Clues in the Sand (A Seaside Cove Bed & Breakfast Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Self Published
Release Date – March 15, 2018
Print Length: 191 pages

Synopsis

To Rick Atwood’s dismay, the police find a body on the beach near his Seaside Cove B&B. The dead woman held a pottery shard from an ancient rice bowl, which the cops believe is a clue to her murder.

The chief suspect is Flynn O’Connor, a female archaeologist known for her hatred of treasure thieves. Trouble is, Rick’s daughter Alex sees Flynn as a role model and will not believe her friend is a killer.

Alex pressures her dad as only a ten-year-old can to prove Flynn is innocent. The mayor is also making demands—for Rick to stay out of the investigation. With his daughter and the mayor at odds, Rick sees trouble brewing. He knows too well how much Alex loves sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong. Especially when there’s murder involved.

Guest Post

Thanks for having me here today. Let me do a quick introduction. My name is Richard J. Atwood. I’m a former New York journalist with a ten-year-old daughter. We moved to Seaside Cove a little over a year ago, and that’s when my life started to spiral out of control.

As a writer, I’d say Clues in the Sand is the second installment in the little saga we call life in Seaside Cove. As a parent, I’d call it an unmitigated disaster. That’s right, a disaster. I say that because I don’t know of any parent who wants their child exposed to danger. But that’s exactly the problem—my ten-year-old daughter Alex is precocious and too smart for her own good. Let me tell you what she’s done.

It all began over the summer when Alex was playing matchmaker for me and our cook, Marquetta. In reality, Marquetta is one part cook, one part confidante, and one part business adviser. When my grandfather, Captain Jack, died, she kept the B&B running until Alex and I could relocate. I wasn’t sure about moving to a small town after the way things were going in New York, but I decided to chuck it all and give this a try.

I was surprised because Alex became infatuated with Marquetta almost immediately. To be truthful so did I. That, however, is a complication none of us need in our lives. Let’s face it, I’m a single parent trying to run a business and raise my daughter. That’s quite enough on my plate. It’s a point on which Alex and I disagree completely. She calls me lame; I tell her she’s oversimplifying things.

Then there’s the murder itself. A woman died on the beach. She was holding a Ming Dynasty rice bowl fragment in her hands. Deputy Cunningham asked me to give him some advice because he doesn’t have much experience in solving murders. I don’t either, but I covered enough of them as a reporter to make me the town expert. In fact, one of our guests—who also happens to be the main suspect—went so far as to call me Detective Innkeeper.

I was not pleased about the title, but that leads to the third problem, the mayor. Mayor Carter was quite upset when she learned I was consulting with the deputy. The poor guy is overworked because the Chief of Police doesn’t do much and the other deputy has been ill lately. Whether the mayor was justified in her little rant or not, I did not want to cause problems for us. Alex, however, disagreed. Again.

The fourth problem is I think Alex is corrupting Marquetta. When we arrived here, Marquetta was on the straight and narrow. She ran a tight ship thanks to the lessons she’d learned from Captain Jack. But lately, I’m seeing changes. And who else would be behind those changes? My daughter.

Problem number five, and the largest by far is Alex’s persistent efforts to stick her nose where it doesn’t belong. She’s once again spying on our guests, investigating them, and I believe she might even have gotten Marquetta in on the act. This is just getting so out of hand.

The bottom line is, I think I’ve lost control of my daughter and my cook; the mayor is mad at me, and there’s a killer running around town. If that’s not enough to qualify as an unmitigated disaster, I don’t know what is.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go find Alex. I’m pretty sure she’s got her nose somewhere it doesn’t belong.

* * *

About the Author

Terry Ambrose is a former skip tracer who only stole cars when it was legal. He’s long since turned his talents to writing mysteries and thrillers. Several of his books have been award finalists and in 2014 his thriller, “Con Game,” won the San Diego Book Awards for Best Action-Thriller. He’s currently working on the Seaside Cove Bed & Breakfast Mystery series.

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