About this ebook
”Very entertaining read. It had me chuckling so much I had to pause the reading. She has a very witty humor.”
When innkeeper Scarlet Wilson is asked to accompany her wheelchair-bound mother on a five-night cruise to Bermuda, she expects to have a trip to remember. Boy, will she remember this one!
Accompanied by Laurel Googins Wilson's new beau and Scarlet's old high school flame, the women set sail for paradise. While Scarlet loses herself in a good book on the balcony of their stateroom, poor Laurel witnesses the deadly plunge of a fellow passenger into the Atlantic Ocean. It's the start of a nightmare that may never end. Who would want to kill George Delaney, the respectable funeral director from Caulkins Cove, Maine, on a cruise to Bermuda? Scarlet doesn’t believe the culprit is the grieving widow.
While Kenny, an experienced investigator, joins forces with old school chum Marley Hornsby, now the security chief for the cruise line, and the cruise ship's security team to find the killer hiding in their midst, the amateur sleuth known as Miz Scarlet can’t resist diving into this mystery. But this isn't a killer who wants to be found. He's dangerous...he’s desperate...and he’s plotting to kill again! Suddenly Miz Scarlet finds herself facing the wrath of a devious, dangerous stranger. Can she stay alive long enough to figure out what the killer's end game is?
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About the author
I love to write, so you will find I am the author of several fast-paced cozy mysteries featuring lively characters like Scarlet Wilson. These tales are laced with humor and romance, but they are of the traditional style of cozy mysteries. The amateur sleuths typically reside in small towns and villages. The crime could take place in your neck of the woods. It could be your next-door neighbor who is found in a heap on the side of the road. It could be your dog that gets the first whiff of that cadaver and alerts you to its presence.
My determined crime solvers might not be trained to tackle big cases, but they do rub elbows with investigators who are used to dealing with wily criminals…and not exactly enthusiastic about having amateur sleuths along for the ride, even clever ones!
While some of the cases are heinous, there is rarely a need to go into detail about any murder scene. To me, that’s like rubbernecking at a traffic accident. If it’s not pertinent to the case, why get gruesome? Nor will you normally hear my cozy mystery characters swear. That doesn’t mean they won’t bicker or get snarky.
As S. M. Barton, I write espionage thrillers. These are not necessarily for the faint of heart. Spies do what they do to achieve their goals. There is normally a lot of excitement, some very hairy twists and turns, and some unconscionable behavior. These are adventures driven by circumstances beyond the control of the protagonists. Survival is the name of the game. It’s not always easy to know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are, let alone what kind of havoc that will result from all the mayhem, murder, and madness. If intrigue is your thing, you will want to check these out.
