Death at Rock Bottom: A Paranormal Mystery (Reluctantly Psychic Murder Mystery)
Paranormal Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Setting – New Mexico
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tule Publishing
Publication Date ‏ : ‎ July 30, 2025

Synopsis

She can touch an object and sense the emotions of the people who’ve held it before…

After solving the mystery of her predecessor’s death, geologist Petra Cloch wants to focus on her new job as the rocks and minerals curator at a quirky, small-town New Mexico museum. But her friend and colleague Liberty is suspicious of the “accidental” death of Frank Underwood, a retired petroleum engineer and rockhound who unexpectedly died while hiking. Frank acted odd and secretive in his last weeks—mumbling about an incredible find in the desert and aliens. Was he showing the first signs of dementia, or were more sinister forces at work?

Petra agrees to help excavate the truth, and soon, instead of meeting for book club, she and her friends become amateur investigators. Petra uses her gift and her brains to sort through the contradictory stories and confusing clues as she and her friends dig for answers.

Did Frank’s heirs decide to hasten their inheritance? Or did his rock shop business partner decide to go solo? Petra joins the local geological club to discover whether someone there acquired a taste for murder, because they’ll need rock solid evidence to catch a killer.

Perfect for fans of Paige Shelton’s Alaska Wild Mysteries and Heather Graham’s Krewe of Hunters!

If you love supernatural sleuths, small-town intrigue, and mysteries with a geological twist, Death at Rock Bottom is your next must-read! Grab your copy today!

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Guest Post

Rockhounding in New Mexico with Kris Bock, author of the Reluctant Psychic Mystery Series

The Reluctant Psychic Mystery series stars Petra Cloch, a quirky loner who can read the history of any object with her touch. In book 1, A Stone Cold Murder, Petra started a new job as the rocks and minerals curator at a peculiar Old West museum in small town New Mexico.

In book 2, Death at Rock Bottom, Petra gets drawn into another mystery after a retired petroleum engineer and rockhound died while hiking. His death was identified as due to natural causes, but was it really? Frank acted odd in his last weeks, whispering about aliens. Was he showing the first signs of dementia, or were more sinister forces at work? Then his younger second wife hunts for something special Frank claimed he found, a mysterious, valuable rock that seems to have disappeared. Petra and her friends wonder if Frank’s death was natural after all. Petra – and her book club turned crime-fighting club – must work through the clues.

Rockhounding is the hobby of searching for (and typically collecting) rocks, minerals, and fossils. Some people look for valuable specimens, such as gemstones. Others just enjoy getting outside and exploring. The Southwest is great for rockhounding, since it has a lot of public land that allows rockhounding for noncommercial purposes. Another bonus: In the desert, you can actually spot promising areas and find items without a bunch of trees and grass in the way!

My husband is a geologist, so when we go hiking, I hear a lot about the geology. I also have a friend who’s a paleontologist and another who’s an amateur fossil hunter. Plus, most of my friends like pretty rocks. I live in central New Mexico, with plenty of hiking on marked and unmarked trails, and quite a few old mining areas. Within 25 miles, you can find geodes, petroglyphs, semi-precious gemstones, and fossilized clams, crinoids (marine invertebrates), and coprolite (dung).

These pictures are from a hike in the Quebradas, a backcountry byway through colorful hills with Chihuahuan desert and geologic formations from the Paleozoic Age (570-250 million years ago) and some Triassic and Upper Cretaceous strata (250 – 66 million years ago). This particular hike is a favorite of mine, because it covers a variety of landscapes.

You hike uphill, then along a ridge with incredible views.

It then turns toward an old mining area, a great place to take a break and search for fragments of the azurite and malachite once mined there.

You can find plenty of small fragments tinted blue from the azurite or grain from the malachite.

Then the hike loops around through some sandy washes before heading down through an arroyo, or seasonal drainage channel. Look closely at the smooth grey boulders, and you might spot embedded fossils, mainly clamshells and crinoids

We have a lot of rocks in our yard. We’d have more if the big ones weren’t so heavy. This photo is from the New Mexico Mineral Museum, another great place to find incredible rocks – but without the outdoor landscape.

About the Author

Kris Bock writes mystery, suspense, and romance, often with Southwestern landscapes. In the Accidental Detective humorous mystery series, a witty journalist solves mysteries in Arizona and tackles the challenges of turning fifty. The Furrever Friends Sweet Romance series features the employees and customers at a cat café. Watch as they fall in love with each other and shelter cats. In the Accidental Billionaire Cowboys series, a Texas ranching family wins a fortune in the lottery and find out winning the lottery causes as many problems as it solves. Kris’s romantic suspense novels include stories of treasure hunting, archaeology, and intrigue.

Sign up for the Kris Bock newsletter and get an Accidental Detective short story and other freebies. Then every two weeks, you’ll get fun content about pets, announcements of new books, sales, and more.

Kris also writes a series with her brother, scriptwriter Douglas J Eboch, who wrote the original screenplay for the movie Sweet Home Alabama. The Felony Melanie series follows the crazy antics of Melanie, Jake, and their friends a decade before the events of the movie. Sign up for the romantic comedy newsletter to get a short story preview, or find the books at Amazon US or All E-book retailers.

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