by Sarah Peterson-Camacho
It took a fiery earthquake—and over 3,000 lost lives—to boot Mrs. Emma Ledoux to page two. Mother Nature had to literally move Heaven and Earth herself to wipe the smirk of the simpering, beautiful murderess from the front of every single newspaper across the Golden State.
In Duffy Brown’s newest cozy mystery, Murder, Mayhem and 4 of a Kind (the first in a new series called High Cotton Mysteries), readers are in for a hilarious treat. Think about the antics of Janet Evanonvich’s Stephanie Plum and Grandma Mazur characters, combined with the southern charm of Miranda James’ Southern Ladies Mystery series, and you have Duffy’s latest.
by Sarah Peterson-Camacho
Exactly one century ago, the Halloween patrol was ready to hit the streets. And with fifteen extra officers on duty that night, no crime would go unpunished.
Cradling the rose quartz pendulum in the palm of my hand, I gingerly picked my way across the dusty, uneven terrain of Sanger’s Bethel Cemetery, my darting eyes peeled for gopher holes. It was a beautiful day for a séance in a deserted country graveyard: a breezy, cloudless summer afternoon, unseasonably cool for the middle of a Central California July. And yet my palm was sweaty, sticking to the pendulum, and I felt oddly self-conscious.
Forty-nine feet was all she had. From the moment he put two bullets in her boyfriend’s brain, Pauline Grass had only 49 steps left to take.
A balmy summer night out on the town in Alex’s new auto, cruising the countryside under a full, white-hot moon, slipping out to that secluded spot by Haig Tusoosian’s vineyards. Climbing into the backseat to christen upholstery so new it squeaked, and steaming up the glass in a heady potpourri of sweat, smeared lipstick, and Alex’s aftershave. Losing herself in his kiss…
Blood saturated every surface: splattered across the walls, soaking through the bedsheets. Arterial spray darkening from ruby to rust, placing the precise time of the murder-suicide some twelve hours prior. The nude forms of a young man and woman faced one another on the bed, their expressions serene despite the gaping mess of their flayed throats. Hers had been cut just above the clavicle, his severed at the Adam’s apple. A bone-handled razor lay at his side, slick with clotted crimson.
BritBox continues to provide excellent entertainment for this Anglophile, and all for the price of a coffee and scone (monthly $6.99; annual special $69.99). Members get access to a huge library of British and parts beyond programming varying in genre, release date, and available 24/7 online or on their app with quality audio and video on any device: computer, tablet, or phone. I personally can enjoy long-time favorites like Good Neighbors, Inspector Morse, and Mapp & Lucia along with new or returning series like Sister Boniface, Midsomer Murders, and along with Murder, They Hope, my new favorite BritBox Original Murder in Provence.
And there she was.
Almost exactly twenty-four hours after nine-year-old Esther Lee Lewis went missing on her walk to the school bus the morning of Tuesday, March 11, 1947, there she was. They found her beneath a weeping willow in a dry creek bed near the Kings River, blanketed in blackberry vines—dress torn, skull crushed.
Have you ever attended a murder mystery party? They can be a LOT of fun! When I was in my twenties my brother and I wrote several of them and had parties for our friends-those were so much better than the boxed ones. Recently I heard about a company that puts on murder mystery parties all over the country called The Murder Mystery Co. I took some time to interview Patrick Salyer, their Digital Marketing Assistant about their company, which includes parties in San Francisco.
Murder.
It’s not a pretty thing, yet we have a fascination with it. Thousands of mystery novels, movies, and television shows reveal whodunit, howdunit, and whydunit. Reality shows analyze the deaths, the investigations, the captures, and the trials. Usually, it’s men who kill, but there are times when a woman takes a life.
