(Book 10: Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles)
Linda Pirtle sets readers up for an outstanding addition to the quaint Texas town of Magnolia Bluff. Caroline is distraught over Esther, her friend, going missing for months. Chief Jager is working to solve the mystery, but not fast enough. All bets are off when Adam, Esther’s dog, is taken from Caroline’s home. Heartsick with the losses, Caroline and her friends of the Round Table group take matters into their own hands—regardless of the risks. Murder, mayhem, and danger await the amateur sleuths as they follow the clues.
Ms. Pirtle ensures the characters get introduced and readers understand their crucial role, even if this is your first trip to this Texas town. The strong community ties of the members of the secret group put them right in the sights of the bad guys. The dangerous villain hunting for the elusive diamond certificates will stop at nothing to win. No one knows where they might be or who lurks in the shadows to pounce on the nosey women.
Readers will grip the edge of their seats with each skillfully delivered twist and unwanted turn of this cozy. Inviting Texas warmth or murder is often around the corner in the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles. Lovers of excellent cozy mysteries will get hooked on The Dog Gone Diamond Dilemma and beg for more. Five Paws is not nearly enough for this masterpiece.
About the Author
IT IS ONLY NATURAL that I would one day wind up in the literary field. I taught the art of writing and understanding literature for years as an English teacher at St. John, Lancaster, and Ennis high schools.
When I retired from administration, I turned my attention to working with my husband to create and build Caleb and Linda Pirtle, a literary Website devoted to connecting readers with today’s growing population of authors throughout the world. I have served as editor for some great books presently in the marketplace, and a year ago I entered the field as an author myself.
It was a perfect transition. I have long read and reviewed mysteries, and I found myself infatuated with the kinds of cozy hometown mysteries produced by Agatha Christie and Diane Mott Davidson. I am fascinated with dastardly murder mysteries solved by the lady next door who relies solely on intuition, instinct, and intuition.
The amateur detective of any cozy mystery has her flaws and makes more than her share of mistakes, but she tracks down villains simply because she has the dogged determination to keep piecing together the puzzle even when she knows everyone is telling her to quit and go on home.
Last year, I published my first novel The Mah Jongg Murders, set in the mythical small East Texas gated community of Leisure Lake. The location was patterned after Hideaway Lake, where I had lived. My protagonist Lillian Prestridge loves riddles and receives the puzzle of her life when she discovers the body of an unknown woman lying on the edge of the lake near her home.
Three successive murders, including the assassination of one her Mah Jongg friends, baffle the authorities — the county sheriff and the head of security at the lake. But Lillian, along with her Standard White Poodle Eli, follow the subtle clues until she is able to solve the mystery, pinpointing a murder that leaves the entire community in shock and breaking the heart of her son.
The fourth novel in a cozy mystery series that focuses on the games people play is titled Scrabble Secrets. It continues the sinister journey that began when Lillian and her husband Bill settled down to a nice leisurely RV vacation beside the mysterious shores of Caddo Lake in Deadly Dominoes. The lake offers a perfect backdrop for murder, and Lillian finds herself mixed up with a secret militia in a plot to overthrow the government. The conspiracy grows deeper and blacker in Tarot Terrors as Lillian loses her husband to an assassin’s bullet and begins tracking down his killer, guided only by a tarot card reader and a young Navajo girl who still talks to the ghost of her grandfather. Lillian is victimized by murder and mystery and a Deep State political conspiracy with deadly consequences.
Presently, I have joined a dozen other authors and am writing cozy mysteries in a series called the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles. My first is Dewey Decimal Dilemma.
