Free eBook - Murder One Too Many

Free eBook - Murder One Too Many

"Murder One Too Many," a standalone novel and the 5th in the Rachel Christie murder mystery series, will be available for free on Friday, 3/1/13, and Saturday, 3/2/13.


The CEO of a hospital dies and her body is found in a shallow grave. Her husband kills himself from an apparent suicide. Or was it? Rachel Christie was in a room fifty feet away and heard no shot. Yet she heard a woman scream. Rachel's investigation gets her too close to the answers and a dismissed employee attempts to kill her.

What secret does the hospital hold? Is someone killing hospital executives and relatives out of revenge? Rachel must unlock the answers before anyone else dies.

New Book Published - Murder of the Innocent

New Book Published - Murder of the Innocent

My new book “Murder of the Innocent” has now been published on Amazon and Barnes and Noble as an eBook for $2.99 and as a paperback on Create Space for $9.99. It is the fourth in the series, but is a standalone mystery as well as are all the others in the series.

In the book, a seven-year-old girl, drowned in salt water, is found hundreds of miles from the ocean. A Hispanic male, father of three, is drowned in salt water and his body is discovered in a landfill.

Private detective Rachel Christie must discover the connection. She finds evidence incriminating her partner Cody and pulls out all stops to find the killer before her partner is indicted as a sexual predator, and worse, a murderer. Rachel is shot at, thrown in jail, stabbed and trampled by a horse. Ron says she’ll get herself killed. Sunbeam says Rachel’s harmless to everyone but herself.

Illegal gambling thrives nearby. A registered sex offender is jailed for sending nasty emails to the dead girl. The political race for sheriff adds two more suspects. Would someone kill two people to win an election?

Too many questions. Too many clues. Too many lies. Too many suspects. Too little time.

The beginning is as is as follows:

The clouds were dark on top of dark, threatening. Not gray, but black ominous giants of wrath, poised to spew torrents of rain and a million volts of death-dealing lightning all around us. The wind's fury blew as if I were in a wind tunnel. With two steps trudged along the rushing water's mucky edge, another step was lost to the wind. The river was a murky muddy brown. No way a body could be spotted in water this dark. It would be difficult to see a body on land.

Cody, my partner, called at five and awakened me with an urgency in his voice that I couldn't ignore. Cody was normally the definition of calm. Always cool and collected. Not this morning. He called me from my living room. Maybe he thought that was the best way to wake me up. Better than his bursting in. Maybe he was afraid I might have someone with me. I must be getting a reputation in this small town. He had used the spare house key I had given him to get through the front door. I would have to rethink the option of his keeping the key.

Want to Read a New Murder Mystery?

Want to Read a New Murder Mystery?

After months of hard work, my third mystery novel is finished. This book is third episode in The Rachel Christie Mystery Series. The first two are "Murder by the Clock" and "Murder in Emerald Hills." All of these books take place in small northwestern North Carolina towns. All three books are available in eBook kindle format on Amazon or paperback at CreateSpace.

In this novel, "Murder by Lion," Rachel Christie becomes entangled in the gruesome murder of an heiress and philanthropist when she takes a pro bono case from her homeless friend Joe. She gets beaten and drugged by crazed addicts in solving a murder caused by a coverup that has been simmering for the past ten years.

It is a case that plunges her into physical and emotional bankruptcy and it nearly destroys her agency. Her associate Cody is forced to choose between his family and the agency and Rachel must commit to her close friend Ron or to her life as a private investigator.

* * *

The crowd hushed. The air was thick. Not from smoke, but from tension. Then, fingers pointed. People whispered. The old bum staggered across the restaurant floor. He fell to the floor, knocking over a potted plant, but rose again before anyone could move. Two waiters ran toward him, but not before he made it to the far corner of the room. As the crowd watched, homeless Joe and I caught a glimpse of each other at the same time.

I could see things weren't right. Joe was staggering. Joe would never let me see him drunk, so something bad must have happened. Why was he here? Obviously to see me. I jumped up so fast that my chair went crashing to the floor behind me.

My wine glass fell over onto the white, neatly pressed linen tablecloth. As I rushed toward him, he collapsed and fell at my feet, dropping the cell phone from his hand. Before he passed out, he said, in a barely audible voice, "Find her killer, Miss Christie. You can do it, if anybody can."

The Power of Mindless Activity

The Power of Mindless Activity

Since publishing my book “Murder in Emerald Hills,” last week on Create Space and Amazon, I have been relaxing and enjoying reading and doing some yard work. Both of these activities are good in preparation for my new book.

Yes, I already have the major plot outlined, but I have a few minor subplots on which I need to work. Giving my mind time to relax by doing mindless activities helps me to hone those plots.

Since my first book Rachel Christie book “Murder by theClock,” I came up with several plots for my next four books. As I mentioned, I just completed book two and published it on Amazon and Create Space. I started writing one of the other books but realized that particular book needed to be around number five in my series. Since then I started putting the plot together for book three and have, actually written the first three chapters. However, before I continue this book, I need to finalize my subplots. That is where I started this post. Actually, I have come up with some small subplots. I guess my mindless activity is paying off.

Murder in Emerald Hills

Murder in Emerald Hills

A Rachel Christie Mystery 2

After many months of hard work and months of editing by myself and others, I have finally published my second mystery novel “Murder in Emerald Hills.” This is the second in the Rachel Christie Mystery Series with the first book in the series being "Murder by the Clock."

The heroine, Rachel Christie, is a mechanical engineer turned private detective. Her years as an OSHA accident investigator have prepared her for her new life investigating murders. She also brings a lot of baggage to her new job in the form of bad memories of failed relationships. She moved to a quiet town in North Carolina to get away from her nickname “Jinxy.” But it isn’t working.

This novel opens with the heroine, Rachel Christie, in a dark hole. A real hole - a well. Thirty feet deep. Her assistant Cody is nowhere to be found. Her cell phone doesn't work. Her radio doesn't work. Her screaming doesn't work. She can't climb out because the well is too big and a pipe fell on her shoulder. Who did it? Who sent her a bomb? Who filled her desk with black widow spiders? It began as a case of land fraud in Emerald Hills. The chief suspect couldn't possibly do it, says Rachel's friend Ron. Sheriff Hayley has carnal knowledge of Ron but likes Rachel so much she deputizes her. There are too many pieces and they don't fit together. Who will Rachel believe as the bodies begin to stack up? Somebody's a murderer, a clever murderer.

Editing New Novel -- Second Time Through

Editing New Novel -- Second Time Through

I just finished writing my next novel today. I am far from finished. I don't know about other authors, but different phases of writing a book brings out different feelings. For me, that definitely is the case. This was the same with my first female sleuth novel, "Murder by the Clock."

I first start by coming up with my idea. When I write my book, I find that I deviate from what my plot was intended to be. The guilty party sometimes changes. I want to give the reader a chance to figure out who did it by the clues I give. I have always hated reading and then, at the end of the book, the author throws out who did it and nothing in the book has given me a clue that it was that person. He just pops up out of nowhere and confesses, "I did it." That's frustrating.

Sometimes my characters want to take control of my book. That's good to a certain point. However, my characters have to be consistent. If a character is unsympathetic toward his fellow man, it is unbelievable when he admits that he loves children or dogs.

My second time through my book requires a thorough understanding of my characters. Consistency is the key.

I find that, as the book progresses, I am more concerned with getting the plot and my ideas written than I am with style or anything else. The second time I concentrate on expanding on the thoughts I have written and in filling in description of the places and events.

I have many more read-throughs before my book will be ready for final editing for typos, consistency in names, spelling, etc. For now, I am satisfied with just reading through my book and making sure that the plot and characters are consistent.


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Writing New Novel

Writing New Novel

I have finally begun writing my next novel. After getting my novel "Murder by the Clock" published, it took about a month before I finally had the plot for my next book finalized. By finalized, I mean the major plot line completed. All of the minute details of the plot are still being formulated as I write the book.

As you can guess, I prefer to have the plot done before I start writing. Many writers begin writing and their plot develops as they progress in their writing of their novel. My mind does not work that way. I need to formulate my plot and the story line before I start writing. That way, when I do start writing, my novel progresses at a fast rate, without getting writer's block. I still find that a few of the major points in my plot require tweaking, but that is an enhancement that I make as I go.

I once saw a Hercules Poirot story where an author wrote Hercules asking him to figure out the ending. Hercules finally and grudgingly solved the author's problem, but most of us don't have Poirot to call upon. I always need an ending to my novel or, at least, two endings before I begin.

Writing Style

I never thought much about my writing style being similar to anyone's. After receiving a review of my book "Murder by the Clock" on Amazon, I was amazed. A reader said that my book was "Definitely on an equal with a good Michael Connelly book." I was shocked. Of course, I had heard of Michael Connelly. Who hasn't? Especially those of us who aspire to be mystery writers. Sam Spade popped into my mind when I re-read my book.

Maybe I shouldn't mention it, but I had never read a Michael Connelly book. Yesterday I bought one. I have read about a ten of it so far and I can see many similarities in our writing styles. A major difference is my main character is a female detective. I read a paragraph from Michael Connelly and asked him where it came from. He said, "I don't know. Is that your new book?"

I am a quarter of the way through writing my next book and hope I receive as favorable a response to it as I did on my first book.