Craks in a Marriage
Mah Jongg Mysteries Book 1
by Barbara Barrett
Pub Date
 |
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Description
When Sydney Bonner overhears a fellow mah jongg player arguing on the
phone with her husband, she realizes the couple’s “perfect marriage”
isn’t all it appears to be. A few days later, the husband is found dead,
his head bashed in. Fearing she’ll be considered the most likely
suspect, the widow prevails upon Sydney and her three friends—Marianne,
Kat and Micki—to find out who really killed him.
Though none of
these four fun-loving, take-charge retirees has any training as
detectives, the women agree to launch a secret investigation. As they
dig under the happy veneer of their community’s social life, they find
more than enough suspects, from shady ladies to resentful golf buddies,
to keep them looking over their shoulders.
Could the murderer be
lurking among the talent in a chaotic production put on by Sydney’s
husband, who will do anything to keep busy in retirement? Could the
sheriff, who may have more than a professional interest in chanteuse
Kat, end up pinning the crime on the women instead? Each discovery
during their investigations and their weekly mah jongg game keeps them
running as they close in on the killer—but the killer may also be
closing in on them.
This cozy mystery, the first in the Mah Jongg Mystery series, features
four retired amateur sleuths who live in the small Florida town of
Serendipity Springs, all female and all friends who play the game of mah
jongg together. Though they don't set out to investigate murder, after
their first experience in this story, others start looking to them to
help investigate subsequent homicides and questionable accidents. In
this first book, Sydney Bonner takes the lead, although she turns to her
three friends for help. Though this series features four protagonists,
the others will take the lead in subsequent stories. Two are married,
one is divorced and the fourth, who has been single all her life while
she tended to her ailing mother, now finds herself the object of the
sheriff's attention in this series.
The four don't seek out
murder; somehow the circumstances and those affected drag them in.
Meanwhile, as they attempt to gather information, life goes on in their
community in such activities as a women's club, a social group for those
over 50, real estate transactions, numerous stops at the local
coffeehouse, and even a shopping trip to Naples. Sydney's husband, Trip,
and her friend Marianne Putnam's husband, Beau, are golf buddies who
spend many a day on the course. When not there, Trip is busy seeking to
build a new post retirement life, and Beau is often prevailed upon to
join in Trip's latest activity, which in this first book is a town
follies. Kat Faulkner has lived a frugal life until winning big in a
lottery shortly after her mother's death; suddenly, Kat has money and
doesn't know how to spend it. But her divorced friend and freelance
writer, Micki Demetrius, does, even if it's to guide Kat through a
makeover and wardrobe change for her lounge act.
This cozy mystery is the first book in the Mah Jongg Mystery series.
Barbara Barrett is already published in contemporary romance. She is a
member of the Mystery/Romantic Suspense chapter of Romance Writers of
America. Like her protagonists, she is retired and is a resident of
Florida, although she spends her summers in her home state of Iowa. She
spent over three decades as a human resource management analyst with
Iowa state government. She can be contacted at
barbarabarrett747@gmail.com. Check her website at
barbarabarrettbooks.com.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Ebook |
| ISBN | 9781948532013 |
| PRICE | $2.99 (USD) |
Available on NetGalley
| (MOBI) |
| (EPUB) |
