Duffy Brown's Blog: New Cozy Series - Posts Tagged "female-sleuth"

No one knows why Peephole Perry came all the way to Mackinac from LA, but when he winds up dead things are looking bad for Evie’s BFF who once worked for the jerk. Now Evie has to gear up and get a grip on the truth if she wants to clear her friend and find a killer.

Its murder and a mystery weekend on Mackinac Island for the rag reporter, his mistress and the wife who wants them both dead


Hi, Evie Bloomfield here all the way from Chicago and now living on Mackinac Island. This a real island where Lake Michigan meets Lake Huron. There are no cars, lots of horses, bikes and a dead body once in a while.

Not only is this a problem for the dead guy...who deserved to bite the big one...but for the businesses on the island. You see, if word gets out that there’s a killer on the loose tourists will stampede for the ferry docks and leave the island, the business will go broke and everyone will head for the unemployment line.

So since we needed a plan to avoid financial catastrophe we sort of passed the murder of one Peephole Perry off as a mystery weekend at the Grand Hotel.

Nate of course doesn’t think this a good idea at all. Nate Sutter’s the local police chief and for some reason thinks law take precedence over the island’s finances...silly man. He’s also smoking hot but that’s another story up for discussion because his stubbornness often gets in the way of the hotness.

Anyway, now he’s trying to tell the tourist this is a real crime scene but than heavens they’re not buying it!

So now it’s a murder mystery at the Grand Hotel while the rest of us in the know try to figure out who killed the Peepster.

Wish us luck. Over and out...Evie Bloomfield.

I’m spotlighting one of my characters, Auntie KiKi from my Consignment Shop series. Auntie KiKi is the auntie we should all have in our lives. She’s a family-first kind of Southern gal, auntie to Reagan the main character in the series and leaps before she looks.

Auntie KiKi lives in a house that’s been in her husband’s family since before Sherman parked his unwelcome hide in Savannah. She teaches dancing so the young people of Savannah don’t look like idiots at their cotillion and so that the not so young can show off at their 50th anniversary party.

Auntie KiKi here in Savannah and as much as I hate to say it we’ve been getting more than our share of funerals lately.
Now I understand that we all got to go sometime and some sooner than others but being dead is no excuse for bad manners and that’s why I’m here to be setting things to rights.

First of all and most important you must always be keeping your “death-ready” pantry up to speed. The number of dishes (or grief therapy as I like to call it) brought to the grieving person’s house suggests your social standing in the community. Do you want to be last on that very list, well I should say not.

As soon as you get the call that Miss So-and-so is toes over there at the slumber house you need be rushing right over to the family with stuffed eggs, chicken salad, caramel cake and some pecan tassies. And everyone knows Pimiento cheese spread is the very paste that holds the South together through think and thin.

Remember that casseroles that contain cream of mushroom soup and Velveeta cheese are considered second tier presentations, but a can of cream of asparagus soup added elevates the dish to a higher status. And of course banana pudding is the Cadillac of southern desserts, so don’t be forgetting that.

And always remember it’s right important to refer to the deceased as successful, no matter how far from the actual truth that might be. The written description needs to include enough truth that the dead person is somewhat recognizable, but include enough flattery to please the grieving family and friends.

And of course you must encourage those relatives to attend who do the most carrying on. Someone discreetly weeping into a hankie just doesn't have the same appeal as multiple women screaming and throwing themselves onto the casket as it is being lowered into the ground. What good is a send-off unless it’s a mighty big one.

And as for the service…for heaven’s sake keep in mind that Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven is only appropriate for one of those Yankee funerals. In this part of the world Amazing Grace will do fine, thank you very much especially if there’s a martini two following right soon.

You all take care now, ya’ hear. Be sure to keep that death pantry stocked just in case and do let me know what’s your favorite dish to be sharing with your family and friends in these most unfortunate times.