For Better Or For Worse (Ginger Barnes Main Line Mysteries, Book 8) by Donna Huston Murray
Release date: January 10, 2018
Subgenre: Cozy mystery, small town mystery
While working on a DIY project at her newlywed daughter’s house, a bag of bricks is thrown from the neighboring third-story window. Next, pops that sound like muffled gunshots have Gin racing for her phone. Eric, who lives in the house with his grandmother, claims she’s obsessed with mystery novels. Yet after the septuagenarian falls down a flight of stairs, she’s so frantic to keep Eric away that Gin must intervene. Was the fall actually attempted murder?In her husband’s eyes, Cissie Voight can’t do anything right. Gin occasionally helps the frazzled young mother, and when she needs a dresser carried upstairs, Gin brings Eric along. Bad move! The electricity between the two new acquaintances sparks a chilling premonition. This time Gin’s good intentions will produce grave consequences—for everyone involved.
Subgenre: Cozy mystery, small town mystery
About For Better or Worse:
A cozy mystery with a difference.
Finally back to her spunky self after the loss of her husband, men have
once again become an issue for amateur sleuth Ginger Barnes—men who
mistreat their wives, men accused of murder, and men who ask her out.
While working on a DIY project at her newlywed daughter’s house, a bag of bricks is thrown from the neighboring third-story window. Next, pops that sound like muffled gunshots have Gin racing for her phone. Eric, who lives in the house with his grandmother, claims she’s obsessed with mystery novels. Yet after the septuagenarian falls down a flight of stairs, she’s so frantic to keep Eric away that Gin must intervene. Was the fall actually attempted murder?In her husband’s eyes, Cissie Voight can’t do anything right. Gin occasionally helps the frazzled young mother, and when she needs a dresser carried upstairs, Gin brings Eric along. Bad move! The electricity between the two new acquaintances sparks a chilling premonition. This time Gin’s good intentions will produce grave consequences—for everyone involved.
Recommended for fans of Sue Grafton and Janet Evanovich.
Excerpt:
"MOM!"
CHELSEA SHOUTED up to me on the third floor. "Eric needs you. It's an
emergency."
I
threw down my paintbrush and ran down the stairs.
"Gram
fell," Eric told me before I even reached the foyer.
When
we were face to face, he explained. "She's pretty shook up, and she's
confused, too. Thinks I'm her ex-husband, who's dead by the way, but she hated
the guy and won't do anything she thinks he wants her to do, which includes
going to the hospital. Could you please try to convince her...?"
"Lead
the way."
Eric
ushered me into the gray Victorian’s front hall. “Thanks a million,” he said
with a sigh.
"No
problem."
Tucked
under a blanket at the bottom of the stairs, Maisie Zumstein moaned with pain.
In the distance we heard the strident approach of an ambulance.
"Maisie?"
I said softly as I kneeled beside the woman. "My name is Gin. I'm
Chelsea's mother from next door. It seems that you had a fall.”
Mrs.
Zumstein met my eyes and nodded once. Tears trailed into the fuzzy hair that
had fallen onto her face. I cleared her eyes and wiped her nose with the clean
tissue I kept in my pocket.
"Don't
make me go with him," the old woman begged. "Please don't make me go
with him."
"I
won't," I said, gently stroking her cheek. "But you should go to the
hospital and get checked out. I can see that you’re in pain."
The
fright in the woman's eyes emphasized just how bad the pain really was.
"What
should I do?" Eric asked from a discreet distance.
“Why
don’t you follow us?” I suggested.
"You're
going with Gram?"
"If
they'll let me."
My
stomach lurched to see the unnatural angle of Maisie’s right arm as the
emergency crew maneuvered her onto their gurney. I’m sure they were
handling her as carefully as they could, but she cried out pitifully with each
change of position.
Hovering
as near as he dared, Eric shuffled and twitched and desperately tried to tell
the EMTs about his grandmother’s confusion. The two technicians were so focused
on Maisie, I didn’t think they were listening. But without taking his eyes off
the patient the older of the two men responded.
"To
be expected," he reassured her distraught relative. "She's had quite
a shock."
When
the time came to decide whether I should go or stay, the same EMT convinced me
to stay. "If she gets upset, we'll tell her we're doctors, although the
drugs should knock her out pretty quickly."
My
daughter and I stood helplessly on the sidewalk watching the ambulance roar
down the street, siren blaring.
When
it was out of sight, Chelsea put her arm across my shoulders. "Maybe you
should move in with us,” she said with mock earnesty. “My neighbors can’t seem
to manage without you.”
I
huffed out a little laugh, but that was all.
I was
remembering Eric’s unsolicited remark. “I’m supposed to inherit the house.”
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About Donna Huston Murray:
Donna Huston Murray's eight cozy mysteries feature a woman much
like herself, a DIY headmaster's wife with a troubling interest in
crime. FINAL ARRANGEMENTS, set at a world famous flower show,
achieved #1 on the Kindle-store list for both Mysteries and Female
Sleuths. The first in Murray’s new mystery/crime series, WHAT
DOESN’T KILL YOU, won an Honorable Mention in the 23rd Annual
Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards.
At home, she assumes she can fix anything until proven wrong, calls
trash-picking recycling, and, although she should probably know
better, adores Irish setters.
Donna and husband, Hench, live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
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