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CATEGORIES
AUTHORS
Habu Stephen Bush OTHER IMPRINTS
Memberof The Australian Publishers Association Member of
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What's the Point? by Olivia Stowe Charlotte Diamond Mysteries 5
Murder Mystery, Romance, Lesbian
E-BOOK RRP US$2.99
PRINT BOOK US$7.95
BLURB: In
the fifth Charlotte Diamond mystery, the retired FBI investigator and her
significant other, glamorous senior movie star Brenda Brandon (aka Boynton),
return from a murder- and gem-theft-punctuated Christmas cruise down the Rhine
River to confusion and catastrophe in their usually quiet retirement village of
Hopewell on the Choptank in Maryland. The wooded lot next door to Brenda’s
historical mansion, a lot that Brenda thought she owned, is being bulldozed by a
New York construction firm for a mystery development. All of the homes and land
from Charlotte’s own riverside cottage to the end of their road are being
leveled as well, including Charlotte’s neighbors’ house, and she has no idea
where their dog sitter may have gone with their beloved dogs, Rocket and Sam. The
two women and their previously sleepy riverside village are propelled into a
hotbed of confusion, with disappearances and murder aplenty. Only Charlotte’s
experience and skills from her previous life in the FBI and the appearance of an
old flame Charlotte has been trying to avoid because of mixed feelings enable
them to start unraveling the mystery of what is happening with spymaster Win
Engleton’s property. EXCERPT: Charlotte
walked up River Street toward the point, which ended in a large piece of
property walled off at the end of River Street. It belonged to a former CIA
counterintelligence chief who Charlotte had known and who had disappeared to
great fanfare and a full-scale. . . . The
first thing she saw when she looked up from her introspection was the line of
large bulldozers the construction worker had said were there. They were lined up
near the end of River Street toward the point and on the side of the road that
Charlotte’s own cottage was located—on the river side. The second thing she
noticed, what set her heart racing and started her running in a waddling gait up
the street on her chubby legs, was that the house beyond hers was a flattened
pile of timbers and roofing. It had been bulldozed to the ground. That
was the Wellses’ house—the house of a couple that had been on an archeology
dig for most of the time Charlotte had lived in Hopewell. It was the house that
the schoolteacher, Sherry Landon, who was taking care of Charlotte and
Brenda’s Siberian husky, Sam, and Rocket, their boxer, was renting. Her
eyes hadn’t deceived her. The house had been demolished, as had two of the
houses across the street. There was no sign of Sherry or the dogs. Confused
and in shock, Charlotte went back to her own house, next door to the demolished
house. She entered, struggling with the lock on the front door until she
discovered with dismay that it wasn’t locked; stumbled into the living room;
and sat heavily down on the sofa. She had to think. It was all such a great
shock. As
she calmed down, she began to look around and her concern deepened. This
wasn’t the way she’d left the room. Some small items had been moved around.
Even the recliner and TV had been moved. She rose from the sofa and walked from
room to room in the cottage. It wasn’t just that items had been moved. There
were signs of habitation—continued habitation. There was food in the
refrigerator, dishes in the sink, dirty laundry in the basket on top of the
washer, and both men’s and women’s clothing that wasn’t hers hanging in
the master bedroom closet. The bed wasn’t even made up as she had left it. She
had no idea what this was all about, but she’d find out. But not until she’d
gotten Brenda’s problems sorted out. Brenda came first. And at least her house
was still standing. Regardless, she was sick with worry about where Sherry and
the dogs were—and if they were safe.
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