Malicious
Mischief (Mischief and Mayhem, #1)
by Marianne
Harden
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Book Summary
Career chameleon, Rylie Keyes, must keep her current job. If not, the tax assessor will evict her ailing grandfather and auction off their ancestral home. When a senior she shuttles for a Bellevue, Washington retirement home winds up dead in her minibus, sticky with a half-eaten s'more, head clad in a cellophane bag, and a pocketed complaint letter accusing her of driving by Braille, her goal to keep her job hits a road bump.
The deceased was thought to be a penniless Nazi concentration camp survivor with a silly grudge against Rylie. However, the victim has enemies who will stop at nothing to keep their part in the murder a secret.
Forced to dust off the PI training she's kept hidden from her ex-detective grandfather, Rylie must align with a circus-bike-wheeling Samoan to solve the murder, all while juggling the attentions of two very hot police officers.
Book Links
Excerpt
~When
the chips are down, the buffalo is empty~
Am
I a flake? Sort of. But I’m trying to change. My grandfather has
property tax issues, and what troubles Granddad, troubles me. Good
thing I’ve held down a steady job for months. A major big deal. Not
the getting a job part—I’ve had lots—but the held down aspect.
Somehow, I always end up unemployed, but not today.
Today,
I am Rylie Tabitha Keyes, chauffeur to the seniors at Fountain of
Youth Retirement Home (FoY.)
It
was dawn Sunday as I eased my employer’s van from one freeway onto
another. After that, I concentrated on the wet asphalt up ahead. I
didn’t want to think about my job history or our financial woes.
Instead I focused on the summery sunrise over the Cascade Mountains
due east. I stared at it a moment, charmed by its contrast to the
more typical Bellevue, Washington gloom brooding overhead.
I
should’ve been asleep, but I needed to toss trash from a fundraiser
rolling around in the back of the van. Leland Rosenberg, my boss at
Fountain of Youth Retirement Home, had asked me to dump the bags at
his second business, Rosenberg Laboratory, as FoY’s Dumpsters were
full from a recent bathroom remodel. His mood had been edgy, kind of
insistent I dispose of them last night. I confess, before I could
carry out this task, a minor traffic accident and an all-important
overnight obligation had waylaid me. I didn’t bother to sigh over
how blunders always seemed to pepper my work performance. Some things
were fated to be. After all, I slogged at my job for money not joy.
It isn't that I don't like working at FoY, it just isn’t my dream
gig. You see, I yearned to be a private detective, a Veronica Mars
2.0. Problem is, my grandfather is against the idea. Dead
set against it.
So
with the stench from the trash bags mounting, I steered FoY’s van
onto the off-ramp and headed toward Rosenberg Laboratory just off the
freeway exit. My mind was filled with thoughts of a steamy shower,
maybe a few hours of shut-eye before punching the clock at nine. I
stared forward, squinted. And iced over. Up ahead. Wrong-way
traveling. A panel truck advanced, peeling rubber.
Faster.
Closer.
Zeroed
in to hit me.
I
whipped the van off the road, the red, white, and blue panel truck
whizzing past. I slammed on the brakes, fighting to control the
wheel. I wrestled with it, panicked, my mind flashing on one
fortunate thing: no seniors were in the van.
Tons
of hazards burst before my eyes. I struggled to absorb them. A
mangled guardrail zigzagged up ahead; its many gaps from other
out-of-control vehicles big as life. Worse was the wall of giant
Douglas-firs growing beyond, lower trunks scarred, limbs low and
swaying.
I
was going to careen through the railing.
I
was going to hit the trees.
I
was going to die.
About
Marianne Harden
Marianne
Harden
loves a good laugh. So much so, she cannot stop humor from spilling
into her books. Over the years she has backpacked through the wilds
of Australia, explored the exotics of Asia, soaked up the sun in the
Caribbean, and delighted in the historic riches of Europe. Her goals
in life are simple: do more good than harm and someday master the
do-not-mess-with-me look. She divides her time between Switzerland
and Washington State where she lives with her husband and two
children.
Find
Marianne Harden
Website:
www.marianneharden.com
Twitter:
www.twitter.com/MarianneHarden
Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6572367.Marianne_Harden
Marianne is giving away a $25 gift card to the book retailer of the winner’s choice.
Love the cover! Rylie Keyes sounds like my kind of heroine...reminds me of my sister's driving skills when she was doing her test driving...lol....dad would come back from the lessons looking like he was on the verge of death....lol...Can't wait for this to release
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