Grannies, Guns and Ghosts
Senior snoop, Agnes Barton, has taken up residence in a Winnebago at a campground in East Tawas, Michigan. It’s not the ideal place for a woman of seventy-two to live, but she’s making do. She had planned to start a detective agency with partner in crime, Eleanor Mason, but a snag with the license has them free wheeling it, not that it matters because they are the ones folks call when dead bodies turn up.
A frantic phone call has Agnes and Eleanor racing to the scene of yet another crime scene. Herman Butler has fallen to his death from a third story window, and the widow, Betty Lou, is besides herself with either grief or competing for the Oscars, and it’s up to Agnes and Eleanor to unravel the mystery, which gets more interesting when a ghost is listed as a possible suspect.
This time around, Agnes and Sheriff Peterson can agree, the widow is nuts, but wait, a few days later the ghost ship, Erie Board of Trades, was spotted off the shores of Lake Huron. Ghost hunters, G.A.S.P., hightail it into town, and East Tawas is overrun with ghost sightings.
Agnes and Eleanor must sort fact from fantasy before another body is found or a curse is realized.
Excerpt
When I exited the shower, I decided not to thank the girl next in line. She giggled at me when I passed by, and I felt the urge to trip her but didn't. Younger folks don't get what it's like to be a senior citizen. I hoped I'd live long enough to see this girl grow older. I'll run her over with Eleanor's electric wheelchair like some of my friends do, just for kicks.
Eleanor was waiting outside and followed me back to my Winnebago from a comfortable distance.
Clackety-clack.
We both turned sharply and watched a black camper that swayed and shimmied as it went past. The wood paneled sides resembled—
“Damn gypsies,” Eleanor muttered, “or witches.”
I turned and gave Eleanor a sharp look. “Are you kidding me? What nonsense is traveling around inside that head of yours, El?”
“Well... the trailer is black.”
“Meaning?”
El's bottom lip appeared, but I moved her along and back to my camping spot. Sure enough, straight across from my Winnebago the black monstrosity of a camper was backing in. Whoever drove the blasted thing must have taken the same drivers course as Eleanor because they almost took out the camper next to them.
“See, Aggie, there is somebody that drives worse than me.” She nodded in affirmation.
I grimaced. Now I know it might seem a bit rude to stare and all, but I couldn't look away.
Finally after a few more tries the camper of sorts parked, but had snagged the clothes line from the neighboring campsite. Multi-colored bathing suits now were strewn across the camper. I heard the engine cut off and the trailer shimmied as footsteps clucked down the steps. The door screeched open and two scrawny legs appeared from the doorway with black pointy-toed shoes.
Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/296615
Author Bio
Amazon bestseller ~ Armed and Outrageous.
Author Madison Johns early days weren't spent writing -- they were spent dreaming. Her vivid imagination ran wild and took her places only dreams could. She read books, tons of books — they were her only friends. As a child, Madison Johns preferred to distance herself from other children her age, and had been described as a dreamer. Even as a small child, she remembers staying awake many a night fighting dragons, whisked away to foreign lands, or meeting the man of her dreams.
She was a voracious reader of historical romance in her teen years and has always wished to one day journey to England, France, Ireland, and Scotland
The writing bug bit her at the age of 44 and she pounded out four books since that time. As the publishing climate changed, she became an independent author publishing her first novel in late April of 2012.
Loved the excerpt, Madison. Looking forward to reading the book.
ReplyDeletei just finished this book and all i have to say is I LAUGHED AS MUSH AS I DID WITH THE FIRST ONE i love it
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