BOOK ONE:
ADMIT TO MAYHEM: Eyewitness to arson plummets Lillian Dove into a historical murder case, giving twists and turns providing an exhilarating ride.
ADMIT TO MAYHEM: Eyewitness to arson plummets Lillian Dove into a historical murder case, giving twists and turns providing an exhilarating ride.
Midwest Book Award Winner
Can a good deed turn deadly? You bet!
I stopped to save someone in a burning house, became an eyewitness to arson, lost my job, and found my mother stalked by a cold-case killer. To save her, I needed to uncover secrets from the past; but, I ended involved in a murder about to happen.
Can a good deed turn deadly? Not if LILLIAN DOVE has anything to say about it!
I stopped to save someone in a burning house, became an eyewitness to arson, lost my job, and found my mother stalked by a cold-case killer. To save her, I needed to uncover secrets from the past; but, I ended involved in a murder about to happen.
Can a good deed turn deadly? Not if LILLIAN DOVE has anything to say about it!
PRAISE FROM READERS
"When I started reading this book, I had to double check to make sure it was a mystery because it starts more like women’s fiction but it turns into a mystery pretty quickly...Anyone who likes a mystery with some twists should enjoy Admit to Mayhem"
- Book Reviewer, Dawn
A fast paced cozy murder mystery. I really liked Lillian, she is flawed. I liked the plot, and the writing (well written). I recommend Admit to Mayhem to those who love a great who-done-it. - Sheryl, Reader
I loved it! Full of mystery and intrigue from start to finish. I found it very difficult to put down and found myself carrying it with me wherever I went - just in case I had a chance to read a page or two. The author really developed her lead character well and she was so real.
-Marilyn, Reader
"When I started reading this book, I had to double check to make sure it was a mystery because it starts more like women’s fiction but it turns into a mystery pretty quickly...Anyone who likes a mystery with some twists should enjoy Admit to Mayhem"
- Book Reviewer, Dawn
A fast paced cozy murder mystery. I really liked Lillian, she is flawed. I liked the plot, and the writing (well written). I recommend Admit to Mayhem to those who love a great who-done-it. - Sheryl, Reader
I loved it! Full of mystery and intrigue from start to finish. I found it very difficult to put down and found myself carrying it with me wherever I went - just in case I had a chance to read a page or two. The author really developed her lead character well and she was so real.
-Marilyn, Reader
EXCERPT
Another explosion. This time avalanching wood and flame. A flare lit from the roof. Time was running out. I twisted back to the window. “I can’t stay much longer. Help me get the window up!”
Three rungs remained before the very top of the ladder. It was too dangerous to stand on the last rung, but the next to last might hold me.
Good god. I was going to kill myself and the person inside.
Somehow, I unlocked my knees and coaxed my gravity-dependent feet higher. I steadied myself, then took hold of the rail. I gritted my teeth and stepped onto the next two rungs. The ladder tipped and slid. I took hold of the window.
Steady. You’re okay. If you can’t get it open, you’ll think of something else.
I cupped my hands against the glass. Hot. Whoever was in the room had to be in trouble, if still alive.
Boom!
The ladder shook.
There, I saw someone crouched over by the door.
I pulled off my blouse, knotted it around my hand, and banged it against the window. The glass cracked and burst, releasing a powerful hot wind to my face. The force and surprise of the impact shook me off balance, and my uneven weight tilted the ladder. I lurched forward, pushing my weight against the rungs, forcing the ladder to remain standing.
Miracles do happen.
“Please, hurry,” I yelled.
I laid my blouse over the sill and wrestled myself half-way through the opening, teeter-tottering. Then dizzy with the effort and realizing where I was and what I’d done, I panicked. I kicked to regain my footing on the ladder, this time sending it clattering to the ground.
“Help me!”
This was my voice.
I fell into the room hitting my head. My vision warped. My fingers came back bloody.
A hand touched my naked shoulder. “Are you okay?”
With my head reeling, I opened my eyes to find an indistinct face. Alien. Something out of a science-fiction movie.
Sirens screamed.
The face disappeared.
Another gust of heat moved over me. I lowered my head, my hands worrying my hair. I glanced to each side, checking the room as best I could.
There was only me.
Outside, voices called to one another and other voices answered. A gushing waterfall of water hit the house, squelching, sizzling, smothering insistent destruction. Inside, fumes and heat and a hammering pulse in my head muffled any thought for salvation.
I’d failed. Yet, for the first time in my miscarried life, my ineptitude didn’t flood me with the same sordid worthlessness I’d shouldered so many times before. This time was the last time.
I was going to die.
Three rungs remained before the very top of the ladder. It was too dangerous to stand on the last rung, but the next to last might hold me.
Good god. I was going to kill myself and the person inside.
Somehow, I unlocked my knees and coaxed my gravity-dependent feet higher. I steadied myself, then took hold of the rail. I gritted my teeth and stepped onto the next two rungs. The ladder tipped and slid. I took hold of the window.
Steady. You’re okay. If you can’t get it open, you’ll think of something else.
I cupped my hands against the glass. Hot. Whoever was in the room had to be in trouble, if still alive.
Boom!
The ladder shook.
There, I saw someone crouched over by the door.
I pulled off my blouse, knotted it around my hand, and banged it against the window. The glass cracked and burst, releasing a powerful hot wind to my face. The force and surprise of the impact shook me off balance, and my uneven weight tilted the ladder. I lurched forward, pushing my weight against the rungs, forcing the ladder to remain standing.
Miracles do happen.
“Please, hurry,” I yelled.
I laid my blouse over the sill and wrestled myself half-way through the opening, teeter-tottering. Then dizzy with the effort and realizing where I was and what I’d done, I panicked. I kicked to regain my footing on the ladder, this time sending it clattering to the ground.
“Help me!”
This was my voice.
I fell into the room hitting my head. My vision warped. My fingers came back bloody.
A hand touched my naked shoulder. “Are you okay?”
With my head reeling, I opened my eyes to find an indistinct face. Alien. Something out of a science-fiction movie.
Sirens screamed.
The face disappeared.
Another gust of heat moved over me. I lowered my head, my hands worrying my hair. I glanced to each side, checking the room as best I could.
There was only me.
Outside, voices called to one another and other voices answered. A gushing waterfall of water hit the house, squelching, sizzling, smothering insistent destruction. Inside, fumes and heat and a hammering pulse in my head muffled any thought for salvation.
I’d failed. Yet, for the first time in my miscarried life, my ineptitude didn’t flood me with the same sordid worthlessness I’d shouldered so many times before. This time was the last time.
I was going to die.