One Dead, Two to Go (An Eddie Shoes Mystery)

Series: Eddie Shoes Mystery (Book 1)
Publisher: Camel Press (April 15, 2016)
Paperback: 240 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1603813112
E-Book ASIN: B01DURRHSM

Synopsis

Private Investigator Edwina “Eddie Shoes” Schultz’s most recent job has her parked outside a seedy Bellingham hotel, photographing her quarry as he kisses his mistress goodbye. This is the last anyone will see of the woman… alive. Her body is later found dumped in an abandoned building. Eddie’s client, Kendra Hallings, disappears soon after. Eddie hates to be stiffed for her fee, but she has to wonder if Kendra could be in trouble too. Or is she the killer?

Eddie usually balks at matters requiring a gun, but before she knows it, she is knee-deep in dangerous company, spurred on by her card-counting adrenaline-junkie mother who has shown up on her doorstep fresh from the shenanigans that got her kicked out of Vegas. Chava is only sixteen years older than Eddie and sadly lacking in parenting skills. Her unique areas of expertise, however, prove to be helpful in ways Eddie can’t deny, making it hard to stop Chava from tagging along.

Also investigating the homicide is Detective Chance Parker, new to Bellingham’s Major Crimes unit but no stranger to Eddie. Their history as a couple back in Seattle is one more kink in a chain of complications, making Eddie’s case more frustrating and perilous with each tick of the clock.

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Life In Western Washington by Eddie Shoes (with a little help from Elena Hartwell)

I moved to Bellingham, Washington a couple of years ago. It’s a great place to live. Mostly it’s quiet, although we have had a few more murders than usual in the last year. I hope that’s not a trend. I did notice it coincided with my mother, Chava, moving in with me, but I try not to think about that too much.

The Pacific Northwest isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I moved here from Spokane, which is about as far east as you can go and not be in Idaho. Spokane is much drier than everything west of the Cascade Mountain range. It’s also hotter in the summer and colder in the winter. There are a lot of wonderful things about Eastern Washington. For example, some of the best wines in the world come from east of the Cascades. But now I call Western Washington home.

When I first moved to this side of the mountains, I lived in Seattle. Seattle is a great town. There are fabulous restaurants, marvelous bars, and spectacular views of the Olympic Mountains across the water. You can take a ferry boat to an island, out to the peninsula, or even as far as Canada. There are otters in the Aquarium and bald eagles often soar over the city.

There are lots of reasons to visit Seattle, from the Space Needle to the Pike Place Market, but I’m happy to be living in Bellingham.

Bellingham is home to Western Washington University, which keeps our population young and vital. We have a sweet little downtown area, where it’s easy to park and buildings aren’t more than a few stories tall, so skyscrapers don’t block out the sky.

We have live music at night from local bands and our own share of tasty restaurants and exciting nightlife. Plus, as an added bonus, we get less rain than Seattle. Okay, maybe just by a couple of inches, but still, a little less rain.

I like the rain, though. It keeps washing the world down, like a cleansing ritual for the environment. Water falls to earth before it runs to the sea. There’s a nice, cyclical rhythm to that, which appeals to me. It’s hard to hide dirt in a world where the sky always washes things clean. That’s good for a private investigator.

My mother complains a lot about the weather here. She lived for a lot of years in Las Vegas and the cold, wet climate isn’t her idea of fun. But I think my town is starting to rub off on her. She definitely appreciates our beautiful summers, with long days of golden sunlight. She’s less thrilled about winter, which stays dark from about four o’clock in the afternoon to eight o’clock the next morning. I see it as a tradeoff, however, to having daylight until almost ten o’clock at night in the summer.

Chava is doing a lot better now that she’s working at the casino. After all, you can’t tell what the weather is doing when you’re inside a place like that.

All in all, Bellingham is a brilliant little town. You should come and visit us out here soon. I’ll buy you a great cup of coffee and tell you all about those recent murders. I have to admit, I was involved with most of them, in one way or another. Stay a spell, and I’ll fill you in.

About the Author

After twenty years in the theater, Elena Hartwell turned her dramatic skills to fiction. Her first novel, One Dead, Two to Go introduces Eddie Shoes, private eye. Called “the most fun detective since Richard Castle stumbled into the 12th precinct,” by author Peter Clines, I’DTale Magazine stated, “this quirky combination of a mother-daughter reunion turned crime-fighting duo will captivate readers.”

In addition to her work as a novelist, Elena teaches playwriting at Bellevue College and tours the country to lead writing workshops.

When she’s not writing or teaching, her favorite place to be is at the farm with her horses, Jasper and Radar, or at her home, on the middle fork of the Snoqualmie River in North Bend, Washington, with her husband, their dog, Polar, and their trio of cats, Jackson, Coal Train, and Luna, aka, “the other cat upstairs.” Elena holds a B.A. from the University of San Diego, a M.Ed. from the University of Washington, Tacoma, and a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia.

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