by Sandra Murphy

Details at the end of this post on how to win a copy of A Little Night Murder and a link to purchase the book where a portion goes to help support KRL & an indie bookstore.

Nora Blackbird and her two sisters have led challenging lives. Their parents took their trust funds and left the country. Libby’s got five kids and a grandchild on the way. Emma drank a lot more than was good for her. Nora is trying to keep the family home out of the IRS’s hands—and keep a semblance of control over her sisters, not an easy task.

Nora’s life is finally coming together. She’s got Mick, a mobster’s son who’s trying to get the family out of the rackets and into legit businesses. She’s pregnant and alternately thrilled and scared. Her newspaper job is going well since her boss, Gus, was out of town for a while. That made things more peaceful around the office.

BFF Lexie is being released from prison early—her partner swindled their clients out of millions of dollars and Lexie helped him slip off a ledge. Every reporter in town wants to interview her, so she’s hiding out at her mother’s condo until the furor dies down.

Next door, Toodles Tuttle’s widow and daughter claim to have found a lost Tuttle musical. Rehearsals are in full swing, if on a shoestring budget. In the midst of everything else, Mick drops by with a visitor—his birth mother, Bridgette, a colorful character for sure. Think leopard print, short skirts, and plunging necklines, all the time. She says it’s because she wants to meet Nora … but the truth is, she’s determined to audition for the show next door.

When screams come from the Tuttle house, Lexie and Nora investigate. Jenny, the daughter, is dead on the bedroom floor. Boom Boom, her mother, is dramatically distraught until someone mentions the show—and then she almost forgets Jenny’s dead.

The other distracting thing is Boom Boom is blue—as in, her skin is blue all over. No one else seems to notice. The new musical is called Bluebird of Happiness, so is this extreme costuming, or what?

To sum up—Nora’s having a child, adopting another one, kind of fostering another, maybe getting a promotion at work, setting up a day care (hopefully), getting married, trying to figure out who killed Jenny, worrying about juvenile-delinquent-mobster-wannabes, choosing a new car, reporting on parties and fundraisers for the paper (both online and in print), and worrying about Emma’s new boyfriend, Libby’s love interest, Bridgette’s antics, and Mick and Lexie’s plan to keep Lexie busy and Mick out of jail.

The plot is tightly woven with clues scattered throughout and the characters performing at their best. In the end, it all comes together, but of course—knowing the Blackbirds—in a surprising way. This is Book Ten in the series, the paperback version of last year’s hardcover. For maximum enjoyment, read them from the beginning. You won’t want to miss a thing!

To enter to win a copy of A Little Night Murder, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “Night,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen August 29, 2015. U.S. residents only. If entering via email please include your mailing address, and if via comment please include your email address.

Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & short stories in our mystery section.

You can use this link to purchase this book & a portion goes to help support KRL and Mysterious Galaxy:

A Little Night Murder: A Blackbird Sisters Mystery

Sandra Murphy lives in the shadow of the arch, in the land of blues, booze and shoes—St Louis, Missouri. While writing magazine articles to support her mystery book habit, she secretly polishes two mystery books of her own, hoping, someday, they will see the light of Barnes and Noble. You can also find several of Sandra’s short stories on UnTreed Reads including her new one Bananas Foster. Sandy’s latest short story “The Tater Tot Caper” is one of eleven stories in The Killer Wore Cranberry: Fourths of Mayhem. The annual Thanksgiving anthology has eleven stories and this year, includes recipes. And it’s on sale! Available in all e-versions and in print.