Exercise is Murder

by Janis Patterson

Forced out of the Dallas Police Force after a brutal shootout set up by her dirty cop ex-lover, Rebecca Cloudwebb now works as an antiques dealer. While making a delivery to Flora Melkiot at Madam Norina's Temple of Health exercise salon in the exclusive Olympus House condominium highrise, Rebecca is among many witnesses to a brutal murder. Laura Tyler, a widow, has just moved into the Olympus House with dreams of becoming a socialite. But that dream is short lived when on her first day at the exercise salon, someone laces her mineral water with drain crystals. Flora Melkiot, a nosy old gossip and highrise tenant, is convinced the police are idiots and is determined to investigate Laura's death. And she expects Rebecca to help her. Soon Rebecca finds herself being drawn into the fascinating case. Almost everyone connected with the murder has multiple reasons to kill everyone else connected with the murder, but no one seems to have had any motive to poison Laura Tyler. A mad mix of politics, extra-marital affairs, blackmail, strong personalities, gambling and assorted secrets make this mystery almost impossible to solve, but solve it Rebecca does, and in the process learns something about her own problems since the shooting that crippled her.

300 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 5, 2012