Sneak Peek: Mother, Murder, and Me

Today we have a sneak peek from author Sandra Gardner’s amateur sleuth mystery, Mother, Murder, and Me.

When Marabella Vinegar finds her psychotherapist’s bloody corpse, she becomes the NYPD’s perp of choice. Her recently deceased mother – the bane of her existence in life – comes back to help get her out of trouble and find the real killer. Things get even worse when, thanks to Marabella and her mother’s sleuthing, someone tries to kill her. Then another body is found and Marabella is thrown in jail, awaiting trial for two murders. After a second attempt on Marabella’s life, she’s terrified that she’ll be corpse number three . . .

Mother, Murder, and Me is available through Amazon.com, Amazon UK and Barnes & Noble.

And now, an excerpt from Mother, Murder, and Me... Continue reading “Sneak Peek: Mother, Murder, and Me”

The Accounting

It is important to stay ‘in shape’ as a fiction writer.  Today, I gave myself the writing prompt “It was done”.  A goal: 500 words. And one hour. Here is the result.

It was done.  Something about the finality was comforting, but it was also terrifying.  It raised the hair on my neck and sent tingling doubts darting like swallows through the darkening of my mind.  My mind.  Oh, I could remember when it had been mine.

It was done.  The gun felt heavy and smoke filtered softly from the short barrel.  The shot had been a surprise.  So fast.  So final.  Weeks and months of agonizing and questioning and wondering if I was mad.  And it was over so quickly.

It was in the things she said!  Hidden, encrypted daggers behind innocent conversation.  And her eyes.  Did I get the message?  Oh yes.  There were nibbling doubts from the beginning.  Maybe I was seeing something that wasn’t there?  Maybe I was becoming a tad forgetful…overworked.  But then she would tweak the paranoia.  Her eyes would twinkle the understanding.  I could never ask about it.  She knew that.  That was her trump card.

Continue reading “The Accounting”