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MANTRAP
He was rich, controversial, and determined to build bike paths all over one of Cape Cod’s prettiest seaside villages. Now, he’s dead.
Dario Peters, avid cyclist, ardent environmentalist, and heir to a munitions fortune lives the dream, until a nasty spill on a Cape Cod bike trail ends his life. Everyone calls it a tragic accident—except Persus Cantor, Dario’s doting grandma. When psychic Merlot Browne brands it foul play, Aunt Pert begs amateur sleuths Deming Swann and Eja Kane to find Dario’s murderer.
Despite misgivings, grumbling and elaborate excuses, Deming is pressed into service. After all, Pert is his mother’s favorite aunt, and family comes first. Eja embraces the challenge. As a mystery writer, all deaths seem suspicious to her and she leaps at the opportunity to spend time on a majestic Cape Cod estate with her sizzling fiancé.
Bayview, a tranquil seaside village, is seventy miles and several decades removed from bustling Boston. Residents treasure tradition and family values, two things that Dario Peters openly renounced. Case in point was his marriage to Paloma, a study in excess with body parts as suspect as her lineage. Dario’s scheme to rezone staid Bayview into a cycling paradise was another venture that riled locals and investors alike.
Dario Peters, avid cyclist, ardent environmentalist, and heir to a munitions fortune lives the dream, until a nasty spill on a Cape Cod bike trail ends his life. Everyone calls it a tragic accident—except Persus Cantor, Dario’s doting grandma. When psychic Merlot Browne brands it foul play, Aunt Pert begs amateur sleuths Deming Swann and Eja Kane to find Dario’s murderer.
Despite misgivings, grumbling and elaborate excuses, Deming is pressed into service. After all, Pert is his mother’s favorite aunt, and family comes first. Eja embraces the challenge. As a mystery writer, all deaths seem suspicious to her and she leaps at the opportunity to spend time on a majestic Cape Cod estate with her sizzling fiancé.
Bayview, a tranquil seaside village, is seventy miles and several decades removed from bustling Boston. Residents treasure tradition and family values, two things that Dario Peters openly renounced. Case in point was his marriage to Paloma, a study in excess with body parts as suspect as her lineage. Dario’s scheme to rezone staid Bayview into a cycling paradise was another venture that riled locals and investors alike.
247 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 29, 2025
About the author
Arlene Kay
19 books85 followersArlene Kay is a mystery writer with a dark past. In another life, the author of INTRUSION (12-11), and DIE LAUGHING (12-12), was a Senior Executive with one of those alphabet agencies that strikes terror into the hearts of all Americans.
Since moving to Cape Cod, she abandoned government work to craft fiendishly clever mysteries with a touch of mayhem and a splash of romance. Her previous works include five novels in the Grace Quinn/Patrick Fong mystery series.
She recently completed SWANN DIVE (05-14); and MANTRAP (12-14); the first in her new Eja and Deming series featuring two intrepid sleuths who live the good life while vanquishing criminals in the very blue state of Massachusetts.
Since moving to Cape Cod, she abandoned government work to craft fiendishly clever mysteries with a touch of mayhem and a splash of romance. Her previous works include five novels in the Grace Quinn/Patrick Fong mystery series.
She recently completed SWANN DIVE (05-14); and MANTRAP (12-14); the first in her new Eja and Deming series featuring two intrepid sleuths who live the good life while vanquishing criminals in the very blue state of Massachusetts.
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