Never a Dull Murder
Arlie Undercover Book 8
Chill Out! Books
September 1, 2022
Available in: Paperback, Audio, e-Book
BUY NOW
Never a Dull Murder
by Dani Haviland
How do you solve a murder when you don't know what weapon was used or have a motive or witness?
Solving the case of the death of the best sourdough bread baker in the state gets even more difficult when Anchorage Detective Arlie Biggar gets 'help' from the victim's friends... and an adorable bear cub!
Come to summertime Alaska and discover some incredible new electronic gadgets developed by Arlie to help the good guys catch the murderer and counterfeiter... and find out if they're the same person!
Brain-tickling, thoughtful yet humorous excitement!
Excerpts:
"I wonder why he's smiling?" Jess asked. "I've never seen a victim of a violent death do that."
Arlie chuffed. "I'd say to piss off his murderer. I know I wouldn't give anyone trying to kill me the satisfaction of seeing fear on my face or hearing me beg."
"Yeah, I guess I'd be the same way. I'm lucky that I've never been in that situation."
"Well, Jess, let's hope you die a virgin that way."
"Huh?"
"That you never face someone trying to kill you." Arlie shook his head, flashes of vivid and vile memories momentarily overwhelming him.
"Oh, I've faced a few tough guys but only in situations that I knew were balanced in my favor. It looks like Nero didn't have much of a chance."
"There's always a chance, Jess. It's just that sometimes the odds are very, very slim."
***
"Damn his hide," Winifred cursed softly as she drove into her driveway. "I told him to be more careful." She pushed the button on the minivan's overhead console and the garage door opened.
More tears flowed as she remembered Nero -- the felon once known as Sonny -- in his younger years. Barely five-six, he had shoulders as broad as a man a foot taller. She always was a sucker for a lumberjack's body.
Her Sonny had never been a lumberjack, though. 'I care too much for plants to fell one,' he told her the last time she'd found him. "Look at this yard. Have you ever seen anything so verdant? I even let a few dandelions grow. I don't care if they're weeds. They're the first flowers to bloom each spring."
Sniff, sniff.
"My Sonny. My Nero. It only took me two years to find you after the Witness Protection relocated you this time," she said. "Four times they moved you, but I always found you."
She huffed in self-derision. "But it took nearly fifteen years to get up the nerve to say hi. I took it as fate or kismet or whatever that they moved you just a few miles away. You were gone from my radar for three more years, then one taste of that sourdough bread, and I knew I'd found you."
Winifred wheeled over to her chest freezer. She reached in and grabbed one of the last loaves of bread he'd baked. "'These are just for you,' you said. 'The perfect size for a meal for the both of us.'"
She held the mini loaf close to her chest and sobbed anew.
Grief.
She'd never had it so deep.
"Now I know why lovers weep so much. It isn't so much the loss of joy -- the warmth and comfort of your other half -- as it is its replacement with icy shards of anguish. A void would be easier to bear."
Winifred unzipped the plastic bag and sniffed the bread. "I'll let you warm up first. Oh, I am so going to find your killer, Nero. Gone too soon, love. Gone too soon."
Who will find out Who Done It and how: the grieving girlfriend, the FBI, Arlie the Anchorage Undercover Cop, or someone else?
Read and find out!
Enjoy as a stand-alone story or as Book Eight in the ARLIE UNDERCOVER series.
Other Books by Dani Haviland
Dani Haviland's Bio
I write books, publish multi-author box sets, grow roses and other plants popular here in Oregon, and am a hardworking volunteer. Oh, and spend as much time as I can with my grandchildren. So much for being retired... I first started writing because the idea of 'What would happen if I fell into a story like Outlander' wouldn't stop haunting me. The only way to quiet that noise was to write. Naked in the Winter Wind was the result. I found out later, I was not alone. Many of my author friends said the same thing: writing was the only way to quiet those noisy Muses! I kept writing The Fairies Saga series. A year or so later, I published my stories with Chill Out! Books. Soon thereafter, some of my friends and I got together. We created a collection of some of our older titles (backlist books) with the same theme, created a fun preface for the title (Unforgettable) and called it a box set by The Authors' Billboard. That series has nearly 30 titles now. When we put together new Christmas stories, we made USA Today Bestsellers' List with our effort: twice! Now six years later, I've published one hundred multi-author box sets with Chill Out! Books. The Fairies Saga series is still growing, I created three other series (sharing a few TFS characters), and wrote a bunch of single, stand-alone stories, too! My non-set titles are available to 'binge-listen to' on Audible Plus as audiobooks here. Yeah, those muses are noisy still.