting. They also shared a kindred taste for martinis.
The Brady walkers, as they began calling themselves, met at the entrance to the Parrot’s Caw Clubhouse, an English Tudor structure that fed and lubricated golfers, pinochle players and those interested in spending a day away from their spouses. It was after one such conversation walk that The Martini Club was born. To say it was formally created would be an overstatement. Best to say it simply evolved from a discussion between Brady and Nathan Ginsberg on the merits of drinking, and their inability to do so while walking.
Ginsberg was slightly younger than Brady, and could discuss anything from philosophy to baseball scores with wit and wisdom. He was tall, nearly as tall as Brady. Unlike Brady, though, Ginsberg was broad shouldered and muscular with a perpetual three days growth of beard. He could have passed for one of those mature male mod­els featured in erectile dysfunction commercials.
“What I admire about you, Nathan,” Brady said, “is that you can hold your liquor so well. In my ethnic persuasion, that would be considered a badge of honor. In yours, probably not so much.”
“True, especially since I am a rabbi.”
“A rabbi?” Brady responded in disbelief. “During my days in Washington, I ran into lots of Jews who could drink with the best, but none of them was a rabbi.”
“A heavy drinking Jew is the quintessential assim­ilationist. If he can drink like a goy, he can pass for a goy, so deep is the Jewish inferiority complex,” Ginsberg replied. “But passing for a goy doesn’t work well in the rabbi business. Congregations want rabbis not only to be Jewish, but to look Jewish and smell Jewish. That means, horseradish on your breath…yes; liquor on your breath… no. Fortunately, I am retired. I took up drinking after my working years. All that being said, there is precedence for having a drunken leader in the Bible.”
“Is this going to be a sermon on the virtues of drinking?” Brady asked in expectation of some witty Talmudic offering. “Being of Irish heritage and having labored in some of the best bars in D.C., I can say I need no conversion.”
“In your case, no conversion, just a little Jewish perspective,” Ginsberg responded. “I think you already understand the sins and virtues of alcohol. In Genesis, God decides he doesn’t like the life He has created on earth with Adam and Eve, so He tries again. He floods the world, and drowns everybody except for one righteous man, his family and a bunch of animals—there is some dispute as to their number—but in the end, all are saved, and life begins again on this lonely planet.”
“Touching. So what’s the point?”
“The point is this: the one righteous man He picks to lead the little band of start-overs is a vintner named Noah. Immediately after he finds dry land, what does Noah do?”
“I know.” Brady responded with a wink. “He lets all those creatures off the ark to go copulate.”
“My question was rhetorical, smart guy. The Bible says, ‘And Noah, the farmer, began and planted a vineyard. And he drank of the wine and was drunken.’ Things get a little sloppy after that, but Noah lived nine hundred and fifty years and started a whole line of descendants, including you and me. My point is that if it weren’t for a drunken pre-Jew, none of us would be here.”
“Hallelujah,” replied Brady. “And that explains why Jesus turned water into wine. He just wanted to keep the party going.”
Before Ginsberg could reply, Gerald Smyth joined them with a healthy clap on both their backs. “So boys, what are we going to argue about today?”
It was then that Brady had an epiphany. “The three of us love to drink martinis, tell wild stories and argue about everything from politics to women. Why don’t we meet at each other’s homes instead of on the street, so we can imbibe while we altercate? The host will supply the martinis and some food. We can call it The Martini Club. Each of us can bring in an additional member as long as he is a kindred spirit.”
“There must be only one rule,” Ginsberg responded, “that there are no rules, no passwords, no secret handshakes or special number cards with our faces on them, nothing that will bring order out of the chaos we are seeking.”
“Agreed,” Smyth said.
“Whoa,” Brady objected. “You have suggested a rule that cannot be put in place unless there are rules for voting a rule in or out of place. Without such formative rules, there can be no way to adopt primal rules for barring rules.”
“I would suggest that does not have to be the case,” Ginsberg countered. “The religious and scientific laws that govern us did not require an a priori mechanism to put them in place. These laws are givens. They are inherent to the universe, like gravity and magnetism. God made them all out of nothing, a void.”
“Are you, rabbi, suggesting that God created gravity and magnetism?” asked Brady.
“Yes, exactly. Science can’t explain what set this all in motion. I am suggesting that God is our convenient name for the universality that put all these laws in place without benefit of outside jurisdiction or requirement of a majority vote. When Moses stood before the burning bush and asked God his name, God answered, ‘I am what I am,’ or as the Greeks translated it ‘I will be what I will be.’ How much more universal can you get? How can that be challenged?”
Smyth raised a large, hard hand, silencing the de­baters. “Enough,” he cried. “It is clear we are standing atop Mount Sinai at this very moment—though there isn’t a hill in sight—and we have just received revealed truth. The Martini Club has been called forth as a revelation. The first meeting will be held at my place within the week.”
The Martini Club was born and grew to ten mem­bers, each bringing a special personality and branch of knowledge to the assemblage—the theater arts and fine arts, politics, business, aviation, journalism, espionage, sex and psychology.
Chapter 3: Brody Brady
Sam Grieger’s first encounter with the manipulations of Brody Brady came as he was unpacking boxes and placing items where his wife Sheila had dictated—dishes in the cabinets near the refrigerator, toaster oven on the counter near the coffee maker, automatic can opener to be screwed into the base of the cabinet overhanging the dishwasher. If I let my mind go blank, he thought, I won’t remember that I failed shop in high school and that my teacher called me tool disadvantaged. I have twisted myself like a circus contortionist into the twenty-two inches between the dishwasher and the overhanging cabinet and am trying to rotate screws into remarkably hard wood.
Someone began aggressively banging on the front door.
“Who is it?” Grieger called.
“Your neighbor, Brody Brady. It’s an emergency.”
“Hold on a minute.”
“I don’t have a minute. It’s an emergency.”
“What’s the emergency?”
“I’m bleeding.”
“Hold on.” Grieger untwisted himself carefully off the dishwasher, mindful that his skull could be penetrated at any moment by partially driven steel screws.
He opened the door to see Brody Brady looking like a gaunt parody of the Statue of Liberty, right hand held high, wrapped in a towel sodden with blood. As a retired newspaper reporter, Grieger had seen his fill of bloody bodies, but Brody Brady looked different. Probably because he’s still alive. “I’ll call 911.”
“No time for 911,” Brady replied. “Do you have some large bandages?”
“Yes, somewhere in one of these boxes,” Grieger answered, pointing at a hallway filled with half-opened boxes. “My wife would know where, but she isn’t home.”
“Then you will have to do. Start going through the boxes,” Brady commanded.
Grieger began rummaging through them without success. He looked up to see Brady dripping blood. “You are bleeding on my boxes and on my new parquet floor,” Grieger shouted.
“I don’t want to bleed on your boxes and floor, so get me some bandages quickly,” Brady snapped back.
In desperation, Grieger grabbed Brady by his blood tipped arm and rushed him to the kitchen sink. At least now he won’t bleed to death on my new floor. He pulled away the blood soaked towel revealing a gash that ran from Brady’s middle finger, across his palm nearly up to his wrist. “This needs stitches. A bandage won’t do it,” Grieger said, trying to feign compassion.
Grieger recalled the cops slipping on plastic gloves and booties before touching the victims of mob hits. What if this guy has AIDs or hepatitis? Am I going to die from a horrible disease I haven’t even derived in some perverse pleasure? Aloud, he said, “Why don’t you go to the emergency room? There’s a hospital nearby. I’ll drive you.”
“I can’t go,” Brady replied. “See the 18-wheeler down at the end of the block. It’s full of my stuff. They’re unloading it into my place right now. I have to tell them where to put things.”
“I still think you should go to the emergency room. Just let them dump the furniture wherever. My wife will be home soon, and I’ll tell her to tell the movers where to put things. She knows that sort of stuff. She puts things in all the right places. Her mother taught her.”
“She doesn’t know where I want to put my things, nor does her mother,” Brady responded, agitation creeping into his voice.
“Sheila has great instincts about that kind of stuff,” Grieger replied knowingly. “It’s in women’s genes. When we lived in caves, they put all the rocks in all the right places. That’s how we learned to sit down. By the time we come back from the emergency room everything will be right where it should be.”
“No,” Brady replied resolutely. “I will stay with my furniture to the end, even if I bleed to death and it’s your fault.”
Grieger realized his situation was hopeless. Brady was prepared to die just to make sure his furniture was properly placed, and would blame him with his dying breaths. He rushed to the closet and grabbed a large beach towel emblazoned with the image of a very large crab. He twisted it around Brady’s wound and secured it with several turns of packing tape. The flow of blood was slowed but not stopped.
“You are still bleeding,” Grieger said hopelessly.
“I take Coumadin. It’s a blood thinner. You see, I have a bad heart,” Brady explained like some patient teacher. “It’s very hard to stop the bleeding.”
“I think we should go to the emergency room,” Grieger answered.
“I’m already scheduled to go in tomorrow for some minor heart surgery. I’ll have them stitch up my hand at the same time, a kind of two for one,” Brady countered, smiling.
“Heart surgery tomorrow?” Grieger questioned, no longer surprised at his neighbor’s answers. “I don’t think they combine such things.”
“I’ll talk to them,” Brady said confidently. “I can be quite persuasive. Besides, I have Medicare. It’s all covered.”
Grieger knew Brady had won. It was time to soldier on. Grieger marched him to the door. “Keep your arm elevated. As soon as my wife gets back we’ll find some real bandages and bring them over to your place,” he said. “By the way, how’d you get this cut?”
“They were bringing in a case of my very good wine, and they dropped it. I reached inside the case to check the damage and was stabbed by a bottle of Argentine Malbec,” Brady replied with a grin.
“What a waste of good wine,” Grieger sympathized, smiling back.
“I knew I’d like you,” Brady answered as he left, towel and hand held high.
And thus their friendship began. 
Chapter 4: The Chant
 The next time Sam Grieger saw Brody Brady was at the get-to-know you meeting of the newly formed Parrot’s Caw Condominium Owners Association, or PCCOWA, as it came to be known. The event was held in an all-purpose ballroom at the development’s central building, quaintly called The Domain. The ballroom itself was named The Dunk since it also served as a basketball court. The backboards were pulled up on this occasion, serving as anchors for the strings attached to large red, white and blue balloons that caromed off the coffee-colored ceiling. Periodically, they would snag on the folded hoops and make gaseous sounds as they pulled free. Their flat­ulence was overwhelmed now by the powerful voice of Chris Bideau, the property manager and developer’s son.
“I personally want to thank each of you for being the first settlers in a row of unique condominium structures that RB&S Homes hopes to fill with comfortable retirees from the north, just like yourselves.” Recalling his reli­gious education at Goodness of God College, he added, “You are on the frontier of the Promised Land. Thanks to RB&S Homes, you have at long last escaped the cold, the shoveling of snow, the driving on ice, the wearing of heavy winter coats, the chill of icy winds and the huge heating bills…and you deserve it.” Mixing his biblical ge­ography, Bideau went on to proclaim, “You are no longer East of Eden. You are in Eden. Amen, brothers and sisters!”
His audience responded to his revival meeting oratory with polite applause, but not a single Hallelujah.
Unshaken, Chris Bideau switched to a more down-to-earth approach. “Each table has bottles of wine and delicious chocolate chip cookies. And there is more to come. We have chicken wings waiting in the kitchen oven and ice cream in the freezer.”
Warming more to his master of ceremonies role, he added, “But before we get to the eating and drinking, RB&S Homes is going to treat you to something really special. We have created a Parrot’s Caw chant,” he shouted. “Chant it with me. It goes this way: PEE-SEE-SEE-OH-WHO-WAWA. The P not only stands for Parrot. It stands for perfect,” he yelled into a crackling microphone. “Remember, accent on the first PEE and the WHO.” He began rocking and rhythmically shouting:

A scantily dressed female, clearly wearing little or no underwear, jumped on the stage next to Bideau and began wiggling her bottom and waving pom-poms. She was slender, bosomy and pretty, but clearly years beyond her high-school cheerleading days.
“PEE-SEE-SEE-OH-WHO-WA-WA,” she cheered. “C’mon, folks,” she cried out. “Let’s all join in.”
Her low-cut top and mini skirt had awakened interest among the male condo owners. “Not since my high-school basketball days have I seen a wiggle like that,” shouted a recently retired Wall Street lawyer sitting close to the stage. “But I left the cheering to the cheerleaders. I just tried to score—one way or the other.” His remarks drew a round of applause and whistles from the men in the audience. His wife whacked his arm with her handbag.
Nobody joined in the chant. The pom-pom girl stopped wiggling.
“Ah, c’mon folks,” a frustrated Chris Bideau pleaded into the microphone. “We’re all on the same team here. We should have a cheer. We’ve got to have a cheer.”
“We’d rather have the chicken wings,” someone yelled from the back of the room.
Then Brody Brady jumped up. “In the meantime, why don’t you let the young lady play some music and do some singing. I understand she’s a got a great voice.”
“Okay, okay,” Chris Bideau responded, getting Brady’s message. “RB&S Homes wants you to have a good time tonight.” He signaled for the waiters to start bringing out the chicken wings. Turning to the pom-pom girl, he announced, “Get your other equipment on the stage, honey. It’s time for you to entertain us.” The girl quickly put two turntables, an amplifier and two speakers on the stage.
Bideau was about to hand her the microphone when a big man with a heavy beard walked in and shouted, “Hold it! She don’t sing. She don’t play music. She don’t strip. And she don’t wiggle, unless I say so. And I ain’t said so, so I’m taking her home.”
“Who are you?” Bideau asked.
“I’m her manager, her boss and her pimp,” the big man said as he walked passed tables of gawking condo owners on his way to the stage.
“What the hell is going on, Brody?” Chris asked. “I thought you paid her.”
“I did,” Brady answered from his seat only a few feet away. Some heads turned toward him with curiosity, but most remained fixated on the big man in the T-shirt, leather vest and large tattooed arms as he headed toward the girl.
“Just a moment, sir,” Bideau said as he stepped between the two. “If this is about money, we can straighten this out.”
The big man stopped and looked at Chris, who at six feet four inches stood two inches taller than the big man and at two hundred and forty pounds was twenty pounds heavier.
“This ain’t about money. The broad tried to go into business on her own. She needs to be taught a lesson,” he said. He attempted to move around Bideau, but Bideau moved with him.
“Out of my way before I bust your skull,” the big man said, pulling out a sharpened steel rod from a side pocket in his leather pants. Within seconds, Bideau smashed his knee into the thug’s groin. As the big man doubled over, Bideau brought his right fist down on the back of his head, seized his right wrist in an iron grip and spun him around. The steel rod went flying. The bearded man screamed as his shoulder snapped, and he collapsed in a moaning heap on the floor. This would be the last thing the big man remembered before waking up in the Stuarton Hospital emergency room.
Bideau seized the microphone. “This is all some kind of misunderstanding, folks. Just stay seated and we’ll go on with the evening. We still have ice cream sundaes coming.” The image of sundaes didn’t change the mood. The condo owners were streaming toward the doors.
The pom-pom girl was packing her equipment hastily and crying. “He’ll kill me!”
“If he comes near you, tell him he’ll answer to me,” Bideau responded.
He saw Brody Brady leaving with the crowd. “Brady, we have to talk, now!”
Brady stopped and turned to face Bideau, who was stepping over the big man.
“You sold me on the chant. You sold me on the girl. You sold me on the night, Mr. Public Relations Man. And look what’s happened. The condo owners are fleeing; some pimp tried to kill me, and I have to explain all this not only to the cops but also to my dad. I’m also out the five hundred bucks I paid you for your ideas and another two hundred and fifty for the cheerleader.”
“They would have come around to chant after a few more glasses of wine and some dancing,” Brady replied in a reassuring voice. As for the girl, I met her at a strip club downtown. She was pole dancing, playing music and singing. Seemed very talented, so I set her up with you. I didn’t know we were supposed to go through her manager. You’d better call 911,” Brady added as he headed for the door before Bideau decided to put him next to the big man.

 

“Another winner from Alan Eysen. If you like interesting characters, all with their own stories, this second novel in the Martini Club series is for you." —Beverly Lawn, Author, Poet and English Professor Emerita Adelphi University

There they go again—a couple of them getting shot at—this time while flying over a dead-beat farm they were conned into buying for a million dollars. Smart, savvy, retired and bored, the Martini Club guys go looking for a little adventure and a bunch of their money back. What possibly could be valuable enough down there for somebody to shoot at them? The answer will take The Martini Club on a wild ride through space and time. But will they solve the mystery before someone gets killed?

Author Bio:
Alan Eysen wrote for many years about real-world financial and political corruption. At Newsday, he served as a prominent member of the investigative team that won the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for exposing misconduct involving Long Island public officials. After more than thirty years in journalism, he became a political consultant and experienced the other side of the story. Today, Eysen resides in the lowcountry of South Carolina, where he continues to write and be inspired by the colorful characters and harrowing situations he experienced firsthand as a reporter. He can often be found crafting his strong fictional characters with the help of an equally strong dry gin martini.

 

"Comic and suspenseful, The Trouble with Truffles is the third novel in Alan Eysen's Martini Club Mystery series. This time the lure is 100 acres of perfect white truffles. Irresistible." —Beverly Lawn, Author, Poet and English Professor at Emerita Adelphi University

The Martini Clubbers are at it again, seeking adventure as well as money. This time, both come knocking in the form of a beautiful woman who says she represents a company that can make them a fortune in white truffle production, if it is allowed to experiment on a farm owned by the Club. After all, white truffles sell for $4,000 a pound. The members go for it. The notoriously difficult to cultivate white truffle is suddenly easily available, which brings an unexpected problem.

Author Bio:
Alan Eysen wrote for many years about real-world financial and political corruption. At Newsday, he served as a prominent member of the investigative team that won the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for exposing misconduct involving Long Island public officials. After more than thirty years in journalism, he became a political consultant and experienced the other side of the story. Today, Eysen resides in the lowcountry of South Carolina, where he continues to write and be inspired by the colorful characters and harrowing situations he experienced firsthand as a reporter. He can often be found crafting his strong fictional characters with the help of an equally strong dry gin martini.

 

A 1920s Murder Mystery in the depths of rural Yorkshire

A scoundrel lies dying, he makes his confession; his sins were despicable and he wants to atone for his wasted life. He bequeaths an invaluable gift to Monks Hood Abbey, an ancient monastery set in a lonely corner of the Yorkshire moors.

But sin throws a long shadow and corruption crawls in its shade. Strangers come forward and lay claim to the monks' inheritance.

The Abbot calls on Major Heathcliff Lennox and ex-Chief Inspector Swift to ask for their help. They must go to Yorkshire to unravel the mayhem - but then there's mystery, and murder, and another adventure begins.

Major Heathcliff Lennox, ex-WW1 war pilot, six feet 3 inches, unruly dark blond hair, age around 30 - named after the hero of Wuthering Heights by his romantically minded mother - much to his great annoyance.

The Monks Hood Murders is the fifth book in the Lennox series.

Murder, mystery and a dog of distinction. Heathcliff Lennox investigates.

A suspicious accident, a dead man's gun and a lost tomb. Strange events disturb the peace of Lanscombe Park, the magnificent country seat of Lord Godolphin Sinclair.

Adventurer, gold prospector and arms dealer, Sinclair has spent a lifetime amassing a fortune with ruthless determination. He's a man frightened of nothing, until he receives a package from the distant past. Someone knows his secrets, they kill, and then they kill again. A game of cat and mouse is afoot, Major Heathcliff Lennox and ex Inspector Swift are called to Lanscombe Park to investigate.

Henry has hit rock bottom. A fifty-year old mystery could save him - or finish him off.

Henry Lysyk's life is a mess.

With his marriage over and his accounting career marred by scandal, he retreats to the anonymity of a rented suite in a house shared with strangers. But the trail of a decades-old crime leads a murderous treasure hunter to his doorstep, and Henry is baffled by his neighbors' cover-up.

An unexpected visit from his adventure-hungry niece, Frieda, further complicates Henry's efforts to lay low. With his houseguest refusing to stay away from the danger, Henry's terrified they're about to expose secrets someone would kill to protect. Not knowing who to trust, they must choose which parts of the past to uncover, and which to leave buried.

A real-life ransom, a shadowy past, unlikely allies, and ruthless murder. Can Henry unravel this cold case before he and Frieda become its next victims?

Crossing fiction with a dash of true crime, Windfall: A Henry Lysyk Mystery is Byron TD Smith's clever "What if..." solution to the most captivating unsolved heist of the twentieth century.

About the Author
Smith, Byron Td: - Byron TD Smith lives on Vancouver Island. He writes mysteries when he isn't accounting, motorcycling, or rambling in the coastal forest. He loves the smell of old books and coffee, and the sound of new wave music from 1987. The location of his secret underwater base remains undiscovered to this day. Windfall: A Henry Lysyk Mystery is his debut novel.