Excerpt from the Book

Margie grabbed her ringing cell phone and checked the caller ID. Her Great Aunt Rosella. “Hello?”

“Their voices assault my hearing.”

“What are you talking about, Auntie?”

A long sigh. “I already told you.” The older woman’s voice lowered a notch in both volume and timbre. “Their voices assault my—”

“I heard that. Who are you talking about?”

“The voices.”

Margie, newly graduated from Rutgers University with her Masters in Information and Library Sciences, sank back in the lumpy sofa of her off-campus studio apartment. She eyed the cloisonné clock perched beside her recently framed diploma—the clock a graduation gift from her aunt, the diploma the result of six years of diligent study. “Are you hearing voices?”

Three abrupt thumps, and Margie pulled the phone from her ear. What the—? Oh, right. Aunt Rosella often emphasized her displeasure by whacking the nearest tool at hand against the closest hard surface. In this case, her phone likely contacted a table. Or the wall.

“Don’t speak to me like I’m a batty old woman. I’m not hearing voices. At least, not in the way your tone implies.”

“Sorry. Tell me what’s going on.”

“What is going on, as you so eloquently put it, is criminal. And that’s all I’m going to say about the matter until I speak with you face to face.”

Margie unfolded her legs and sat forward. “Are you coming to Maine?” She hadn’t seen the older woman in years, although they chatted several times a year by telephone, and her aunt always remembered her on her birthday and at Christmas. And on the occasion of her graduation, of course. “That’s great. When?”

“I am not coming to you. You will visit me here in Denver. Immediately, if not sooner.”

“But—”

“No buts about it. I have a matter I need you to look into. You have an enquiring mind, child. I’ve always appreciated that about you.”

Margie smiled. “Must have gotten it from you.”

“Pshaw. Just because I own a bookstore dedicated to mysteries doesn’t mean I can solve them. It simply provides me a business reason to read as much as I like.” She chuckled. “But don’t tell the tax man.”

“My lips are sealed.” Margie glanced at the three letters on the coffee table. Job offers. Very good ones, at that. Her dream come true. One at a public library in a small town in Indiana where she’d be librarian, curator, and teacher. The second from a local law firm, where she’d be in charge of the law library and its tomes of precedents and cases. And the third at her alma mater, where she’d be assistant to the chief librarian. The problem was deciding which to accept. “But I can’t leave right now. In fact, I have to choose between—”

“Between helping me or abandoning me to the wolves.”

Want to know more about the book?

When Great-Aunt Rosella calls, everybody comes running. And in this case, Margie Hanson, recently graduated with a degree in library sciences, and her mystery-writing and formerly forensic accountant grandmother, Carly Turnquist, head for Colorado. But when they arrive, Rosella is dead under mysterious circumstances. Can Margie and Carly sift through the multitude of suspects to find the killer?

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About one of the Authors

A hybrid author, Donna writes squeaky clean historical and contemporary suspense. She has been published more than 60 times in books; is a member of several writers’ groups; facilitates a critique group; teaches writing classes; and judges in writing contests. She loves history and research, traveling extensively for both, and is an avid oil painter. She is taking all the information she’s learned along the way about the writing and publishing process, and is coaching Christian entrepreneurs, leaders, and writers who are eager to tell their story but don’t know where to start.

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