Craks in a Marriage

Barbara Barrett

Feb 2018 · The Mah Jongg Mysteries Book 1 · Barbara Barrett

About this ebook

Sydney Bonner overhears a fellow mah jongg player arguing on the phone with her husband and realizes the couple’s “perfect marriage” isn’t all it appears to be. When the husband is found dead a few days later, the widow prevails upon Sydney and her three friends—Marianne, Kat and Micki—to find out who really killed him.

Though none of these four take-charge retirees has any training as detectives, the women agree to launch a secret investigation. As they dig under the happy veneer of their community’s social life, they find more than enough suspects, from shady ladies to resentful golf buddies, to keep them looking over their shoulders.

Could the murderer be lurking among the talent in a chaotic production put on by Sydney’s husband, who will do anything to keep busy in retirement? Could the sheriff, who may have more than a professional interest in chanteuse Kat, end up pinning the crime on the women instead? Each discovery during their investigations keeps them running as they close in on the killer—but the killer may also be closing in on them.

Ratings and reviews

cozy mystery involving a group of busy oldies ,pleasant story

terrific story enjoyed it all the way through. good job looking to reading more of these stories

Great cozy book. The characters are fun.

About the author

Barbara Barrett started reading mysteries when she was pregnant with her first child to keep her mind off things like her changing body and food cravings. When she'd devoured as many Agatha Christies as she could find, she branched out to English village cozies and Ellery Queen.Later, to avoid a midlife crisis, she began writing fiction at night when she wasn't at her day job as a human resources analyst for Iowa State Government. After releasing eleven full-length romance novels and one novella, she returned to the cozy mystery genre, using one of her retirement pastimes, the game of mah jongg, as her inspiration. Not only has it been a great social outlet, it has also helped keep her mind active when not writing. Craks in a Marriage, the first book in her "Mah Jongg Mystery" series, features four friends who seek the murderer of another mah jongg player's husband before she is charged. None of the four is based on an actual person. Each is an amalgamation of several mah jongg friends with a lot of Barbara's imagination thrown in for good measure. The four will continue to appear in future books in the series. Anticipating the day when she would write her first mystery, she has been a member of the Mystery/Romantic Suspense chapter of Romance Writers of America for over a decade. She credits them with helping her hone her craft. Barbara is married to man she met her senior year of college. They have two grown children and eight grandchildren.