Jacqueline Vick is the author of over twenty published short stories, novelettes and mystery novels. Her April 2010 article for Fido Friendly Magazine, “Calling Canine Clairvoyants”, led to the first Frankie Chandler Pet Psychic mystery, Barking Mad About Murder. To find out more, visit her website at http://www.jacquelinevick.com.
What’s the proper etiquette for murder? When Edward Harlow, the offic
ial representative
of Aunt Civility and her etiquette books, discovers a dead body at Inglenook Resort, that’s the question he must struggle with, and it ain’t easy.
Edward is really a short-tempered man who thinks most human beings aren’t worthy of a polite hello. In his usual environment–lecturing like-minded people–the proper responses come without effort. But when he’s surrounded by liars, curiosity seekers, and an unrepentant murderer? Not so much.
My favorite
e mysteries throw an average person into a mix of lunatics. It’s that duck-out-of-water aspect that makes for big laughs. Take Death by Sheer Torture by Robert Barnard. A perfectly respectable police detective must return to his family home (which he’s avoided for almost 20 years) where he’s surrounded by the suspects–his family members. These include a slob cousin who married the daughter of Italian mafia and their brood of Squealies (the children), a cheerful aunt who collects and admires Nazi memorabilia, and his very real memories of the corpse, his own father, who died in embarrassing circumstances. What more could you want?
To read more about Edward’s adventure, Civility Rules is available on Kindle and at other ebook stores. Even better, anyone who comments on this post will be put into a drawing for a free ebook copy of Civility Rules to be drawn this weekend and announced on Monday.
Have you ever found yourself surrounded by nuts? We’d love to hear about it!
The Writers in Residence 
These are a pair of characters I have been waiting for. Let us know when the paperback version is available because I want to add this one to my bookshelf. Nothing like a crumpy but intelligent guy and his clever, long-suffering brother out there solving crime… with the proper etiquette, of course.
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Thanks, Gayle. The paperback should be out in July.
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Ditto on what Gayle said! Your mentioning Robert Barnard also makes me want to revisit with him. A favorite in the past.
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Love, love Robert Barnard, especially the Perry Trethowan series.
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Add my voice to the chorus–can hardly wait for the paperback. It’s going to be fabulous!
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This is going to be great! Can’t wait! As to being surrounded by nuts, well, I think you always have to include family. Not mentioning names, but I have a brother who has been married 8 times and is currently residing at a nudist camp. And he is the normal one. And very sweet. I don’t even want to talk about the rest. It is probably what drove me to writing fiction…
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I’m seeing a setting for a new mystery series here, Kate.
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Nuts? Every time I look in the mirror!
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Me, Me, Me!! Sign me up for the drawing! Oh, wait! I’ve read it in manuscript form. A cool story of so unalike brothers, but you love them each for different reasons. Not to speak of the Kooky characters who inhabit the B&B with them. The hints/clues to the mystery are well hidden. You think the killer (and the reason for murder) are different as you read, changing your mind, then changing it back, until that incident in the kitchen….
Well done. I’ve looked for this book to come out for a long time. It really is the “proper” time. Ta-ta.
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Oh, and did I mention a possible romantic involvement?
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