The Evolution of a Series

The New Series

I spent two weeks in July planning the next series I was going to write. The series was supposed to be a Romantic Mystery. After I carefully created an outline for six books in the series with titles and a brief description of each book, I was ready to write Book 1, ELUSIVE EMBEZZLER, but after the first draft, it was obvious the story wasn’t a romantic mystery at all. It was a thriller mystery.

Book 1, Elusive Embezzler

The original ELUSIVE EMBEZZLER cover was for a sweet, romantic mystery. Somebody else needs to write that book because the real ELUSIVE EMBEZZLER is a thriller mystery and needed a new cover and a new book description.

Accountant who is a young widow becomes a most unlikely fierce crime fighter

When she inherits the Peach Blossom Retreat, a bed-and-breakfast inn that is nestled in the peaceful countryside of Georgia, she sees a path to heal her grief by turning the old inn into a thriving business.

But after a decade-old embezzlement at a large bank sparks her curiosity as an accountant, and a guest at the inn with ties to the bank turns up dead on the inn’s property, Jenna is drawn to untangle the web of deceit surrounding the embezzlement.

The closer she gets to the truth, the more Jenna realizes she is the killer’s next target. The ongoing tension between Jenna and her landscaper, Ethan, becomes even more complicated because she knows the killer will take down anyone in the way.

Jenna is single minded: save the inn. The desperate killer is single minded: kill Jenna.

Book 2

The original title for Book 2 was THE BRIDE’S LETTER.

Somebody else needs to write that book because Jenna Ross found a manuscript in Book 1 that was a handwritten novel by Nettie Wyndham in the 1920s. Jenna picked up the manuscript only twice in ELUSIVE EMBEZZLER to read it, but the haunting memory of the unpublished manuscript lingered.

Thanks to Nettie Wyndham, the main character for Book 2 is not Jenna Ross because Jenna is reading the story along with the rest of us.

Jenna Ross discovers a manuscript handwritten by Nettie Wyndham in the 1920s, Speakeasy Secrets.

A young socialite with a speakeasy is an unexpected nemesis of corruption.  

Ruthanne Bradley takes over the management of the Bradley estate that is in danger of foreclosure with a daring plan: open a speakeasy.

Her operation is in jeopardy not because it is illegal, but because Ruthanne discovers a ring of corruption that threatens to take over the state government, and she’s determined to stop it.

The criminal mastermind has her in the crosshairs.

SPEAKEASY SECRETS is scheduled for release in late December and is available for PREORDER only on BARRETT BOOK SHOP.