Uncle and Ants

Silicon Valley Mystery #1

by Marc Jedel

Mysterious attacks. Mischievous nieces. Can a clueless uncle catch a tech-savvy killer … and be home before bedtime?

When a freak accident hospitalizes Marty Golden’s sister and condemns him to babysitter duty, he thinks it’s just another case of hardwired bad luck in Silicon Valley. Until a suspicious murder suggests the mishap was no mere coincidence. Something must be done.

Too bad this quirky, fashion-backward uncle isn’t exactly hero material.

Convinced his sister is in mortal danger, this amateur sleuth follows clues to an oddball array of suspects. Armed with nothing but an eye for detail and powers of self-delusion, Marty tangles with gangsters, a cantankerous school secretary, and a perplexing woman he can’t help but fall for. Glitches in his investigation seem like a piece of cake compared to dinner-prep and bedtime stories with his two precocious, pre-teen nieces.

Can Marty catch the culprit, save his sister, and get his life back in order before he gets unplugged?

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Humor, Cozy, Fiction, Amazon, Ebooks

287 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 11, 2018

About the author

Marc Jedel writes funny, feel-good murder mysteries filled with quirky characters, twisty plots, and the kind of humor that goes down easy with a cup of tea—or glass of wine.

After years writing marketing copy in Silicon Valley, Marc finally started crafting fiction people actually wanted to read. He’s the author of multiple cozy mystery series, including the Silicon Valley Mystery, Ozarks Lake Mystery, and Redwoods Country Mystery series. His books have earned thousands of glowing reviews.

Like Andy from the Redwoods Country Mysteries, Marc keeps getting older and sincerely hopes retirement doesn’t involve running a B&B. Like Marty from the Silicon Valley Mystery series, he lives in tech-heavy California, has worked in high-tech, and proudly wields bad puns. Like Jonas and Elizabeth from the Ozarks Lake Mystery series, Marc grew up in the South and spent many a summer in and around Arkansas.

He lives with his endlessly patient wife and a sweet, neurotic dog who remains deeply unimpressed by Marc’s jokes. When not writing, Marc can be found hiking, plotting murders (on the page, officer, really!), or avoiding whatever home improvement project he’s been putting off.

Visit his website, , www.mjedel.com for free content, special offers, and updates.

Reviews

[Sabine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uncle and Ants is a great start to the humorous Silicon Valley mystery series.

It is different to most other cozy mysteries in several things. We have with Marc Jedel a male author and with Marty Golden a male protagonist who is a software engineer in Silicon Valley. He is quite the nerd and while he considers himself pretty smart his investigation style resembles an elephant in the china cabinet.

It is a very good paced mystery that didn’t give the culprit away until the end. Lots of twists and turns and a long list of suspects mixed with some nerdy humour made this a very engaging read.
Oh….and could I please sign up with Rover too? I would love to have access to an unmanned car service.

I already have the second book in the series on my kindle and will read it soon.

[Alaina]

rtc

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Mystery

Marty Golden is a software engineer working in Silicon Valley, when his sister is involved in an accident, and an attempt is made on her life (involving a nearby patient being murdered). he adds dectective to his job, as he tries to figure out what happened. That and taking care of his nieces. It's an interesting and entertaining take on a light hearted/cozy murder mystery, and I like having another male amateur sleuth too follow that is both relatable and likeable.

[Tonya · Rating 5 out of 5]

A decent, often oblivious but very nice guy who wants to solve the mystery so bad and is overwhelmed with taking care of his nieces. Enjoyed the read!

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not have high expectations for this book but honestly it was enjoyable and somewhat funny to read. I'm not a huge mystery of who-killed-who or who-tried-to-kill-who, but it was still fun. I think what made it so unusual was that Uncle Marty, the main character, was not the kind of detective you'd expect to read about. He's awkward, strange, and sort of just eccentric all around. Likeable. I also really liked Raj...I found his use and mixup of our weird figures of speech rather entertaining.

"Raj interrupted my thoughts. “I do not understand this class. They are going to train us how to harass people at work?”" (They were holding a meeting about dealing with harassment in the workplace)

"“Is your niece ok?” A smart man, Raj ignored me when I got too crazy. “Never mind. Yes, I just heard from her. She’s safe. It was a wild goose chase after all.” I’d managed to puzzle Raj more than usual. “She went to chase geese? I do not think our Rover car would be good at chasing geese. Do not tell marketing. I do not think they need more ideas.”"

It was also funny to see Uncle Marty watch his nieces and his lack of experience. Okay, I shouldn't laugh XD Although somewhat cheesy, it was an entertaining, easy read.

Content:
Language: as* (and other variations), **mn, pissed, h*ll, b**tards, one use of "dog sh*t", crap
Romance/Sexy Stuff: One guy randomly mentions s*x really quick for no reason ( “She mentioned some kind of sexual complaint. Can you imagine? I don’t know who is complaining about my sex. I have been with many women and there have never been any complaints."), the word prostitute is used about once
Violence: A drone crash, smoke bomb, guns pulled, one character is found dead, threats circulate

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was quirky.

I'm not entirely sure I love this book, but giving it 4 stars because I kept on with the story and I quite liked the MC in the end. It was also nice to read a male MC for a cosy mystery.

[Tammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A humorous cozy mystery that takes place in silicon valley. It grew on me. Fast paced. Marty is high-tech but socially clueless. His sister winds up in the hospital after a traffic accident then someone tries to kill her. What Marty goes through to protect his sister while watching his nieces will amuse you.

[Carla · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars rounded up. Uncle and Ants is a good start to the humorous Silicon Valley mystery series. The protagonist, Marty Golden is a software engineer who works in Silicon Valley. His sister Laney, recently widowed with two young children, has recently moved to live near him. When she is involved in a suspicious accident, and then another patient in the hospital who has been accidentally identified as Laney Tran down the hall form her is killed, Marty decides that he needs to keep his younger sister safe. Marty is no James Bond, he stumbles around, gets himself in trouble, is a bit klutzy, yet is still able to solve the case. Of course, with his sister in the hospital, he also has to take care of his nieces. As he begins to suspect one person, he finds information to incriminate someone else. Will he be able to find the person who wants Laney out of the picture before they are successful?

I will be honest and say that I almost gave up on this book about a third of the way in, but stuck to it and am glad I did. It got much better and Marty became more likeable as the story went on. He is quite the nerd and while he considers himself pretty smart his investigation style resembles a bull in a china shop, stumbling upon clues, driving the detective crazy and scaring himself silly. Seeing him interact with his nieces was a great part of the story. They are rather precocious young ladies, but are still young and need support and supervision. The Science Fair projects actually play an important role in this story, and give the title to the book. I enjoyed his co-worker Raj who was constantly covering for his absences from work. The secondary characters of the barista and Mrs. Kim also added some humor and gave us more insight into Marty. I have to say that it is nice to have a male protagonist. I have been reading more cozies with male main characters and it is refreshing. There were a few slow spots in the story, but overall, it is a well paced mystery that didn’t give the culprit away until the end. Several twists and turns, a long list of suspects and some nerdy humour make this a fun story. I have to say, unmanned cars, this one named Rover, are actually happening and will be available in the near future, but I don't think it will be for me, at least for a while. If you like cozy mysteries with a bit of a new twist and different setting, then check out Uncle and Ants.

[Rick Farlee · Rating 5 out of 5]

CLEVER STORYLINE

I bought this book on a whim, mostly because of the title... Much to my delight, I found it to be a humorous, cleverly written story about a computer geek who is obsessed with solving a crime. One of the most interesting supporting characters is a coworker named Raj, who is an Indian trying to circumnavigate the English language... I enjoyed the book and plan to purchase the next one in the series; Chutes and Ladder. RECOMMENDED

[Cassandra Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little futuristic, but not weirdly so. There were a lot of characters introduced that I think could have been left out, otherwise a cute mystery that totally kept you guessing until the end.

[Susan Inman · Rating 2 out of 5]

It wasn't my favorite. I found the plot to be thin. Most of the positive reviews put it in the "cosy mystery" category. But for me that would require a more likeable main character and I just didn't connect with Marty. But the lowest point for me was the writing. The author just used too many words and described EVERYTHING in much too much detail. Example - "We sat on a bench at the top of the oval-shaped park. In front of us, several young kids ran back and forth on the grass in the afternoon sun while their parents watched and talked nearby. The burnt orange Tech Museum building and palm trees lining the roadway created an interesting backdrop for the kids. Pedestrians walked along the sidewalk while cars drove around the curving roads alongside the small city park. No one bothered us." I found these descriptions to be lengthy and tedious and of little to no value. It's just a park. What a surprise that kids played there while their parents watched. And pedestrians walking on the sidewalk! And cars driving on the road! Wow. And the book was full of them. When I put this beside some of the other mysteries I've read, it doesn't come close.

[Krystyna · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Bond he isn't - more like Bob Lewis meets Austin Powers

I must admit that when I first started reading this I nearly gave up (unusual for me) but bear with it - it grows on you and by the end I loved not only the plot but also the characters. From the smart aleck children to the nerdy, out of his depth (but determined to keep his sister safe) programmer.
When he gets a call that his sister was in an accident, a delivery drone caused the accident, he rushes to the hospital. Now he is faced with looking after her two young daughters. How could a delivery drone loose control. The more he ponders this the more he thinks that there is something strange going on. This is confirmed when he finds out that the occupant of the room she should have been is had been murdered. Okay so he is a computer need but she is his sister - so he decides to retrace her steps. Juggling a full time job, two young children and being completely without people skills proves a challenge. Will he get to the truth that led to the attack and the consecutive break-in.

[Laura Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m always excited when I start a new cozy series and Uncle And Ants tickled my fancy on so many levels. Picture it. A man kind of full of himself and sure he’s the be all of investigations takes it upon himself to solve the mystery of who tried to kill his sister. She’s a widowed mother of two teenage girls and doesn’t seem likely to be on someone’s hit list.

Marty was determined to solve the mystery and protect his family. If only he had the slightest clue what he was doing. Good thing he didn’t take himself too seriously. I can’t count on two hands how many times I laughed out loud at his fun incompetence. And don’t even get me started on him coping with two teenage girls. The horror. LOL

Fun at every turn, a convoluted mystery with quite the list of suspects and characters you can’t get enough of. You can bet I’ll be following this series.

[Jeannine · Rating 3 out of 5]

It started a little choppy but smoothed out and turned into a humorous and enjoyable read. The main character, Marty Golden, is a Silicon Valley divorced software engineer, consummate nerd and father of two grown kids. He writes programs for a driverless car service called Rover, which comes with lots of dog related programming gliches. Marty's sister is injured in a car accident caused by a delivery drone and is recovering in the hospital so Uncle Marty must babysit her two young and precocious daughters while trying to solve the mystery of her "accident". The characters are all a little wacky and Marty is totally out of his element but it works. Definate 3.5 stars.

[Dorothy Timm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually, three and a half stars. It puzzled me that the sister was recovering, yet she "slept" and didn't speak until the last few pages of the book. As seems to be common in cozy mysteries, the vast majority of the book was useless to the true reason for the attempted murder. However, the nieces were cute and funny, the book was enjoyable, even if the plot had lots of holes and went in meaningless directions.

[Marg Siegler · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book helped me sleep.

I surely didn't have a hard time sleeping while reading this book. I fell asleep often and had to go Bach to find out where the storyline was. Lots of nods and snoring happened while reading.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great fun mystery! Good to visualize make a funny movie!

[boltonl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny and funnier!

This is so much fun to read! The characters and story are intriguing and yet the humor is magnificent! Read it to laugh and enjoy a mystery!

[MsAliceP · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tiresome.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Stars rounded up to 3 Stars.

[LORI CASWELL · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dollycas’s Thoughts

We meet Marty Golden when he is notified his sister has been injured in a scary car accident. She will be in the hospital for a while and Marty needs to step up and take care of her daughters. The man isn’t really equipped to be an all-star uncle but with a little help from his neighbor, Mrs. Kim, he is able to take care of the girls.

Back at the hospital, a mislabeled room leads to the death of one of the patients. Marty knows right away the woman was murdered and that his sister was the real target but with her unconscious, he is grasping at straws to figure out why. He finds a couple of clues on his sister’s calendar and decides to investigate on his own. He isn’t any better equipped for that task either but he soldiers on to get answers and protect his sister. Hopefully, he survives the endeavor.

Oh, my stars! Marty Golden is a hoot and half. Self-proclaimed computer nerd, Marty is a software engineer who writes code for Rover, a company that features a driverless car service. Just use their app to order your car and it shows up to take you wherever you want to go. With the right command, it will even wait for you and take you to another destination.

He works with Raj, who is from India who is learning American idioms. Their dialogues cracked me up. His sister Laney recently moved to town and is an HR consultant. She has two daughters, Skye is “twelve going on thirty” and Megan is “nine or eight, or possibly a mature seven”. Skye has a very interesting science fair project, the effectiveness of different feeding regimens of Dorymyrmex insanus, which translates to “crazy ants”. Megan tells her uncle her project is studying milkshakes and that is more up his alley.

These core characters are all cleverly written and genuine. The school secretary though is quite a character. She takes her job very seriously and that makes her a thorn in Marty’s side. I loved it! The police detective, a former underwear model, also takes his job seriously but doesn’t take Marty seriously at all.

The story moves along at a good clip as Marty travels to try to figure out what kind of trouble his sister is in. Sometimes he even shows up at work to do his actual job. His excursions even take him to a dream employer but before he leaves there he kills any option of ever actually working there. Another laugh-out-loud moment. I will say solving the mystery was not easy, Mr. Jedel twisted the clues up nicely.

I really enjoyed this story and the characters. Marty is an unusual protagonist and I was totally entertained by his antics. Uncle and Ants is a great debut for this author and I am really looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

[Missi Martin (Stockwell) · Rating 5 out of 5]

You cannot help but get lost in Uncle and Ants by Marc Jedel. Uncle and Ants is the first book in his Silicon Valley Mystery series and it is a hit from the first chapter !!!

Main character Marty Golden is a software engineer working for Rover, a company that provides rides for people. It's like a taxi service except that the car is programmed to drive and doesn't have an actual person driving the car. His life is kinda simple and boring until he gets a call that his sister was in a car accident. A drone crashed into an ice cream truck and his sister's car was involved. Marty goes to the hospital to check on his sister but there is some confusion when he goes to the wrong room (wrong name on the door?). When he finally locates his sister, he is introduced to a cop but before he can find out much about his sister, the accident and her condition, the school where his two nieces goes calls him to pick them up.

Marty thinks something isn't right with his sister's accident and when he goes back to the hospital to find out more concerning her condition, he finds out that the woman in the room that has his sister's name on the door was found murdered. This makes Marty even more concerned and believes that someone wants his sister dead. Unfortunately he has NO idea why. His sister and nieces have only been in town a few months and his sister works in human resources so he cannot understand why someone would want to harm her.

Marty takes it upon himself to look into her accident and goes through her computer and phone and starts by talking to everyone that she met with recently. Things get worse when his sister's apartment is broken into and one of the people that she met with had their apartment broken into also.

Marty will do whatever it takes to keep his sister and nieces save....even if it means he may have to lie, cheat and break the law.....

Readers will love getting lost in Uncle and Ants. You will love the way Marty mishandles every situation he gets into while keeping his nieces safe. You will be on the edge of your seat at times, laughing at times, and maybe holding your breath also. I "betcha" you will love it and want to jump right into the second book in this series, Chutes and Ladders. I KNOW I am !!

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun, easy-reading book, perfect for the beach! Marty, a divorced software engineer, has to take charge of his nieces, Skye and Megan, while their mother recovers in the hospital from a car crash. He becomes convinced that someone is trying to kill her because her she had a meeting that morning with the CEO of a drone start-up and her car was totaled when it was crushed by a rogue drone. But that turns out to be a dead end – the CEO is a creep and a womanizer but he did not try to have Lana killed. So Marty turns to another lead in Meghan, not to be confused with his niece, who works for the water authority and is being pressured to sign off on an environmental review for a new project but she refused and is now being threatened by the head of the authority. Lana, an HR consultant, was looking into her case. The mystery wraps up pretty quickly after Marty & Meghan do some investigating of their own and successfully catch the authority head admitting to wrongdoing in an elaborate sting operation set up by the police. Marty and Meghan start dating, Lana is released from the hospital and the girls can move back home. The mystery portion of the book was wrapped up with a summary chapter narrated by Marty, a bit weak in my opinion. But Marty’s character was a gem with his dad-isms and bad dad jokes, his job with Rover, a self-driving taxi company, and the testing mishaps that he and his co-worker, Raj, run into, his run-ins with the stern office manager at the girl’s school all made Marty a charming, if sometimes clueless, computer geek. I’m not sure why the author had to have two characters with similar names – niece Megan and client-turned-girlfriend Meghan. That was confusing. And the intersection of Skye’s science project focusing on a rare ant species and Meghan’s job to protect the ant’s natural habitat from the water authority project was a cute tie-in. All in all, not a stellar mystery but a quick novel with fun and enjoyable characters.

[Tari · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so enjoyable and funny! Just when I'd think that Marty Golden couldn't possibly get into more predicaments, something else happened. It all started when he thought that someone was trying to kill his sister with a falling delivery drone. The fact that she was in the hospital and either unconscious or asleep didn't help his investigation much, and the cop in San Jose probably thought he was certifiably crazy.

Marty was kind of an unconventional uncle, but he definitely loved his little nieces that he had to care for while their mom was in the hospital. I loved his co-worker Raj and of course thought of Raj on TV. Marty's software engineer job was pretty cool too, although I'm not really sure about a driverless car. It seems a little creepy, but it came in handy a lot for Marty. The girls cracked me up how they could get him to do stuff for them.

He finally did some sleuthing with a woman that his sister had met as an HR client. I hope she shows up in another book. This book would make a great comedy mystery movie!

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uncle Marty is taking care of his nieces, Skye and Megan, while their mother, Laney, is in the hospital following a car accident involving a drone. Marty is a software engineer and knows that drones don't fall from the sky. Having her computer and satchel, he begins to look at her clients to see if there is a connection to the drone. When an elderly woman is murdered in the hospital room that was supposed to be his sister's, Marty starts thinking someone wants his sister dead. But who? And why? Marty then begins his own investigation.

I laughed out loud when reading this. Marty is no detective. He's barely surviving being an uncle. His theories are far-fetched but he's loyal to them. I liked his nieces. Skye is very much into her science fair project of crazy ants. She finds others who are just as taken with them.

Like Marty I was no detective. I needed it spelled out at the end. This is a fun book. I especially liked that this is told from a man's point-of-view. Suspend belief and have a good time reading it. I look forward to the other books in this series.

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

It started off with mystery and humor. The protagonist’s sister is hospitalized after a delivery drone crashes her car. As everyone (in this novel) knows, and particularly the self-driving car programmer protagonist, delivery drones never crash or miss their delivery. And then another attempt on her life. What is this single mom HR person hiding? Why would anyone want to kill her?

The protagonist is sadly inept at everything but programming. And he won’t shut up. After a while, he becomes quite tedious. And I’m confused why an author would give such similar names to a niece (Megan) and a love interest (Meghan). Even the author confused the spellings, which made the plot even harder to follow.

Plot could have been great, but too many details (like overemphasis on fish sauce spilled on shoes—clean the damn shoes and be done with it) and not enough substance.

None of the characters except the coworker were interesting, and I wasn’t crazy about the ending either. All I could think was, “Thank Goddess I’m done.” Not my kind of book.

[Tod A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fantastic and humorous mystery story!

Every once in a while I like to take a break from tense action-packed page-turning thriller and sit back with a cozy or a book like this. As a native of what was the Valley of Heart's Delight in the 40s and 50s, and a business telephone installer in Sunnyvale - Palo Alto, I lived on the edges of the high-flying tech outfits from H-P to Lockheed to Control Data to Rolm.

This story combined a well-written story with some truly funny puns and the excitement of a couple of preteen girls (I can relate to that!).

I intend to buy Chutes & Ladders soon to keep up with this comedy. As a psychiatrist once observed of Basil Fawly, there's enough material there for a whole conference.

Keep up the wonderful work, Marc!

[Max · Rating 3 out of 5]

This light mystery story features a slightly awkward and inept software engineer who attempts to solve what he believes to be the attempted murder of his sister, aided by a friend and the police. The book starts out reasonably strong, with good writing, a decent mystery and a sympathetic protagonist, it declines in quality and interest as the story progresses. Their is way too much time spent on Marty's nieces and his neighbor, and on trying to be cute. The kids were cute, the dialogue was cute, and so was the resolution of the mystery. Also, I found it irritating that every time a word in italics showed up, the line spacing got fouled up. I will not read the sequel.

[Linda Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny madcap uncle Marty, babysits nieces and looks for bad guy who tried to kill his sister. .

Nerdy uncle Marty, the guy that writes code for Rover Car Services, the cars with no drivers. Funny uncle Marty, the one in a panic because his widowed sister is accidentally hit by a drone and then the woman that is in the room registered to his sister is killed that night. Madcap uncle Marty taking the best care of his two nieces that he can while trying to find out who tried to kill his sister. You meet some interesting people and have a fun ride while reading this story. Lots of laughter also.

[J Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

Accident or attempted murder?

Marty Golden’s sister is involved in a bizarre accident which leaves him in charge of her two young daughters. Marty is great at coding at the startup he works at, but parenting? Not so much. When other odd things happen, Marty is convinced his sister is being targeted and if he doesn’t want to be permanently in charge of his nieces he better figure out why.

This is the first book I have read in this series and I enjoyed it. Marty is smart but odd and has a personality that needs more sunlight. There is a lot of humor, weird happenings, and a pretty good mystery.