Book Spotlight on MAVERICK, MOVIES & MURDER BY Mary Seifert

Meanwhile, the locals are gearing up for the premiere of a new docudrama film called Titanic: One Story, which would be the cornerstone piece of a new Titanic exhibit, to open at the Midwest Minnesota History Center. The movie director selected Columbia, his hometown, as the location for some of the scenes, and many residents are featured as extras in the movie. There will be a huge gala dinner and celebration for the grand opening. Tragedy strikes again when the director is killed. Katie finds herself in the midst of it all and doesn’t know anyone in town well enough to know who she can trust.

Praise for the Katie and Maverick Cozy Mysteries:
“Immediately captivating! Katie and Maverick are destined to become a notable amateur sleuth team in the mystery world.” –Connie Shelton, USA Today bestselling author

BUY LINK: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2N876FZ
 
Excerpt:

CHAPTER ONE

The bullets changed everything for me. Sometimes I wished I’d taken a bullet too, because I lost the most important men in my life. My dad still fought every day to reclaim his confidence, mobility, and wit from the bullet that creased his brain. But my husband of seventeen days took our dreams with him when he died. They never caught the shooter.

“Promise me.” Charles’s bloody hands gripped mine. “Promise me you’ll be happy.”

I had to try to keep that promise, so after a year of indulging my sorrow and wading through mind-numbing platitudes, I threw away the flood of sympathy cards and letters. I needed to return to the world, to sink or swim.
And my stepmother wanted me out of there.

At her insistence, and to the surprise of my therapist, I circulated my resumé́. Neither of them, however, congratulated me when I accepted a position one hundred fifty miles from home. New town. New people. A job in my area of expertise. Truth be told, I accepted the only offer I received—teaching high school math.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t apprehensive. I missed the fairytale life I had planned—an adoring husband, challenging job, devoted family—but I packed my meager belongings and moved to Columbia, Minnesota, determined to make it my home. The gem of a town snugged into prairie grasses surrounded by rich farmland, acreage dedicated to wildlife management, and lots and lots of water.

Following a second fruitless week of apartment- hunting, I returned to the bed and breakfast with a little less spring in my step.

“He was a real gentleman today. Let me get him,” said the desk clerk. He disappeared into the recesses of the office.

I heard the rhythmic clack of nails across the tile floor before I saw him and steeled myself for the onslaught of Maverick’s ecstatic welcome. He rounded the desk and buried his black nose between my legs, drooling all over. His tail whumped against the desk, and he pawed my thigh.

“Sit,” I said. “Sit.” Maverick jumped and licked my face then circled behind me, wrapping the leash around my legs before his rump hit the floor.

“He missed you. Look, he’s smiling.”

Maverick gazed at me with sparkling brown eyes. To me, it looked like laughing.

“Find anything today?”

I’d been searching for a place to park my belongings, anxious to live life out of a closet instead of a suitcase. The Monongalia Bed and Breakfast provided good food, clean bedding, daily vacuuming, and fresh towels every other day, but the expense was eating into my savings and my first paycheck was weeks away.

“Nothing yet. Do you have any hot prospects for me?” Mr. Walsh had recommended a cheery coffee shop, a delightful deli, a local market, walking paths, and a hardware store that had one of just about anything but apartments.

“The film people will be finishing up soon.” He tapped a notice on the front desk. The words written in cherry-red marker stood out: Servers needed. Great pay. The attached article stated that although most of the filming had been completed on a sound stage built for the movie, when the director needed a crowd, he came home for the extras and a docudrama about the Titanic needed plenty of extras. After months of shooting, the director planned to re-create the famed ship’s final dinner and take promotional shots. “You should do it. Half the town is in the movie. You’ll see Columbia in all its red-carpet glory and know what you’re getting yourself into.”

Maverick stood and pulled at the leash. I sighed. The clerk said with a satisfied grin, “He can stay with me Friday night.”

I’ve never been able to leave a brain teaser or puzzle go unchallenged. As former math teacher, I tie numbers and logic to my Katie and Maverick Cozy Mysteries. My best ideas come when least expected—when I’m making incredible memories with family and friends, walking my dog whose only speed is faster, carefully deleting references to murder from my web-browser, and pretending to cook.