Synopsis

In Frost on the Bloom, the second book in the Holly & Ivy mystery series, one of Holly’s former students, Becky Powell, asks the look-alike sisters for help when they all spend Christmas at Skyview Manor, and Becky becomes the prime suspect in the attempted murder of her manipulative grandmother, Lyla Powell. Once again the plucky sisters are reluctantly drawn into a murder investigation, convinced that Mrs. Powell’s duplicitous friends and greedy Powell family members have framed Becky for the crime. Holly’s involvement becomes a source of contention between her and Detective Nick Manelli, threatening their budding romance. Can their relationship continue to sizzle as the investigation heats up and the sister sleuths try to catch a cold-blooded killer?

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Excerpt

3  A CHANCE ENCOUNTER

“Ready?”  Holly asked putting her hand on the doorknob.

“Yes,” Ivy replied as she opened her black beaded clutch. “Wait a minute. I just need to get some tissues.” She stepped back into the bathroom.

“I’ll go out and get the elevator.” Holding the door so it wouldn’t slam, Holly backed out into the hall. Before she could turn around, someone brushed past her knocking her evening bag off her shoulder. “Excuse me,” she said as she turned and saw a blond, young man barely glance over his shoulder at her as he continued toward the elevator.

“Nice,” Holly said under her breath as she pulled the shoulder strap of her bag back in place and headed down the hall in the same direction. She walked slowly, hoping the elevator would arrive quickly so the man could board and she would avoid another direct encounter with him. She watched as he pressed the down button, then looked at himself in a mirror hanging to the left of the elevator door. He smoothed his thick, impeccably styled hair, stretched his neck and straightened his red, silk tie. Well-groomed, well-dressed and handsome in a Leonardo DiCaprio kind of way. She’d give him that.

Holly heard a door open and turned expecting to see Ivy. Instead, a young woman in a divine little black dress was stepping out of a room across from theirs. She was tall, at least six feet in her black patent leather stilettos, and her thick brunette hair piled atop her head.

Holly smiled, but the young woman was focused on the man standing at the elevator. She glided past Holly as if she were invisible. Holly decided she didn’t want to share the same airspace with this pair and stopped about fifteen feet from the elevator, feigning interest in a series of still-life paintings hanging on the wall.

The young man stepped back from the mirror, looked at the brunette and smirked. “Are you ready for this?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she replied, taking her turn in the mirror, leaning in close to examine her eye make-up. “Remember. She can’t live forever.”

Holly looked back down the hall as she heard a door open and saw Ivy exiting their room. She glanced back at the couple. Where is that elevator?

“Sorry, I took so long,” Ivy said. “I dropped my toiletry bag, and it took me a while to pick everything up,” She continued toward the elevator before Holly could stop her. “Merry Christmas,” she said as she approached the couple. Both turned their backs to her and the man looked up at the floor indicator over the door, just as it opened. The pair quickly boarded.

“Could you hold the door a second?” Ivy asked, looking back at Holly who was still standing midway between their room and the elevator. “C’mon, Holly.”

Ivy turned back just in time to catch a final glimpse of the handsome couple leaning on the back wall of the elevator, neither making any attempt to press the hold button as the elevator door closed. She turned to Holly, eyes wide, her mouth slightly open. “They didn’t even try to hold the door. Do you believe that?”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Holly replied.

About the Author

An avid reader, Sally Handley has been a mystery lover since she read her first Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden and Cherry Ames books as a young girl. Sally is author of the Holly & Ivy classic cozy mystery series and the stand-alone suspense novel, Stop the Threat. A member of Sisters in Crime and Past President of the Upstate SC Chapter, Sally hosts a monthly on-line Mystery Book Club and a Meet the Authors Series on her YouTube Channel.

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