So excited to announce that my Thanksgiving mystery, A Threat at the Feast, is available for pre-order! This is the fourth mystery in my Rae Riley Mysteries series. To get my thank-you gift for pre-ordering, go to this landing page and fill out the form.
Here’s the blurb and the first pages of Chapter 1.
When the estranged grandfather of her sort-of boyfriend Deputy Chris Kincaid is found murdered at the library where she works, amateur sleuth Rae Riley and her dad Sheriff Walter “Mal” Malinowski race to catch the killer by Thanksgiving before Chris is prosecuted for first degree murder.
*****
One step outside the door of Cervelli’s Deli, and they were on me.
“Miss Riley, does your father often use you in his investigations?”
“Rae, how important was it to you to help your dad?
“Rae, what did Ariella Sharpe say to you when you met with her?”
The reporters thrust phones and cameras and mikes into my face, pressing me back into the closed door of the deli. I clutched the sack with Dad’s and my lunch against my chest. If I’d known they were waiting for me, I would have asked Mr. Cervelli if I could go out by the alley.
Setting my jaw, I straightened to my full 5’11”, which allowed me to see over most of the incoming tide of reporters. That view made them seem less overwhelming. But just as obnoxious.
Remembering what Dad had said about earlier cases I’d been involved in, I said, “The investigation is ongoing.” I projected my voice as best I could over the assault of questions. “I can’t comment.”
“Pushing off the door, I headed down Main Street toward Dad’s office. The noon sun warmed the November day, making it feel more like September than two weeks before Thanksgiving. The orange leaves of the almost bare maple trees lining the street looked like sparks against the clear blue sky. But I couldn’t slow down and enjoy the balmy day with reporters moving with me like a dozen extra shadows.
Marlin County, Ohio, had definitely gained its fifteen minutes of fame. Unfortunately, my family was caught in the spotlight. The case on Halloween had been weird enough to snag national attention. And then two days ago, Dad had made an arrest in the Sharpe case. Since it involved a New York novelist and his supermodel wife, even more reporters and influencers had shown up.
“Miss Riley, you’re not a cop. Why can’t you comment?”
“Rae, did your father order you not to talk to reporters?”
Shoot fires. The light at the corner of Main and Sugar was red. I’d have to wait.
Avoiding eye contact, I stared over most of their heads to the door of the old, dingy white building that housed the sheriff’s department.
“How accurate is the report that you’re the brains behind your father’s success in solving his recent, high-profile cases?”
“What?” I gawked at the reporter who’d asked the question.
She was thin, middle-aged, average height, with her silvery gray hair cut short except for her bangs that slanted across her forehead. “You’ve been instrumental in your father’s cases, haven’t you?”
“I—uh
“Is it true you didn’t know Sheriff Malinowski was your father until last year?”
My eyes threatened to leave their sockets. How did she know that? Dad and I discovering each other last Christmas was no secret in the county. But how had this stranger found out these details? And why bother?
The rest of the reporters joined in.
“Is that true, Miss Riley?”
“How did you find out Sheriff Malinowski is your father?”
They pressed against my arms, my back, and the light had cycled through green and was red again.
”
“She won’t talk to you.” The bellow came from across the street, whipping the crowd in its direction.
Dad’s powerful, 6’6″ frame filled the front door of the sheriff’s office, looking like Thor had given up Asgard to become a sheriff in rural Ohio.
The light turned green.
I catapulted onto the crosswalk, jostling several reporters, and ran to Dad, my camera backpack bouncing against my jean jacket.
The reporters charged after me.”
*****
