The Blind Switch (A Rosedale Investigations Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Publisher: Camel Press (January 12, 2021)
Paperback: 230 pages
Synopsis
The first book in the Rosedale Investigations series finds Wayne Nichols, our doggedly determined Detective, and his sassy and irreverent partner, Dory Clarkson, starting new jobs as private investigators. Their first client, Cara Summerfield, comes with what appears to be a missing person’s case. Cara got pregnant in high school and baby Danny was adopted. Her husband, Grant, an up-and-coming politician has never been told about the pregnancy. Their only clue is an unreadable return address on a letter sent to Cara from Danny’s girlfriend. Danny is now a racehorse trainer and has been assaulted for non-payment of gambling debts. Cara charges Rosedale Investigations to find Danny and keep his existence completely confidential. When Danny is found, he’s in the ICU and not expected to live. When he passes away, it appears to the pathologist to be natural causes, but Detective Nichols doesn’t buy it. It looks like murder to him.
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Guest Post
Making up new characters is one of the most fun and creative parts of writing fiction. For the Rosedale Investigations series, I needed a young person. The older partners in the firm were PD Pascoe, in his mid-seventies, Dory Clarkson, age a well-kept secret but approaching seventy, and Wayne Nichols, sixty years old. Obviously, if the stories were to appeal to a younger audience, I needed a young character. Thus the invention of Billy Jo Bradley who is twenty-one.
I gave Billy Jo a semi-tragic family background. Her mother dies of ovarian cancer when Billy Jo is seventeen. Her mother never told her who her father was, and he has never been in the picture. The mother’s father, Billy Jo’s grandfather, (Hector Bradley) is an important person in her life, but he dies only two years after her mother. Hector had a military background and served in Viet Nam where he met PD Pascoe and they became best friends. When Hector dies of emphysema, he asks PD to watch out for Billy Jo. It’s a good thing he did because by then Billy Jo was waiting table, going to community college at night, and living in her car. She’s taught herself computer skills and has become proficient in using the computer to ferret out the backgrounds of PD’s clients who often withhold information about themselves.
Billy Jo is ambitious and hard-working, but she’s also a kid. She loves music and particularly opera which she listens to when she’s struggling with a problem. Although she knows no Italian, the sound seems to help her come up with ideas. In “The Blind Switch” Billy Jo gets a date to the opera and spends a small fortune on a purple evening gown. She learns a difficult lesson when PD refuses to pay for the dress and she has to make payments to the business for a year.
Billy Jo needs parenting, and luckily Dory Clarkson steps in as a clothes and make-up consultant. She’s made a difference because initially, Billy Jo wasn’t wearing shoes in the office and meeting clients in off-the-shoulder shirts with black bras, and high-top sneakers. Wayne Nichols becomes a father figure for Billy Jo. She’s often ignored in staff meetings and Wayne makes sure her input is noted. He is also very protective of her. In “The Blind Split” when she is asked to copy a client’s emails and is seen leaving the house, a gunman shoots at her. Wayne is the person who makes her report the incident to the Sheriff. He also makes sure she isn’t alone at night and Dory offers her a guest room until the shooter is in custody. PD is Billy Jo’s adopted grandfather, and he’s the person who sets high standards for her. She badly wants to be made a partner in the firm of Rosedale Investigations, and PD is not ready to allow that. She had to prove herself for his approval. None of the senior team has children.
When Billy Jo meets Mark Schneider, a computer whiz who works for law enforcement, they are instantly attracted to each other. They begin a relationship and are caught in semi-compromising positions by Wayne Nichols who sends Mark packing. Dory teases Wayne, saying he’s not Billy Jo’s father, and horrifies him by hinting if the relationship endures, that Billy Jo will get a little dragon tattooed on her bottom. Mark has a tattoo of a dragon on his back.
About the Author
Lynda J. Farquhar (penname Lyn Farrell) holds a master’s degree in English and a Ph.D. in Higher Education/Administration from Michigan State University. Prior to her retirement from MSU, she was a professor in the College of Human Medicine where she worked for 30+ years. When she retired, she returned to her first love, writing, and self-published a YA Trilogy, “Tales of the Skygrass Kingdom.” Subsequently, she and her daughter, Lisa Fitzsimmons, wrote a 7-book mystery series, “The Mae December Mysteries,” published by Camel Press under their joint penname, Lia Farrell. Marketing efforts for the Mae December mysteries, as well as much work by Camel on subsidiary rights, deal with Harlequin, have resulted in sales of 22,000+ (to date) for the series. She is now writing a new mystery series, “Rosedale Investigations.” The first is titled, “The Blind Switch” and was released in January 2021.
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