Malicious Mischief (Mischief and Mayhem, #1)

by Marianne Harden

Excerpt

~When the chips are down, the buffalo is empty~

Am I a flake? Sort of. But I’m trying to change. My grandfather has property tax issues, and what troubles Granddad, troubles me. Good thing I’ve held down a steady job for months. A major big deal. Not the getting a job part—I’ve had lots—but the held down aspect. Somehow, I always end up unemployed, but not today.

Today, I am Rylie Tabitha Keyes, chauffeur to the seniors at Fountain of Youth Retirement Home (FoY.)

It was dawn Sunday as I eased my employer’s van from one freeway onto another. After that, I concentrated on the wet asphalt up ahead. I didn’t want to think about my job history or our financial woes. Instead I focused on the summery sunrise over the Cascade Mountains due east. I stared at it a moment, charmed by its contrast to the more typical Bellevue, Washington gloom brooding overhead.

I should’ve been asleep, but I needed to toss trash from a fundraiser rolling around in the back of the van. Leland Rosenberg, my boss at Fountain of Youth Retirement Home, had asked me to dump the bags at his second business, Rosenberg Laboratory, as FoY’s Dumpsters were full from a recent bathroom remodel. His mood had been edgy, kind of insistent I dispose of them last night. I confess, before I could carry out this task, a minor traffic accident and an all-important overnight obligation had waylaid me. I didn’t bother to sigh over how blunders always seemed to pepper my work performance. Some things were fated to be. After all, I slogged at my job for money not joy. It isn’t that I don’t like working at FoY, it just isn’t my dream gig. You see, I yearned to be a private detective, a Veronica Mars 2.0. Problem is, my grandfather is against the idea. Dead set against it.

So with the stench from the trash bags mounting, I steered FoY’s van onto the off-ramp and headed toward Rosenberg Laboratory just off the freeway exit. My mind was filled with thoughts of a steamy shower, maybe a few hours of shut-eye before punching the clock at nine. I stared forward, squinted. And iced over. Up ahead. Wrong-way traveling. A panel truck advanced, peeling rubber.

Faster.

Closer.

Zeroed in to hit me.

I whipped the van off the road, the red, white, and blue panel truck whizzing past. I slammed on the brakes, fighting to control the wheel. I wrestled with it, panicked, my mind flashing on one fortunate thing: no seniors were in the van.

Tons of hazards burst before my eyes. I struggled to absorb them. A mangled guardrail zigzagged up ahead; its many gaps from other out-of-control vehicles big as life. Worse was the wall of giant Douglas-firs growing beyond, lower trunks scarred, limbs low and swaying.

I was going to careen through the railing.

I was going to hit the trees.

I was going to die.

Book Summary

Career chameleon, Rylie Keyes, must keep her current job. If not, the tax assessor will evict her ailing grandfather and auction off their ancestral home. When a senior she shuttles for a Bellevue, Washington retirement home winds up dead in her minibus, sticky with a half-eaten s’more, head clad in a cellophane bag, and a pocketed complaint letter accusing her of driving by Braille, her goal to keep her job hits a road bump.

The deceased was thought to be a penniless Nazi concentration camp survivor with a silly grudge against Rylie. However, the victim has enemies who will stop at nothing to keep their part in the murder a secret.

Forced to dust off the PI training she’s kept hidden from her ex-detective grandfather, Rylie must align with a circus-bike-wheeling Samoan to solve the murder, all while juggling the attentions of two very hot police officers.

Book Links

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16129273-malicious-mischief
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Malicious-Mischief-Mystery-Entangled-ebook/dp/B00BMKKOGM/
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/malicious-mischief-marianne-harden/1113749209

About Marianne Harden

Marianne Harden loves a good laugh. So much so, she cannot stop humor from spilling into her books. Over the years she has backpacked through the wilds of Australia, explored the exotics of Asia, soaked up the sun in the Caribbean, and delighted in the historic riches of Europe. Her goals in life are simple: do more good than harm and someday master the do-not-mess-with-me look. She divides her time between Switzerland and Washington State where she lives with her husband and two children.

Find Marianne Harden

Website: www.marianneharden.com
Twitter:http://www.twitter.com/MarianneHarden
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorMarianneHarden
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6572367.Marianne_Harden

Enter to win!

Marianne is giving away a $25 gift card to the book retailer of the winner’s choice. Enter at Rafflecopter to win:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

In honor of the release of the four books in the Danby Summons anthology, the twelve authors are holding a contest with lots of prizes! You’ll find the details here.

To enter the contest, leave your name and email address in the comments. (Feel free to break into code like aileen AT aileenfish DOT com) Watch for more places and chances to win!

Check back here on November 1 for your first chance to enter the Danby Regency Christmas Summons Anthology contest! (Whew, that’s a mouthful! But entering is easy, don’t worry!) And good luck.

Mel S.! You’ve won your choice of book from Desiree Holt’s backlist! Please see her comment in the previous post for instructions on how to claim your book. Congratulations!

This month Desiree Holt celebrates her 100th release with Downstroke from Ellora’s Cave. Downstroke is the story of lover reunited after twenty years trying to bridge a gulf of bitterness while outwitting a killer. To help her celebrate I’m giving you a taste of one of her other books. Leave a comment to be entered in the drawing at the end of the month for an Acer netbook.


The first Desiree Holt book I read was Give It to Me. What a fun, hot read it was! I wanted to be Callie so badly, finding a sexy neighbor to help me celebrate my birthday. Here’s the blurb:

Carolina (Callie) Michaels is tired of being a good girl. She has deep, erotic fantasies she’s just dying to live, but none of the men she dates seem to want to share them. She decides to give herself the birthday present of a night to remember, but when her intended date decides she’s too adventurous for him, Callie’s attention turns to dark, sexy Sam Winthrop, her next door neighbor who’s had his own erotic dreams—about her. She invites him to celebrate her birthday with her, and when he gets to her place and discovers what kind of celebration she has in mind, Sam’s convinced that tonight his fantasies as well as Callie’s will come true.

You can read an excerpt on Desiree’s site.

As part of the celebration, Desiree is giving away a prize every day of one copy of one of Desiree’s novels of the reader’s choice from her backlist. Names will be drawn from those who post comments. At the end of the month, one lucky person will win a grand prize of a refurbished Netbook with digital DVD drive. After you (the reader) post here, go to Desiree’s web site at www.desireeholt.com and enter to win the grand prize of the netbook at the end of the month.