Midas Murders

Katherine Miller Mystery #3

by Janet Lane Walters

Feeling guilty about her role in the recent murder at St Stephen's, Katherine accepts her friend Lars' invitation to spend New Year's Eve and a few weeks with him in Santa Fe. She rents a car in Albuquerque and drives to his house. He isn't there and his partly eaten breakfast is on the table. Neither his son or daughter know where he is. That night she receives a call and goes to the hospital to pick him up. He has no idea what happened. Neither does she but she is worried. His daughter dislikes Katherine and goes out of her way to make her father's guest feel less than welcome. When Lars and Katherine travel to a nearby ski resort they receive a call that Lars' daughter has been kidnapped. What is going on? As the mysteries swirl about them Katherine worries about her friend's safety and the murder of his daughter and one of his employees deepens her concerns. Can she learn what is happening before Lars becomes a victim?

Katherine Miller Mysteries

Join Katherine Miller, a retired nurse and retired church organist as she finds a new and unwanted career as a solver of mysteries. From her tenant being murdered to the new charismatic church organist, to members of her dear friend Lars' family to her stint undercover in an exclusive nursing home she takes on the challenge.

181 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

"I am a nurse who's been spinning tales for years, especially when many of the people whose stories I tell are involved in the medical profession. Since dark nights on the front porch of the house where I lived and in the garage where my friends put on the plays I wrote, I've been a story-teller. That was my beginning and there were other steps along the way. Take third grade and my book report. I choose "Anna Karenina" and ended the book with these words; "She loved him so she threw herself under a train. There are a lot of things she could have done other than that dumb thing." After telling me I couldn't read that book, my teacher informed me I couldn't change the ending. My next experience with the world of critiquing came during my pursuit of a career as a nurse. I wrote a care study of a little boy I'd come to love. My instructor told me this was a scientific study and I should not have included emotional elements. After graduating, I married. My husband, a doctor, and I ended up in a small town where the Public Health service had a hospital. In the town was a small library. Within two months, I'd read every book and needed something to do. For Christmas, my husband bought me a typewriter and a ream of paper. Faced with a blank page, I began to write, badly at first. My first attempts were short stories, many published. Then I received a rejection that says this sounds like a synopsis of a novel. Once again, I learned. Three books and four children later, I returned to nursing to send those children to college. Once that was accomplished, I returned to exploring the world where I can change the ending, put in emotional elements and write the things I'd like to read."