EXCERPT and GIVEAWAY
Back Stabbers
(The Country Club Murders Book 8)
(The Country Club Murders Book 8)
by Julie Mulhern
Back Stabbers is the eighth book in Julie Mulhern's Country Club Murders series set in the 1970s. Also available: The Deep End (read my blog post), Guaranteed to Bleed, Clouds in My Coffee, Send in the Clowns, Watching the Detectives (read my blog post), Cold as Ice (read my blog post), and Shadow Dancing (read my blog post).
Back Stabbers is currently on tour with Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours. The tour stops here today for an excerpt and a giveaway. Please be sure to visit the other tour stops as well.
Description
All Ellison Russell wanted was an update on her stock portfolio. Instead, she found her broker dead.
With an unexpected out-of-town guest at her house, Ellison is too busy for a murder investigation. Only this time, Detective Anarchy Jones wants her help, and she can’t deny the handsome detective. Can Mr. Coffee supply her with enough caffeine to keep her brain sharp and everyone else happy?
Juggling bodies (one, two, three, four), two-faced friends, her social calendar, and a cat (yes, a cat) is taxing but Mother might be the biggest challenge of all.
With a killer drawing closer, can Ellison put together the pieces or will she be the one getting stabbed in the back?
Excerpt
ONE
March, 1975
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
The woman in the chair opposite me was hacking up a lung.
If the sick woman died, Mother would have a conniption fit.
Not because the poor woman was dead. No, Mother would be upset I’d been present at her passing. Mother took a dim view of death. She took a dimmer view of my unfortunate habit of stumbling over bodies.
I glanced at my watch. My broker, Winthrop Marshall, had kept me waiting for nearly thirty minutes.
The woman’s eyes streamed. Her nose ran like a faucet. Overwhelmed by her cold, she didn’t cover her mouth when she coughed.
Cough, cough.
I sympathized. I did. But the woman should have stayed home. In bed. With chicken soup, a bottle of 7UP, a box of Kleenex, and a gross of cold pills.
I abandoned the leather club chair (where I sat) and the most recent copy of Barron’s (where I’d found nothing of interest—the magazine had no fashion stories and probably didn’t even block the woman’s germs) and approached the receptionist’s desk.
“I’d like to wait someplace else.” I said.
The receptionist, an exceedingly pretty woman with very white teeth, donned a I-know-you’ve-been-waiting-with-the-plague-but-there’s-nothing-I-can-do smile. “I’m sorry. We don’t have another waiting area but—” her smile grew brighter “—Mr. Marshall should arrive momentarily.”
Winthrop wasn’t even here? That meant his office was empty.
Cough, cough. COUGH!
“Either I wait in Winthrop’s office, or I’m leaving.”
The receptionist eyed the germ (masquerading as a woman) who was busily infecting the brokerage’s elegant waiting room. A wrinkle marred her pretty brow. “I can check with his assistant.”
“Please do.” I stood at the front desk (as far from the sick woman as possible) and waited.
I did not tap my fingers against the high polish of the receptionist’s desk as Mother would have. I did not dig in my purse for a travel pack of tissues as my housekeeper, Aggie DeLucci, would have (then she’d have given them to the sick woman). I did not roll my eyes as Grace, my daughter, would have. I simply fixed a polite but firm smile on my face.
The receptionist pushed a button on what looked like a very complicated switchboard. “Debbie, Mrs. Russell would like to wait in Mr. Marshall’s office.” She glanced (more of a glare) at the coughing woman and lowered her voice to a whisper. “There’s a sick woman up front.”
Cough, cough.
She listened, glanced at me, and manufactured a small smile of her own. “She insists. If she can’t wait in his office, she’ll reschedule.”
She listened again. “Debbie will be right out.”
Winthrop Marshall’s assistant appeared a moment later. Debbie, another exceedingly pretty young woman, had bouncy blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and vivid red lipstick. She wore a dress so short that I hoped, for her sake, she never dropped anything—bending over would give anyone watching a view of everything God gave her.
In her shoes, working for Winthrop as she did, I would have worn a nun’s habit. As it was, I wore pants and a turtleneck sweater in the most serious shade of gray I could find.
[Want more? Click below to read a longer excerpt.]
Praise for the Book
“Fast paced and with wonderfully descriptive details of the era, the multiple plotlines weave together smoothly and in such an enjoyable way.” ~ Laura’s Interests
“I love the series. Ellison is a precious personality; although born into wealth and married into wealth and raised by a very ‘upper-class disdainful’ mother, she is very much an ‘at-home’, loving, compassionate and generous individual, an artist, and a devoted mother and dog lover.” ~ Mallory Heart’s Cozies
“Back Stabbers is well-written, well-paced, and includes an occasional touch of humor.” ~ Christa Reads and Writes
“With life getting crazy outside of the mystery hunting, Ellison reminds me of why I love moms that are strong and smart in novels. This latest mystery brings out the best thus far in Ellison and I wouldn’t miss reading this one for the world.” ~ Bibliophile Reviews
“Narrated from Ellison’s first person perspective, the novel is quick-paced and enjoyable, with lots of sleuthing and jumping around.” ~ Nadaness In Motion
“I love going back to this time frame where people talked and not texted it was such fun!” ~ Community Bookstop
About the Author
Julie Mulhern is the USA Today bestselling author of The Country Club Murders. She is a Kansas City native who grew up on a steady diet of Agatha Christie. She spends her spare time whipping up gourmet meals for her family, working out at the gym, and finding new ways to keep her house spotlessly clean - and she's got an active imagination. Truth is - she's an expert at calling for take-out, she grumbles about walking the dog, and the dust bunnies under the bed have grown into dust lions.Giveaway
Enter the giveaway for a chance to win a signed print copy of Back Stabbers by Julie Mulhern (US only).
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