by Sandra Murphy

Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a signed copy of the book, and a link to purchase it from Amazon.

Bridget O’Brien and her business partner, Chica DeMoya, specialize in faux finishes. They’re in the middle of preparing the country club for a special wedding—the mayor’s daughter is the bride. As with all weddings, not everything goes according to plan.

This time it’s not just wrong flowers or a catering problem. There’s a dead body in the men’s locker room, and Bridget is the one who discovered it. It’s also someone she knows well.

With the wedding only days away and more work to complete, an investigation is going to slow things down. The worst is yet to come. Bridget’s thirteen-year-old daughter confesses to the murder.

Sure she’s innocent, Bridget, with Chica’s help, investigates on her own. That includes a bit of breaking and entering which doesn’t really count if you know where the key is hidden.

If a dead body and a confessing daughter aren’t enough, Bridget’s mother, the always impeccable model of decorum, seems to have gone off the rails. She won’t explain where she was at the time of the murder and worse, has dirty dishes in her sink! So unlike her.

When a second murder occurs, things go from bad to truly awful. There’s a red pickup truck seen cruising the area, a young woman who has information but doles it in bits and pieces, a floozy wife who’s too friendly to men she’s not married to, an overeager real estate agent, and a police detective whose wardrobe might have come from Columbo’s closet.

The backdrop to it all is the upcoming March Madness UNC-Duke basketball game. Even murder can’t top a three-pointer from the center line.

In the end, all is explained but with a twist that will leave readers wanting to know—when will the second book in the series be published?

This is Dixon’s first book but readers will also enjoy her story “Under the Boardwalk”, included in the anthology, Peace, Love, and Crime: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the 60s. Southern drips from her pages like sweet tea on a hot day.

To enter to win a signed copy of Faux Finished, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “faux,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen December 18, 2021. U.S. residents only, and you must be 18 or older to enter. If you are entering via email please include you mailing address in case you win, it will be deleted after the contest. You can read our privacy statement here if you like. BE AWARE THAT IT WILL TAKE MUCH LONGER THAN USUAL FOR WINNERS TO GET THEIR BOOKS DUE TO THE CURRENT CRISIS.

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Sandra Murphy lives in the shadow of the Arch in St. Louis Missouri. She’s editor for Peace, Love, and Crime: Crime Stories Inspired by the Songs of the ’60s, with twenty-two cozy stories. She also edited A Murder of Crows, twenty-one stories featuring animals and crime (no animals were harmed). She also writes for magazines, newsletters, and the occasional guest blog. Both anthologies are available at the usual outlets, print or ebook.

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases. KRL also receives free copies of most of the books that it reviews, that are provided in exchange for an honest review of the book.