Craks in a Marriage (Mah Jongg Mysteries)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – Florida
Self Published (February 6, 2018)
Print Length: 204 pages

Synopsis

When Sydney Bonner overhears a fellow mah jongg player arguing on the phone with her husband, she realizes the couple’s “perfect marriage” isn’t all it appears to be. A few days later, the husband is found dead, his head bashed in. Fearing she’ll be considered the most likely suspect, the widow prevails upon Sydney and her three friends—Marianne, Kat and Micki—to find out who really killed him.

Though none of these four fun-loving, take-charge retirees has any training as detectives, the women agree to launch a secret investigation. As they dig under the happy veneer of their community’s social life, they find more than enough suspects, from shady ladies to resentful golf buddies, to keep them looking over their shoulders.

Could the murderer be lurking among the talent in a chaotic production put on by Sydney’s husband, who will do anything to keep busy in retirement? Could the sheriff, who may have more than a professional interest in chanteuse Kat, end up pinning the crime on the women instead? Each discovery during their investigations and their weekly mah jongg game keeps them running as they close in on the killer—but the killer may also be closing in on them.

Guest Post

Ten Signs You Could Be a Mystery Fan

If you’re reading this, you’re probably a mystery fan already, but just in case you still have doubts or you want to convince a friend to read a mystery, here are some suggestions about who would most likely enjoy reading this genre.

1. You never (okay, maybe once or twice) peak at the last page of the book to find out how it ends. You want the thrill of getting there on your own.

I was surprised when a friend once told me she did this with every book she picked up. It was such an alien concept. Even when I haven’t liked a book enough to finish it, I don’t recall first reading the last page. For the detective, solving the mystery may be the goal, but the challenge of getting there is the motivation.

2. When meeting new people, you like to guess their occupation before they tell you and get a little ego kick when you’re right.

This applies to other personal information as well, like their age and marital status. It certainly is a great help when it comes to making conversation.

3. If you’re a fan of soap operas, you constantly guess their storyline (and not from what you’ve read on social media).

It’s not that you’re that anxious to know, you just want to prove you’re ahead of the other viewers.

4. You finish sentences for your spouse or best friend.

Bad habit, right? But you can’t help it. It’s not you’re an impatient type. You just can’t help yourself.

5. When sampling a chef-prepared dish, you’re not happy until you’ve identified every ingredient.

Okay, you have to be a bit of a foodie as well, but for you, there is a greater joy in ingredient identification than simply enjoying the wonderful food.

6. When watching a film or TV show, you can’t rest until you figure out what actor is playing a certain character.

Thank goodness for the availability of online searches. What did people do before the Internet?

7. Films and movies are no longer fun for you because you know the ending long before the last line, but you keep watching because you have to reassure yourself you were right.

Have friends or family stopped watching TV or movies with you due to this tendency? It may be fun for you to announce what’s coming, but probably not for them. If this is you, you may want to get used to being a loner.

8. Magic tricks make you crazy because if done well, it’s difficult to figure out how they were done.

Me, personally? I’m not a big fan of magic for this reason.

9. You’re a fan of question marks (you like asking questions).

Not only does this make you a great interviewer, which is what detectives do, it also makes you a pretty good conversationalist. Like #2 above, you can handle yourself at social events. Stuck for something to say? Just ask a question.

10. At the grocery store, when you stand in line waiting for your own items to be tallied, you like to see what the person in front of you has selected.

You might just be curious or nosey, but the food purchases of others fascinate you because they suggest habits and lifestyles.

Do any of these resonate? Maybe you’re aware of others? If so, I’d like to know more.

About the Author

Barbara Barrett started reading mysteries when she was pregnant with her first child to keep her mind off things like her changing body and food cravings. When she’d devoured as many Agatha Christies as she could find, she branched out to English village cozies and Ellery Queen.

Later, to avoid a midlife crisis, she began writing fiction at night when she wasn’t at her day job as a human resources analyst for Iowa State Government. After releasing eleven full-length romance novels and one novella, she has returned to the cozy mystery genre, using one of her retirement pastimes, the game of mah jongg, as her inspiration. Not only has it been a great social outlet, it has also helped keep her mind active when not writing.

Craks in a Marriage, the first book in her “Mah Jongg Mystery” series, features four friends who seek the murderer of another mah jongg player’s husband before she is charged. None of the four is based on an actual person. Each is an amalgamation of several mah jongg friends with a lot of Barbara’s imagination thrown in for good measure. The four will continue to appear in future books in the series.

Anticipating the day when she would write her first mystery, she has been a member of the Mystery/Romantic Suspense chapter of Romance Writers of America for over a decade. She credits them with helping her hone her craft.

Barbara is married to a man she met her senior year of college. They have two grown children and eight grandchildren.

Now retired, she is a resident of Florida, although she spends her summers in Iowa, her home state. She earned her B.A. degree in History from the University of Iowa and her Master’s Degree in History from Drake University.

When not in front of her laptop creating her next story, she plays Mah Jongg, knits, and enjoys lunches with friends.

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