Synopsis

Business has been slow for Private Investigator, Delanie Fitzgerald, but her luck seems to change when a tell-all author hires her to find rock star, Johnny Velvet. Could the singer whose career purportedly ended in a fiery crash almost thirty years ago, still be alive?

And as though sifting through dead ends in a cold case isn’t bad enough, Chaz Wellington Smith, III, a loud-mouthed, strip club owner, also hires Delanie to uncover information about the mayor’s secret life. When the mayor is murdered, Chaz, is the key suspect. Now Delanie must clear his name and figure out why landscaper Tripp Payne, keeps popping up in her other investigation. Can the private investigator find the connection between the two cases before another murder – possibly her own – takes place?

Secret Lives and Private Eyes is a fast-paced mystery that will appeal to readers who like a strong, female sleuth with a knack for getting herself in and out of humorous situations.

Guest Post

20 Things about my Sleuth – Delanie Fitzgerald of Falcon Investigations

Thank you so much for letting me visit today. I write mystery novels and short stories. Secret Lives and Private Eyes is the first in the Delanie Fitzgerald mystery series. She is a private investigator who lives in Central Virginia. And I’m often asked about what my protagonist is really like.

Here’s my top-twenty list of Delanie facts.

1. Delanie is a redhead like 1-2% of the human population. She has grit, determination, and a spunky spirit.
2. She drives a Mustang, and she calls it “Black Beauty.”
3. My private investigator graduated from VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) with a degree in business.
4. She lives in a Sears catalog home from 1939. Back then, people ordered kits from the catalog, and all of the pieces arrived by rail, ready to assemble. Hers is the Yates model. Many of the boards in her bungalow still have the Sears catalog number stamped on them.
5. Her partner is computer guru (and hacker), Duncan Reynolds.
6. She shares her office space with Duncan and his English bulldog Margaret.
7. One of Delanie’s guilty pleasures is her junk food habit. She also orders a lot of take-out from the nearby restaurants.
8. When she’s not sleuthing or trailing a suspect, she likes to stay home in her comfy jammies and watch reality TV.
9. Growing up, Delanie had a major crush on ‘80s rock star, Johnny Velvet from The Vibes.
10. Delanie has two older brothers. Steve is a Chesterfield County police lieutenant, and Robbie is a bouncer at a club in downtown Richmond.
11. She used her share of the money from her father’s estate to open Falcon Investigations.
12. Delanie chose the name for her company in honor of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon.
13. Her middle name is Lynn.
14. Her client, Chaz Wellington Smith, owns a strip club in the downtown area near where Edgar Allan Poe worked in Richmond.
15. Delanie had never seen an alpaca up close until she encountered Myrtle on John Bailey’s farm in Amelia County.
16. Delanie’s best friend from school is hair stylist, Paisley Ford.
17. Though she prefers the comfort of jeans and T-shirts, Delanie has a wardrobe full of outfits and shoes to create just the right look when she’s sleuthing.
18. Her favorite drink is iced coffee, and her go-to treat is always chocolate.
19. Delanie and Duncan usually investigate cheating spouses. She is thrilled when she lands an assignment from tell-all author, Tish Taylor, to track down leads on rocker Johnny Velvet, who purportedly died in a fiery car crash in the ‘80s.
20. While the story is fiction, many of the locales that Delanie visits are real. Some of these include: Amelia County, Belle Island, Byrd Park, Church Hill, The Diamond (Home of the Richmond Flying Squirrels), Kanawha Canal, Library of Virginia, Main Street Station, Shockoe Slip, Tredegar Iron Works, and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Readers who have been to Central Virginia will recognize some of the street and place names.

StoreyBook Reviews here – Heather, thank you for stopping by and sharing some tidbits about Delanie!  Now we know “the rest of the story” as Paul Harvey used to say.

About the  Author

Heather Weidner’s short stories appear in Virginia is for Mysteries and Virginia is for Mysteries Volume II. Currently, she is President of Sisters in Crime – Central Virginia, and a member of Guppies and Lethal Ladies Write. Secret Lives and Private Eyes is her debut novel.

Originally from Virginia Beach, Heather has been a mystery fan since Scooby Doo and Nancy Drew. She lives in Central Virginia with her husband and a pair of Jack Russell terriers.

Heather earned her BA in English from Virginia Wesleyan College and her MA in American literature from the University of Richmond. Through the years, she has been a technical writer, editor, college professor, software tester, and IT manager.

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