Mystery of the Eight Islands (Trouble in Paradise)
Cozy Mystery
11th in Series
Independently Published (November 2, 2021)
Length: 325 pages

Synopsis

If you love senior sleuths in cozy mysteries, you’re going to love McKenna and his pal Chance Logan

Apartment manager and amateur sleuth McKenna wants a break from solving murders. Too bad his best friend, wannabe PI Chance Logan, doesn’t feel the same. Chance has found a case he thinks McKenna’s going to love—the death of prominent attorney Julian Carr, and the theft of a 125-year-old necklace that’s worth a quarter of a million dollars. Before long, McKenna’s feeling pressured from all sides—find the necklace, solve the murder. Sure. Why not just add save the world?

McKenna’s sure something fishy is going on when he and Chance meet with Julian’s granddaughter about the case. She’s created her own murder board with five suspects. The list includes an unstable, art-collecting veterinarian, a convicted felon, a disbarred attorney, a suspected art thief, and Julian’s new business partner.

As the investigation ramps up, McKenna and Chance see their leads drying out faster than laundry in the tropical sun. The really bad news is they’re not sure they can even find the Eight Islands or solve the murder. For once, McKenna’s worried they just might fail.

Why you might love this book:

Tired of the same old cozy mystery fare? Then cozy up with male amateur detective McKenna and his PI wannabe pal Chance Logan in this Hawaii murder mystery. When it comes to senior sleuths in cozy mysteries, McKenna’s as sharp as they come, but with a fun dose of snarky attitude thrown in. Enjoy the ambience of Hawaii while you’re savoring a little murder in paradise.

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Guest Post

McKenna’s Skip Tracing Secrets

by Terry Ambrose

McKenna is back for his eleventh Trouble in Paradise Mystery. Once again, he relies on his trusty ‘Skip Tracing Secrets’ to help him solve the crime. In Mystery of the Eight Islands, McKenna draws on three of the secrets from his list—the first, second, and fifth.

Skip Tracing Secret #1: be flexible and go with the flow

This ‘secret’ is something I learned the hard way. My mother always wanted me to be a banker…or a lawyer…or maybe a doctor (doesn’t everybody’s mother want them to grow up to be a doctor?). But no, I wanted to be a teacher. Science was my thing. I had my eyes on the stars and was fascinated by all things space.

But one too many bad grades in second-year physics dashed that plan and sent me fleeing to the social sciences. I soon saw a different side of the world—the people side. And I loved that even more. With the enthusiasm of youth, I turned my sights on archaeological digs.

Then came graduation…and a self-imposed one-year sabbatical from school. One year turned into two, and my dreams of going on digs in South America bit the dust. Realizing that,  once again, I needed to be flexible, I turned to business.

Skip Tracing Secret #2: when in doubt, lie

My first job in business was with Beneficial Finance. That’s where I learned to skip trace. It’s also where I learned how well people can lie.

It was my first day on the job and my boss handed me a stack of fifty past-due loan cards. My job was to call every one of those people and get money or schedule them to come in and rewrite their loan. (I was still too naive to realize I was handing people a shovel so they could dig a deeper financial hole).

I made my fifty calls, got promises to pay from almost everyone, and proudly reported the results to my boss. His response? “We’ll see.” I didn’t know what he meant until all of my promised payment dates had passed and nobody had paid. Not one.

For a college graduate who thought he knew how the world worked, it was a rude awakening. It was also the path that eventually brought me to writing.

Skip Tracing Secret #5: The best defense is a good offense

To survive as a skip tracer and bill collector, I had to learn to play the game the same way the customers played it. I had to learn to lie. There were lines I couldn’t cross and rules I couldn’t break, which meant that as one of the ‘good guys,’ I could only take things so far.

In the world of the amateur sleuth, those lines blur. But even when writing that world, I try to keep things real. McKenna and Chance know they can’t run roughshod over the police. They know that if they anger a killer, they’ll have targets on their backs. So when writing that amateur sleuth world, my best defense is a good storyline. I hope you enjoy the one in Mystery of the Eight Islands.

About the Author

Once upon a time, in a life he’d rather forget, Terry Ambrose tracked down deadbeats for a living. He also hired big guys with tow trucks to steal cars—but only when negotiations failed. Those years of chasing deadbeats taught him many valuable life lessons such as—always keep your car in the garage.

Terry has written eighteen books, several of which have been award finalists. In 2014, his thriller, “Con Game,” won the San Diego Book Awards for Best Action-Thriller. His series include the Trouble in Paradise McKenna Mysteries, the Seaside Cove Bed & Breakfast Mysteries, and the License to Lie thriller series.

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