Dead on Arrival by Jackie Griffey
Humor and thrills combine to make Dead on Arrival by Jackie Griffey a lively read. A young widow gets a temporary job on a newspaper and turns amateur sleuth when she discovers the body of the man she replaced hidden behind a dumpster. A nice mystery plot, but you say it doesn't sound much like a thriller? Well, maybe not until the widow's dead husband appears. Yeah, it's all fun and games until somebody tosses a Molotov cocktail. Actually, it's a lot of fun after that too.
Author Jackie Griffey is a veteran of more books and stories than one can easily count, in a variety of genre. That experience has allowed her to pull off the tricky balancing act in her newest book: a cozy mystery/romance/suspense/thriller.
"I have a horror novel set in Arkansas - Welcome to Lazarus - on Fictionwise and a screen play of it on Kindle," Griffey says. "There is also a contemporary humor novel set in New York on Fictionwise and a screen play of it on Kindle. And I have several romantic suspense novels and a historical romance in print."
But with such a rich publishing history, why does she always return to the cozy mystery?
"I like them because they're just plain fun," Griffey says. "I have written in other genres but cozy mystery is my favorite to read and to write. Dead on Arrival is a Southern romp with love, laughs, and plenty of action."
This book's protagonist, Maggie Murphy, is only twenty-four when her husband Horace is dies in a motorcycle accident. She is broke and lonesome when her Aunt Myrtle talks their cousin Hank into hiring Maggie at his weekly newspaper. The last thing she needs is to find a corpse. Or, after she asked a policeman to investigate her husband's death, maybe the last thing she needs Horace's ghost turning up
The book is set in Memphis and the whole book has a definite Southern flavor. The characters are both rich and fun, including doting Aunt Myrtle; Elvira the hundred year old former slave; and Joe Driver, the handsome patrolman who serves as Maggie's love interest.
Was Horace's death truly an accident? Who's making those silent phone calls in the middle of the night? And who tries to blow poor Maggie up? There's only one way to find out.
Critics are saying that Dead on Arrival has it all: romance, a mutilated body, a haunted young widow, and laughs galore! This is Maggie Murphy's first outing, and Griffey's publisher, Five Star Publishing, is already reading the sequel. So if you enjoy the likes of Mary Daheim and Carolyn Hart, you'll want to get in on the ground floor of this new series.
Austin S. Camacho has written a series about private detective Hannibal Jones and a series of adventure novels featuring mercenary Morgan Stark and jewel thief Felicity O'Brien. To pay the mortgage he answers media queries for the Defense Department. Camacho lives in Springfield, Virginia with his lovely wife Denise and Princess the Wonder Cat.
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