Thursday, June 23, 2016

The Sophie Kimball mysteries will continue with two new cozies.

Expect news of their release dates once Booked 4 Murder hits the shelves!


Synopsis: Ditched 4 Murder 

      Bookkeeper Sophie (Phee) Kimball never expected to be solving murders in Sun City West, Arizona, when she agreed to temporarily leave her accounting job in Mankato, Minnesota, and work for her old friend, Nate Williams, in his new investigative firm a few miles from her mother’s house. No sooner does she begin to get acclimated to her surroundings when she finds herself taking on the role of the unofficial wedding planner for her eccentric aunt Ina’s wedding to wealthy financier Louis Melinsky.


      It’s one catastrophe after another as Phee tries to juggle her aunt’s outrageous wedding preparations, including the selection of one-of-a-kind pastry birds, the planning of the sunrise breakfast at Petroglyph Plaza in the White Tank Mountains and the unpleasant dealings with the cantankerous tent company. To make matters worse, a dead body belonging to an acquaintance of her future uncle is found on the golf course near her mother’s house. The man’s death is ruled a homicide and her boss is called in to investigate.

      As Nate probes the golf course death, Phee meets with Jake Felton from “the dreadful tent company” to select the exact spot for the wedding pavilion. Within minutes of her arrival at the White Tank Mountains, she discovers the body of Roland LeDoux, her aunt’s master chef, at the bottom of a ditch. The authorities deem the death to be suspicious, and Phee wonders if it isn’t related to the first murder.


      To make matters worse, she gets shocking news. Aunt Ina’s fiancée has gone missing and her aunt has sworn to die like Miss Havisham from Great Expectations. Phee’s mother and her book club lady friends become embroiled in the intrigue. With only days before the wedding, Phee must unravel the mystery behind these deaths and pray that her boss can find Louis Melinsky before Aunt Ina is really “ditched” at the wedding. 


Synopsis – Staged 4 Murder 


      Amateur sleuth Sophie (Phee) Kimball isn’t sure what to think when she learns her mother’s book club has decided to forgo their usual selection of the month and tryout instead for the local theatrical group’s production of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap. The women agree that if they aren’t cast, they’ll work on the crews. Meanwhile, Phee’s own job as the bookkeeper for Williams Investigations has also gotten a bit more interesting. A longtime secret crush of hers, detective Marshall Gregory from the Mankato Police Department, was hired by her boss to join their investigative team. 


      Phee’s mother, Harriet Plunkett, and her mother’s friend, Myrna Mittleson, get cast in the play along with sexy Miranda Lee, whom all of the book club ladies despise. No sooner do rehearsals get underway when the director gets food poisoning and a replacement takes over. Phee is besieged by phone calls from her mother telling her how tense the rehearsals have become due to Miranda’s shenanigans and temper. Just as Phee gets used to these calls, a frantic Harriet Plunkett informs her that Miranda’s body was found dead on the catwalk.


      Marshall and Phee rush to the scene to help calm the ladies. Marshall learns that Miranda’s death was suspicious and that the sheriff’s department will be investigating. The rehearsals continue as scheduled but the ladies don’t believe the local sheriff’s deputies will be able to solve the case. The women decide to chip in and hire Williams Investigations. 


      Suddenly, disturbing things begins to happen in the theater – flickering lights, missing costumes, strange noises and odd changes in temperature. Two of the women are insistent it’s Miranda’s ghost that’s come back to haunt them. They convince Harriet to bring her neurotic dog, Streetman, to the theater to “ferret out” the ghost. The dog’s attempts are disastrous.
   
       The oddities in the theater take a turn for the worse as cast members are nearly killed by open trapdoors and falling lights. With Phee’s boss out of town, Marshall solicits her help in tracking down the killer before Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap turns into another one of her plays – And Then There Were None.

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