7 Days: A Dee Rommel Mystery

by Jule Selbo

When revenge is all-consuming, where will it end?

Harassment comes in all shapes and sizes and Dee Rommel's protective streak—particularly when it comes to her mother's well-being and Dee's new clients, is triggered. When an avid environmentalist and scion of Portland is murdered, Dee's boss, private investigator Gordy Greer, puts Dee on the case. Details and clues seem to work at cross-purposes, land deals worth millions and conservation concerns are at loggerheads and families are at war over who gets crowned the ultimate decision-maker. Dee is thrown in with a diverse cast of harassed suspects and has to step into dangerous territory to defend the weakest among them.

Dee gains new insight, about herself and her loved ones. She has choices to make, and they must be the right choices—for their safety—and hers.

326 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 18, 2025

About the author

SO EXCITED! 8 DAYS, A Dee Rommel Mystery will be available on December 6, 2023. It's the third in the series. Pre-orders are available now. 9 DAYS, A Dee Rommel Mystery followed 10 DAYS in garnering awards and award nominations and also a STARRED Kirkus Review! Your local bookstores can pre-order it for you too!

Check out this review on GoodReads. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

10 DAYS, A Dee Rommel Mystery was the first in a new crime/mystery series. It got a starred Kirkus Review "nifty, engrossing procedural..." "...punchy, vivid prose..." and went on to win a Silver Falchion Award for Best Investigator Novel, it was nominated for a Maine Literary Award, Clue Award and Foreword Review Award. It's also up for the Best Crime Mystery Book Award on FeedMyReads!

Jule is a novelist, playwright and screenwriter. She has written for television and film for a few decades (check IMDB). She is also a professor at CSU in California, teaching screenwriting and film history - and lectures internationally on story structure and film genre.
She basically loves story - and telling stories and helping others tell their stories.
Her award-winning plays have been done in NYC, Los Angeles and regional theaters across America.
Novels include FIND ME IN FLORENCE (2019), DREAMS OF DISCOVERY, Based on the Life of John Cabot (2018) and the upcoming BREAKING BARRIERS: Laura Bassi and the Enlightenment.
https://www.juleselbo.com

Jule would love to hear from her readers!

Reviews

[Matthew Cost · Rating 5 out of 5]

Portland, Maine is the canvas upon which Jule Selbo paints—filling the streets, buildings, and waterfront with layers of nuance, personality, and charm. The city is one of the characters of the story, as strong as the protagonist, Dee Rommel, and she is mighty. In this fourth book in the series, Dee is still as tough as nails, but she is starting to reveal a softer, more sensitive, and vulnerable side where love and family come into play. With her mentor facing serious health issues, Dee must tackle on her own a series of murders surrounding land, forever chemicals, and greed. And then the past invades the present and she is confronted by an antagonist who has a habit of making a wet clucking sound in the back of his throat—much like the sound she heard just before being flung from a building rooftop resulting in the loss of her leg and life as she knew it. 7 Days is one week of building tension that twists and careens through the streets of Portland like a junker car being taken for a joyride by juveniles hopped up on heroin. Do yourself a favor, set yourself aside a chunk of time when you pick this one up, strap yourself in, and enjoy the ride as you dash wildly through the streets of Portland trying to find the villains before they find you. Read it. You won’t be sorry

[Joseph Souza · Rating 5 out of 5]

The days are dwindling down and in 7 Days Dee Rommel finds herself in a precarious position. Her bag is stolen by a distraught woman named Gilli with a personality disorder. The woman’s even stranger boyfriend, Nail, is distraught and asks Dee to help him find her. Dee’s mother is being targeted at work y another employee. And Dee’s boss, Gordy, is in rough shape and in need of an operation for cancer. But before he undergoes the procedure, he wants Dee to check out the mysterious death of Frank Croake, a wealthy environmentalist who was found murdered on his trail. If all that wasn’t bad enough, Dee is trying to resist her feelings for Detective Donato of the Portland PD.

7 Days is a fast paced tale that pits Dee against some unsavory villains. I love Dee and the cast of characters the author has put around her, especially Gordy. Gordy is a crusty old Mainer, a legendary boxer and well-known figure around town, and Dee has known him for a long time. Despite facing his mortality, Gordy instructs Dee to find out who killed his friend, Frank Croake.

The stakes keep getting higher in this thrilling tale of greed and family dysfunction. Who gets to decide what happens to the valuable land owned by Frank Croake? Unsavory characters come and go in this story, and it is up to Dee to figure out who is the murderer. And why. A great addition to the series. I highly recommend 7 Days.

[Lucy Takeda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d actually give this a 3.5. A friend raved about 10 Days by this author, but I tend to try to read series in order. Therefore, I ordered this, which is evidently the second book in the series. Hence, I ran across lots of references to the previous novel, which is 8 Days, that I am ordering.
Dee Rommel was a police officer, until someone tossed her off a roof. Now she is missing a leg, has a prosthetic device, and is working as a PI. The guys who injured her haven’t been located, and her PI mentor is in the hospital with serious medical issues. The mentor, Gordy, is fixated on solving a case involving a supposed suicide by a good friend years ago.
I like Dee. I love her dog. Her mom is interesting. I am tracking down other books in the series, but am slightly annoyed that my library only offers them as online versions.

[Scott Lyerly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite the fact she’s missing a leg, you underestimate Dee Rommel at your own peril. With 7 Days, Jule Selbo has written a tight, propulsive crime novel with a unique lead character who ranks right up there with some of New England’s best crime creations. Another worthy entry in the series!