The Lost Mansion Cozy Mysteries Book 1

Available on Amazon.com

The first of the Lost Mansion Mysteries brings Alex Temple back to her hometown for the summer between her junior and senior years at college. That plum of a summer internship she had lined up fell through the day before she would have left for New York.

Alex makes the best of it, taking a part-time job in her aunt’s bake shop. She’s been an indie mystery writer for the last five years. At a cookout at a friend’s house, her Cane Corso finds an old bone in the woods. It’s human. Alex stumbles into a cold case with nothing for the cops to work with. Can Alex take on the role of one of her lead characters and solve the case before someone else gets hurt?

The Bradley Conundrum — Prologue

Jim drove around and parked by the front door of the mansion. He knew he would be taking Alex home in two or three hours depending on how late she wanted to stay. The once beautiful crystal chandelier that hung from the center of the ceiling in the front hall didn’t currently work. At some point, he would send it out for cleaning and rewiring. Now, the only light was a wall-mounted worklight that cast strange shadows. Still, the floor between the front door and the kitchen was safe.

As they walked in, Jim said, “If you’ll stick the pizza in the refrigerator for me, I’ll bop upstairs for a bottle of wine.”

Alex stopped and put a hand on his forearm. “I don’t think you should go upstairs, Jim.”

He got as far as asking, “Why…?” When he noticed what she saw and smelled what she smelled he stopped speaking.

Alex asked, her voice oddly calm, “Is there any way to get more light in here?”

“Yeah. Let me grab another worklight. I can daisy chain it with the other one.” Once the had additional light was in place, he watched her for a moment as she snapped pictures with her cell phone. He knew her well enough to say, “Let me know when you’re ready for me to call Ramsey.”

She flashed him an appreciative smile. “Do you recognize him?”

Jim looked at the poorly dressed, soiled man crumpled at the base of his stairway, and said, “No. He’s not on the construction crew. Should we check for a pulse?”

Alex shook her head. “I don’t see the point. His neck is clearly broken.” She looked up the stairs. “It looks like he tumbled down the stairs. Let me take some pictures and make some notes. Ramsey won’t like it, but I’m going to go upstairs too. I need you to watch me as long as you can. You might need to verify that I walked up the edges, staying close to the wall, rather than the center of the treads. He’ll want to know.”

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OK. I think this might be a good place to stop and give you some background. I’m Alex Temple. I’m living for the summer with my aunt Emily. Her bakery makes the best pastries available in the small town of Bowling, Georgia. In a nutshell, I’m studying graphic arts at college.

I also write and publish mystery novels. So, while I frequently deal in death and murder, this was the first time I’d come face to face with a fresh corpse. The deliciously cheesy, salty, and greasy pizza I enjoyed on my not-a-date with my gorgeous not-a-boyfriend Jim Tallon just over a half hour ago was now seriously squirming around in my stomach, strongly suggesting it wanted out. Yeah. Writing about it and seeing it aren’t even close to the same thing.

I couldn’t even take a deep, steadying breath because of the smell. I did my best to breathe through my mouth. Jim, a six-foot-tall hunk, but we’ll get to that later, was looking fairly green as well.

Jim owns Globenko Manor, an old, crumbling mansion on the outskirts of Bowling proper. He’s an architect, specializing in renovating boutique hotels. Guess what his newest hobby is?

Ramsey Scott is the sheriff in Bowling. Why his parents gave him a last name for his first name when he already had a first name for a last name is a mystery. Jim and I spent the Fourth of July with him, my Aunt Emily, and my Cane Corso, Bucko. He’s a nice guy. Sheriff Scott, that is. Bucko is a good dog. Neither of them is going to be happy if you get them confused.

I’ll probably never forget today, the day I came across my first body. Sunday, August the second. The fact is, this story really starts in mid-May, three months earlier, at the end of my junior year of college with the summer break just starting. I never planned on spending my summer in Bowling, working in Emily’s Bakery, developing a friendship with a wonderful man who had to remain not-a-boyfriend, and being hired by the sheriff as an investigator. He calls me a consultant. Whatever. I’m getting paid to be nosy. Can’t argue with that!

While I feel a little bit like I’m writing a sixth-grade paper about what I did on my summer vacation, all I can say is, this story is what I did on my summer vacation. Yeah, I found dead people. More than just this guy.

The Bradley Conundrum is available on Amazon.com