A NEW FAVORITE!

I have a new favorite book that I have to tell you about. You learn about it on my abbreviated review at Goodreads, shown below, or you can go directly to SUSPENSE SISTERS and read the whole thing. I have to say, there were some SERIOUS surprises and delights in this book.

Oh, and double-delight! The Suspense Sisters are giving away a $100 Starbucks gift card. Today’s the last day to enter, so don’t miss out!

Here’s my abbreviated Goodreads review.

Counter Attack by Patricia Bradley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars (I would give it six if I could!)
The newest suspense by Patricia Bradley left me breathless! She is a master of twists and turns, and she keeps the tension at the perfect balance between breath-holding gasps and sighs of relief.

Detective Alex Stone works undercover to trap a serial killer in Chattanooga, but the set-up turns into an unexpected tragedy. She returns to the small town where she grew up to heal and to help her grandfather, the county sheriff, while he recuperates from an unexpected health scare.

Strangely enough, the serial killer seems to move with her. Or is there a copycat? This plot is sheer poetry. I’m not going to say I was entirely surprised, but there were some elements of the ending that I did not see coming – to my sheer delight!

You can find more of my review on the Suspense Sisters blog and be sure to enter our great $100 Starbucks giveaway there!

Suffice it to say, Patricia Bradley has quickly become a favorite of mine, and this story is a sheer delight.

Just be sure to leave a nightlight glowing!



View all my reviews

Blog Hop Mystery!

The authors of the Ever After Mysteries are celebrating today’s release of my newest book! Enjoy a little mystery this week and be sure to get your copy of A TROLL FALLS on Amazon at this link!

“I just found it on the porch,” I told my daughter as we put up the groceries.

“Well, it’s a lovely rose.” My daughter collected the bags and put them in our storage bin.

“Not such a lovely message, though.” I tugged the ribbon that held the card in place and pulled it through the hole in the card, untangling it from the leaves of the flower. Leaving the flower on the counter, I squatted and dug through the lower cabinet to find the heart-shaped bud vase that had belonged to my mother. “And it was rather strange to just find it laying on the doorstep.”

“No one rang the bell,” my daughter said. “The dogs would have thrown a fit, and I never left my office. I would have heard it too.”

“Strange.” I shut the cabinet and paused. “You didn’t leave it there did you?”

She halted and tilted her head. “Really, Mom? If I’m going to spend the big bucks to get flowers for you, then I’m sure as heck gonna take credit for them.”

I chuckled. “True enough.” I filled the vase and picked up the bud. “Ouch.”

I dropped it immediately and stuck my finger in my mouth. One of the ugly thorns that covered the stem caught my finger just above the knuckle.

“You’re bleeding.” She trotted to the bathroom and came back with an antiseptic and a bandage. “Who leaves so many thorns on a flower, especially when it’s a gift?”

I stuck my finger under the faucet. “Someone who uses a rose to camouflage a threat.”

“You think it’s a threat?” She dabbed my finger with a kitchen towel and then sprayed it with an antiseptic.

“I do.” I flinched as the burn connected with my exposed nerve endings. “What else could it be?” I smoothed the bandage around my finger.

“Maybe we’re missing something.” She collected the trash and tossed it in the wastebasket. “Maybe one of the other authors like Chautana Having wanted to congratulate you about your coming release.”

“That could be.” I slipped an oven mitt on my injured hand and snipped several of the thorns and most of the leaves from the stem before dropping it into the vase. “I should give Chautona a call just to see. If she did send the flower, then I want to thank her.”

“Even with the thorns?” My daughter laughed, picked up her coffee, and went back to her office.

I reached for the card that had come with it. I should probably just toss it in the trash and not think about it again, but the message bugged me. How else could it be taken except as a threat? Surely, Chautona wouldn’t have been threatening me, though.

What type of wicked troll would send a note like this?

Your day has come.

I hope you enjoyed the first part of our little mystery. You’ll find the next part of the story at Chautona Havig’s blog at this link tomorrow: https://chautona.com/a-troll-falls-release

Don’t miss out on a special giveaway to celebrate the release of A TROLL FALLS! Sign up at the link below: https://promosimple.com/ps/24b03/a-troll-falls-marji

You can order A TROLL FALLS right now from Amazon at this link: https://amzn.to/3Kb9XbN

And when you order, send your receipt and US shipping address to ATROLLFALLS@gmail.com for a special gift with purchase while supplies last!

Fashion Sense

Now I’m no expert, and my blue jeans and tee shirt testify to that fact. (And it’s a toss-up whether I’m wearing the blue tee shirt that says, “Grandma, established 2022,” the red one that says, “I’m a mystery writer. I know 101 ways how to hide a body,” or the long-sleeved black one from “Canceling Christmas,” the musical that I was in last December.)

My characters in A TROLL FALLS, though, know a thing or two about the fashion of the late 1940s. After all, even though they were merely workers in the house, they were treated as part of the family by some very high-standing citizens of Dallas. I showed you the Dior dress that I chose for Ruby to wear on her date at the Adolphus hotel earlier. You can see that post HERE, and it is quite a dress!

Ruby has another date, though, on Elm Street that is shown in THIS POST. She attends a movie premiere of Red River, starring John Wayne, and the block party that the city of Dallas sponsored on that evening (August 26, 1948). At this date, she wore a beautiful sundress. Unfortunately, it wasn’t sunny.

Nope, not a bit. Just as the party was stirring up, a thunderstorm soaked everything and everyone from the haybales to the square dancers and the trick ropers.

And Ruby might have been soaked as well, except she wore one of those plastic raincoats – the kind that were translucent. At least, her dress was seen, right?

As I was researching for this book, I even picked out pajamas for my characters. They are rather prone to wander around and investigate in the middle of the night, so they had to have pajamas. I was surprised to find that the pajama top that I chose is actually a normal daytime top nowadays. Go figure. LOL!

But I have to admit, I wish that the housecoats of 1948 were still popular. These are not mere robes. These are thick and quilted dresses that ushered in the 1950s poofy skirts. I love the ones that I chose for my characters. I would guess the shoulder pads and hemline came straight out of the 1980s, right?

Which do you like best? Which would you wear?

There is something to be said for vintage clothing. I don’t have the figure or the guts to wear clothes from the 1940s, but it sure is pretty!

A TROLL FALLS is now available in paperback HERE.

It will release as an e-book tomorrow (Tuesday).

And in celebration of the release tomorrow, I’m doing a Facebook Takeover at THIS LINK. I’ll be there all day, giving away prizes and sharing more about my story and the Dallas history that sparked my imagination. I hope you will join me!

Oh, and when you purchase your book, don’t forget to send your receipt to ATROLLFALLS@gmail.com along with your US shipping address, and I’ll send you a special gift with your purchase!

Setting is the Thing

Sometimes authors are inspired by actual events. Sometimes people inspire characters for them. For me, it’s always been places.

My daughters can testify of my habit, while we traveled or walked around, of finding great places to hide a body. I even have a tee shirt to that effect. I particularly remember scaring a grocery clerk with a discussion of how dumping the body in a ditch would be too obvious. My daughter spotted her nervous expression. “My mom’s an author.”

“Oh, I hoped it was something like that.” That discussion will be forever impaled on my memory.

As will the time when I spotted the soles of cowboy boots sticking out of a clothing donation box. Seriously? That barely even took any imagination at all. The body dump practically wrote itself. And I expect to use it someday. But no, it wasn’t a body. Yes, I checked. Well, one of my girls checked. Hey, I was driving!

So settings inspire me. The postcard that I found of Broadway of the Southwest inspired my first book A GIANT MURDER. And images of the Adolphus Hotel bridged both that book, set in 1926 and my newest book A TROLL FALLS, set in 1948.

This story’s mystery just fell together when I learned some tidbits about the house that inspired the Halling Estate in A TROLL FALLS. The inspiration for the estate is the DeGolyer House at the Dallas Arboretum that looks out onto White Rock Lake. I was there with a group of recent high school graduates. My twins and their friends had honored me by letting me come and bring my camera. While they wandered all over the gardens, I engaged a worker there at the house and learned a lot more than I expected.

First, I learned about the tragic story of Mr. DeGolyer who committed suicide when he learned of a terminal health issue. He died in his library and that room was one of a kind. Mr. DeGolyer had collected rare books all his life. Most of them are now part of the collection at Southern Methodist University.

The second thing I learned, I can’t really share because it reveals too much about my story. In this case, there is a little curiosity about that building that I played up and developed into the mystery. Yeah, it made for a super-simple story, but a nice juicy little mystery.

I hope you get a kick out of it!

By the way, today is the last day to enter my Goodreads giveaway. You can get a free copy of A TROLL FALLS. Use THIS LINK to enter the sweepstakes. If you do decide to purchase a copy, send your Amazon receipt to ATROLLFALLS@gmail.com along with your shipping address. You get a FREE GIFT WITH PURCHASE in your mailbox!

Fairy Tales and Murder?

This isn’t your typical benign musical. But then again, most of the original fairy tales are a little on the gruesome side. And even the Disney versions involve murder, intrigue, and good vs. evil. So my little murder mystery actually fits in perfectly!

My new book that releases next week is A TROLL FALLS. It’s based on a little-known fairy tale called “Snow White and Rose Red.” Now, this Snow White is NOT the original Disney Queen. Snow and Rose are sisters who live with their widowed mother.

In my story, their names are DEFINITELY changed. Rose isn’t an oddity, but Snow? I’m sure there are several named Snow nowadays, but it is a little on the rare side. So my characters are named Opal and Ruby. I’ve known women with those names. In fact, my great aunt (Mawmaw Bobbie’s closest sibling) was named Opal.

Besides the family connection, though, the fact that my characters are named after gemstones is no coincidence. See, at the end of the original fairy tale, a mean troll spreads his treasure of gold and jewels in the sunshine to dry them after he cleaned them. My troll in this story doesn’t actually have gold and jewels, so Ruby and Opal serve a dual purpose by being the jewels in the story as well as the main characters.

Another main character in the fairy tale is a ferocious bear. He shows up in my book as Eric Bjorn, because Bjorn is Swedish for bear. Yep, that wasn’t a coincidence either. In the fairy tale, the bear is a poor victim. Not so much in A TROLL FALLS. In fact . . . wait. I don’t want to give too much away!

Did you know with fiction, the author has to keep a certain camera lens while telling the story? In most fiction, a character tells the story. You, as the reader, slip into the skin of the character and experience everything from that point of view. In A TROLL FALLS, Opal serves as the main character, so most of the scenes have a focus from her. Not only what she sees and hears, but her thoughts (internal monologue) tell a lot of the story. And her thoughts are influenced by her values and background.

I know that’s sort of technical, but in A TROLL FALLS, both Opal and her sister Ruby tell the story. And you’ll notice a difference between their perspectives. Opal is very shy and a rule follower. Ruby is a little more on the spunky side and willing to push the envelope. In truth, Ruby has a way of finding herself in all sorts of uncomfortable situations, but Opal is the one who . . . oh, wait. I’m doing it again.

Suffice it to say, this is Opal’s story, despite Ruby’s outgoing personality. But don’t worry. With Ruby’s outgoing personality, she can’t stay in the back seat for long. She has her own story coming next year. A WOLF’S EXTERMINATION is a play on “Little Red Riding Hood.” The perfect story for Ruby!

Get your own copy of A TROLL FALLS from Amazon by clicking the book cover here!

Oh, and send your Amazon receipt to ATROLLFALLS@gmail.com along with your shipping address and get a free gift with your purchase sent to you!

The Dallas Connection

Tombstone: Judge JH STEVENSON; Born 1803, Died 1886.

I barely missed being a 5th generation native Texan. I know that sounds small, but it really is a big thing. At least to me. My third-great-grandfather, Judge James Hall Stevens moved from North Carolina to Coryell County, Texas after doing a judgeship stint in Arkansas. His son, John Allen Stevenson was born in Coryell county as was his grandson, my great-grandfather, Robert Lysander Stevenson.

Mawmaw Bobbie, reportedly at age 23 (1939) on the streets of downtown Dallas.

Robert Lysander’s final child, my grandmother Bobbie Zefflah Stevenson (yes, Zefflah. I think Great-Grandmother chose a Z name for this, her eighth child in eighteen years! LOL!) was born just south of Dallas and she moved in with her next older sister and brother-in-law during the early 1930s. My mom was born downtown as were all four of my kids.

So the fact that my mom and dad went over the border (into Louisiana) just before my brother was born and left just after I was born is downright devastating.

Okay, that’s probably a stronger word than is necessary. But I remember my mom had a bumper sticker on my car that said, “Native Texan.” Isn’t that a silly thing to want?

Papa Loyd as a station captain – my aunt thinks this was in the mid-1940s. He was in his early thirties.

I do love doing research into the early days of Dallas, though. My new book, A TROLL FALLS, is set in Dallas in 1948. About that time, my grandfather, “Red” Morin, was a fire captain at one of the Dallas stations. Declared 4F during the war due to hearing loss (just like George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life), Papa Loyd was an air raid warden when he wasn’t at the firehouse. He and my grandmother lived in Oak Cliff, just southwest of downtown Dallas. So as I worked through this book, it was really personal to me.

I’ll share a little more with you soon, but you can preorder your own copy of A TROLL FALLS at THIS LINK. See what makes this book so special and enjoy a special free gift with purchase! Just email your name and shipping address to ATROLLFALLS@gmail.com.

Dior and Ice Skating?

They must have gone together at some point! See in the 1940s, when my book A TROLL FALLS is set, Dallas had the most amazing downtown. Elm Street was still considered the Broadway of the Southwest. And then there was the Century Ballroom at the Adolphus Hotel.

The Ice Skating shows began in 1943 and ran until 1965. This article actually has a film clip from many of the shows at the Adolphus itself.

See the film itself at THIS LINK.

When the ice show ended, a dance floor skimmed into place over the ice and Herman Waldman and his Orchestra continued to play long into the night. This was the date that my character, Ruby Stedman, had with her new beau. Ruby, with her perfect complexion and elegantly coifed brunette hair must have looked amazing in the Dior creation that Mrs. Halling let her borrow. Even if it was a couple of seasons old.

Ruby might have been a looker in the 1940s, but the young woman, an orphan by all accounts, merely served as a companion for an elderly woman in return for her room and board. How amazing it would have felt for her to wear such a dress and join the society of Dallas with a handsome, debonair man at her side.

Well . . . now that I think about it, amazing wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. In fact . . . let’s just say that Ruby has a habit of finding herself in trouble. She gives her older sister Opal all sorts of reasons to worry and pray!

Find out more about Ruby and her date in A TROLL FALLS!

New Book Release – A TROLL FALLS Next Tuesday!

It’s been a minute! Actually, it’s been closer to a year and seven months since my last release. And it was a year and eight months for the release before that one. Blows my mind how time flies!

But I do have a new book that I’m so excited about. I enjoyed releasing A GIANT MURDER as part of the historical “Ever After” mystery series. That one was set in Dallas in the 1920s, and I had a blast doing research on my grandparents and great-grandparents and their lives in my hometown.

Well, I got to revisit Dallas history again with this new book, A TROLL FALLS.

Order A TROLL FALLS!

This time, the era is the late 1940s. While the first book focused on downtown, this second one actually takes place closer to where I grew up.

Love this view of downtown & White Rock Lake. Enjoy the day! Celebration White Rock packets pick-up begins today @athleta Turtle Creek, 11-6. #whiterocklake #Easter #packetpickup #today #dallas https://t.co/uy5hCBXm3N pic.twitter.com/e3pkwHotfK

— White Rock Lake Conservancy (@whiterockdallas) April 1, 2018

White Rock Lake is the backdrop for this story. My mom swam there before they closed it to swimming in the early 1950s. I used to take my kids there as a homeschooling field trip, and I still visit the beautiful Dallas Arboretum near the shores of the lake. It has the most magnificent view of downtown which is six miles away.

[Photograph of the DeGolyer Estate Driveway], photograph, 1940; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth207033/
Accessed February 28, 2023), University of North Texas Libraries,
The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dallas Municipal Archives.

One of the main structures of the Dallas Arboretum is the DeGolyer House, built in the mid-1930s. It looks like a Spanish Hacienda and I had fun “borrowing” it to create the Halling Estate in my book. The house I created might be fiction, but the vistas and the sprawling lawns and gardens are very real! This is actually a postcard with the image of the DeGolyer house on it from the 1940s.

Stick around for more details about 1940s Dallas and information about A TROLL FALLS!

The Visitor is Traveling Again!

This time The Visitor has arrived at a LAKE which is really nice, but not so great!

Check the clue below to see if you can figure out where The Visitor is this time! Send your guess to the email given and be sure to include your shipping address in case you win! One correct entry will be randomly selected for this week’s winner!

Chapter Thirteen – True Confessions from the Missing

Connie opened the door to her office and stepped aside to let Clint in. She started to shut it, and thought better of the action, leaving it halfway open.

“Where’s this plan you wanted to show me?” He eyed her mom’s bulletin board.

She gave it a once over. There was nothing there but thank you cards and a survey form from the grocery store. She snapped her finger at her side and smoothed her navy skirt. She pulled the survey from the board. “I thought a couple of my primary volunteers, the ones who establish our purchase orders, could make a list of items that are regularly purchased.”

“How is that supposed to help.” He didn’t bother to look at the form that she held out to him.

“Well, that way, you can either accept or reject the items on the list before anyone spends money on them. The purchaser can have a pretty good idea you will approve the purchase.” She sounded like an idiot, but at least she was keeping him out of his office.

Not that her brother would likely find anything on the computer in there. Not if what she’d just learned about the man was indeed true.

He clasped his hands together around the handle of his briefcase and eyed her with suspicion. “Exactly why am I here?”

She had a choice. She could continue with the charade and try to excuse herself from the situation by pretending to be a dunderhead, or she could challenge him with some of her own questions. “If the donors aren’t giving very well, then why is it you decided on extra expenditures to fly out to meet with my uncle?”

“Wouldn’t you agree that some donors need a more personal touch?”

He made a point. “But that shouldn’t require an expensive hotel and a first-class seat on the flight.” He couldn’t very well talk his way out of that.

He set his case beside him and folded his arms over his chest. “Are you investigating me?”

Yes, actually. “As I said, I wasn’t sure where you were.” She wouldn’t throw her niece under the bus.

“Why didn’t you ask Hodges?”

“She had no idea where you were.” That was all beside the point anyway. “And it doesn’t explain why you would spend so much when you know the donors are no longer giving as much as they had been?”

“Where did you hear that donors are no longer giving?”

What was with all his questions? As she thought through it, he hadn’t given her a straight answer since they’d arrived at her office. “Are you saying that it’s not true?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“So, it is true?” Somehow, she needed to get an actual answer out of this guy.

“I didn’t say that either.”

That was it. She’d had it. “Mr. Rutherford, if you can’t or won’t answer my questions, then I’m not sure you need to continue working for the foundation.”

“You don’t have the authority to fire me, Miss Wright. I don’t answer to you.”

Oh, this was infuriating. Whether this guy was guilty of something or not, she’d be talking to Dad. This type of attitude was not what she signed up for.

He picked up his case and moved to the door.

“Wait, why is it that we don’t have access to the bank accounts anymore?”

He turned and glared at her. “You have not been here. There has been no reason for you to have access to the accounts.”

“Well, I’m here now.”

“And you can take it up with your father.” He put his back to her again.

“He doesn’t have access to the accounts either.” Not something the man could so easily wiggle out of.

He didn’t turn around but pushed through the open door.

She stopped him in the hallway as Mrs. Hodges came trotting toward them. “Why doesn’t Dad have access to the accounts anymore.”

“Have you spoken to him?”

“I’m speaking to you.”

“And you should answer her.” Mrs. Hodges stepped close, blocking his way. Her normal smile was replaced by a pointed look that bordered on fierceness.

Once again, he set his briefcase down. His neck was flushed under the collar of his shirt. “Your father is in charge of his own accounts. If things are changed there, he did the changing. I was tasked with giving more security to the finances since there has been . . .” He paused, glanced at Mrs. Hodges, and took a deep breath. Then he looked back at Connie. “There have been some inconsistencies in the books. Some of the numbers aren’t adding up.”

Of course, that could simply be a difference of accounting or simple clerical errors if the numbers were low, but he seemed to insinuate otherwise. And if the 1.5 M did stand for money, then it was serious indeed.

Diana Carson rounded the corner and stopped short as the man continued.

“Because the issues have been happening for such a long time, I limited access to your father and mother and me. That way, I could be sure to at least stop the embezzlement even if I couldn’t find the person responsible.”

The word had finally been said aloud. It had such a dirty sound to it. Mrs. Hodges flinched when he said it. Surely, she couldn’t be involved.

“But I have a good idea who that person might be.” He turned to the older woman. “Right?”

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Don’t forget to preorder the first book of The Visitor Mystery Series
THE VISITOR MAKES A RETREAT
from Amazon and forward your receipt for a free gift with purchase.
Send the receipt and your shipping address to
TheVisitorBooks2023@gmail.com
And please put the book title in the subject line.

Also, be sure to play our “Where is the Visitor Going Next” Contest.
We’ll be giving away lots of prizes!
You can find the first clue right here on January 16!
Come see if you can figure out where The Visitor is going next!

Coming Soon

THE VISITOR MAKES A RETREAT by Julie B Cosgrove|
February 10

THE VISITOR MEETS OLD HAIRY by Fay Lamb
March 10

THE VISITOR SEES A GHOST by Lill Kohler
April 14

THE VISITOR PLAYS A GAME by Shawna Robison Young
May 12

THE VISITOR KIDS AROUND by Dena Netherton
June 9

THE VISITOR HAS A BALL by Betty Thomason Owens
July 14

THE VISITOR CATCHES THE BOUQUET by Marji Laine
August 11