(Revamping the blog. Please excuse the odd headings. Working on it!)

Writing History & Mysteries

When I'm not delving into historical research, I'm planning a character's demise.

The blog of Cindy Amrhein

Historian - Author - Abstractor

Silver Lake, NY at Sunset

Photo by Zach Amrhein

This is default featured slide 3 title

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.

This is default featured slide 4 title

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.

This is default featured slide 5 title

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Bread and Butter 01


Hoag Family Plot - Alabama Center Cemetery, Alabama, NY
Well I'm not so sure how non-fiction is going to work for Sunday Snippets but let's give it a go, shall we?

SETUP: (Alabama, NY) In November of 1855 Polly Hoag had her fortune told when her and her husband Henry attended an election party at the Alabama Hotel. She was told two members of her family would die, and she would not be one of them. Henry decides he wants to give up being a shoemaker and try farming. This meant they would be moving away from the conveniences of village life, her friends ... and someone else. We will begin in the spring of 1856 (which is somewhere in chapter 2).
As time passed, Polly's hostility towards moving to the farm increased.  Mrs. Potter testified during one of the trials that Polly had told her and another woman, Delia Avery, that she was sorry she ever got married.  Polly also relayed to the women that she wished she was clear of her husband and children. She did not care how she got clear of them, nor how soon; and that if it was not for them she could go anywhere she had a mind to.  Polly told the ladies that she would not care a bit if Henry should die; if he moved on the farm, as he was not healthy, he wouldn't live six months.

Why was Polly protesting so much? Henry would not find out the real reason until right before the move. The answer would not come from Polly, but from her then nine-year-old son Albert.

***
BLURB:
In 1856, in the rural town of Alabama, NY one woman's family suffered from multiple unexplained deaths. The town folk grew suspicious of the now remarried Polly Frisch. An investigation commenced, bodies were exhumed, an affair—exposed. Polly would be arrested for the murders of her first husband and daughters. Her fourteen-year-old son would testify against her. If found guilty, the punishment for such a crime was the gallows. Bread & Butter is the true story of Polly Frisch who poisoned her family with arsenic and the five trials it took to convict her. 

The link to the other Weekend Writing Warriors is here. You're bound to find something to pique your interest.

The Sunday Snippet writer's on Facebook are here. Between the two there is something for everyone. Thank you for any comments you leave me. Much appreciated!

****

The above excerpt is from Bread & Butter: The Murders of Polly Frisch, a book I co-authored with my friend, Ellen Bachorski. We are re-releasing it into the modern world of POD and Kindle, etc. It has had an edit make over and new info added. The copies of the first edition which we printed through Morris Publishing in 2000 are still available. You can see it over on the right in my blog. I did a mock up for the new cover below. What do you think?
Stay tuned for the release date of February 2014. Anyone have tips on how to do a blog tour let me know!



Share:

Sunday, December 01, 2013

Milk Carton Murders 33

SETUP: The three girls whose twenty plus-year-old remains washed up in coffins at Wiscoy Creek have been identified as Lisa Appleton, Rachel McKenzie and Samantha Briggs. Samantha was a foster child at Dave's house when he was a kid, and it was the last place Dave seen her alive. His dad Hal is one of the suspects. Dave and Investigator Pepper Black are at the police station going through boxes Dave pulled from their attic. One is a box of old foster family files (that Dave's dad believes will help clear him) and a couple boxes of old photographs from the right time period and before. Dave's dad, Hal, also worked in the print shop at the dairy, the supervisor being Charlie Smythe. Below Dave and Pepper are going through photos to identify them.

She  reached her hand in the box, pulled out a photograph and held it up. “Aw, look at how cute you were as a boy—although a bit glum—when was this taken?”
   
Dave glanced over at the photo. “Not sure—looks like I'm three or four maybe? I’m sitting on the stool in the print room office where we were the other day.”
   
“Oh yes, I remember you and Charlie Smythe saying your dad brought you to work with him when you were little.” She looked again at the photograph of Dave, then at the back, and stopped.
   
“Something wrong, Pepper?”
   
“What, no,” Pepper said, with a weak smile, "just trying to look close at all the photos—match them up right." She put his picture in the "gone through" pile and changed the subject.

***
Sorry the end of that snippet was rather abrupt. Pepper says something right after, changing the subject, but it would have gone way over the sentence limit.

The link to the other Weekend Writing Warriors is here. You're bound to find something to pique your interest.

The Sunday Snippet writer's on Facebook are here. Between the two there is something for everyone. Thank you for any comments you leave me. Much appreciated!

I'm being a NaNoWriMo rebel and using the goal stats to get my back title, as they say, Kindleized. Is that a word? If not it is now. It's an 1860s true crime called Bread & Butter: The Murders of Polly Frisch (co-authored with my friend, Ellen Bachorski). It needs a go over to fix some typos and punctuation. I see things now that I didn't 13 years ago when it was first published. Wish me luck and good luck to all of those on the last week of NaNo!
*** 
BLURB:
When three small coffins are unearthed near the Wiscoy Creek during a routine dredging operation, it’s the last thing DAVE ROBERTSON, of the Lamont Weekly Times, expected. Pinned to the skeleton’s clothing are pictures from milk cartons of missing girls.

Dave is stunned to find that one of the girls is Sally―a foster child his parents had cared for through the Friends of Foster Families (FFF) program. Cold case files reveal the girls disappeared over 20 years ago. Knowing his house was the last place he saw Sally alive, he can’t help but suspect his dad.

How can he write the biggest story of his career if his father turns out to be the killer? If the voice in his head would shut up and let him remember, he might figure it out before he loses his mind and his dad is charged with murder.

Full blurb and snippet recap here.


Share:

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Milk Carton Murders 32


SETUP: After the meeting with the Underwoods, and Dave's stint at church when the Underwoods show up (and some other stuff I can't tell you), Pepper calls him to meet her at the Lamont Cafe'. They are discussing the case. Remember the Boy Scout pine wood derby car Dave made as a kid when Samantha was a foster child at his house? Some of you asked if it was important, I said yes. It seems a little piece of balsa wood was stuck inside the stuffed dog that was in the coffin with Samantha, a toy Dave had won at the county fair and given her over twenty years ago. Pepper speaks first and tells him there was something carved into the soft wood. They have already figured out there is some connection to the Friends of Foster Families Program or the Wiscoy Dairy where many of the suspects involved in the foster program worked.

 Pepper flipped through her pad. “On one side it said, ‘Sammy Briggs August 22, 1987’, and underneath it, ‘Remember me. September 28, 1987.’”

“The August date had to be the week of the fair,” Dave surmised,  “probably the day I gave it to her. The September date is after she left us, way after. Do you think that was her last day?”

“If not the day, than close to it,” Pepper agreed, “and she might have guessed something was going to happen. What she carved on the other side was even more unsettling."

Dave squelched the other voice in his head from coming to the forefront of his mind. “I almost don’t want to know, but go ahead.”

Pepper looked up at him. “It said—the milk man is evil.”

***
I accidentally deleted my last post of The MCM, and along with it went all your wonderful comments. Although I retrieved the post from my history, did a copy/paste to redo the post the comments are gone forever. My apologies to those who took the time to leave them, and if I missed getting to your blog in return.

The link to the other Weekend Writing Warriors is here. You're bound to find something to pique your interest.

The Sunday Snippet writer's on Facebook are here. Between the two there is something for everyone. Thank you for any comments you leave me. Much appreciated!

I'm being a NaNoWriMo rebel and using the goal stats to get my back title, as they say, Kindleized. Is that a word? If not it is now. It's an 1860s true crime called Bread & Butter: The Murders of Polly Frisch (co-authored with my friend, Ellen Bachorski). It needs a go over to fix some typos and punctuation. I see things now that I didn't 13 years ago when it was first published. Wish me luck and good luck to all of those on the last week of NaNo!
*** 
BLURB:
When three small coffins are unearthed near the Wiscoy Creek during a routine dredging operation, it’s the last thing DAVE ROBERTSON, of the Lamont Weekly Times, expected. Pinned to the skeleton’s clothing are pictures from milk cartons of missing girls.

Dave is stunned to find that one of the girls is Sally―a foster child his parents had cared for through the Friends of Foster Families (FFF) program. Cold case files reveal the girls disappeared over 20 years ago. Knowing his house was the last place he saw Sally alive, he can’t help but suspect his dad.

How can he write the biggest story of his career if his father turns out to be the killer? If the voice in his head would shut up and let him remember, he might figure it out before he loses his mind and his dad is charged with murder.

Full blurb and snippet recap here.


Share:

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Milk Carton Murders 31


SET UP: Last week Dave Robertson (my MC) tagged along with Inv. Pepper Black to question the Underwoods. Shelia Underwood seems a bit nuts and her husband answers the questions about their time as foster parents, his job at the carton plant at the dairy and Shelia being a case worker for the Friends of Foster Families over two decades ago. Dave finds out that Randy (who works with him at the newspaper) is their adopted son. He never knew as their last names are different. Dave figures Randy is going to be pissed at him come Monday for dragging his parents into the investigation of the 20 year old case of the three dead girls. This scene is Sunday when Dave goes with his dad to church, something he doesn't normally do, and low and behold Randy is there with his parents. We're skipping the almost brawl in the church isle. :)

As always, the words in italics is the "other" voice in Dave's head.

Dave’s dad leaned over to him and whispered after they had been seated, “This is the first time I’ve seen the Underwoods in church in … well … I can’t remember how long, several years anyway.”

What do you think, Davy---came to atone for their sins?

Dave gave his head a shake to clear the thoughts. “I didn’t realize that," he whispered back, “but then again, I don’t always make it here with you.”

The mass was the usual Catholic format. Now if it was a Born Again worship service, Dave would expect Sheila Underwood to jump up and run to the front hysterically asking for forgiveness, to be saved, and Father Bart would whack her on the forehead to cast out her demons, but no such luck. The sermon was on keeping the children on the path to God–couldn’t get more appropriate than that. It was almost, dare he think, predestined that the Underwoods–the black sheep–would decided to come back into the fold on the day the sermon was about children. Did they understand at all that they had set those children on the path to God in the wrong way? Most likely not.

***
Poor Dave, huh? He can't decide if his dad did it, or the Underwoods, or heck, maybe even himself as his mind has blocked things from his past---and then there's that voice. Whew. 

The link to the other Weekend Writing Warriors is here. You're bound to find something to pique your interest.

The Sunday Snippet writer's on Facebook are here. Between the two there is something for everyone. Thank you for any comments you leave me. Much appreciated!

I'm being a NaNoWriMo rebel and using the goal stats to get my back title, as they say, Kindleized. Is that a word? If not it is now. It's an 1860s true crime called Bread & Butter: The Murders of Polly Frisch (co-authored with my friend, Ellen Bachorski). It needs a go over to fix some typos and punctuation. I see things now that I didn't 13 years ago when it was first published. Wish me luck and good luck to all of those doing NaNo!
*** 
BLURB:
When three small coffins are unearthed near the Wiscoy Creek during a routine dredging operation, it’s the last thing DAVE ROBERTSON, of the Lamont Weekly Times, expected. Pinned to the skeleton’s clothing are pictures from milk cartons of missing girls.

Dave is stunned to find that one of the girls is Sally―a foster child his parents had cared for through the Friends of Foster Families (FFF) program. Cold case files reveal the girls disappeared over 20 years ago. Knowing his house was the last place he saw Sally alive, he can’t help but suspect his dad.

How can he write the biggest story of his career if his father turns out to be the killer? If the voice in his head would shut up and let him remember, he might figure it out before he loses his mind and his dad is charged with murder.

Full blurb and snippet recap here.




Share:

Sunday, November 03, 2013

Milk Carton Murders 30

SETUP: How about we take a look at some of the other suspects, shall we? Shelia Underwood was a foster parent 20 years ago and later, a social worker—who seems a bit nuts now. Her husband Jeffery worked in the print shop with Dave's dad Hal at the dairy. Dave hates Shelia but he really doesn't remember why.

Dave and Investigator Pepper Black are at the Underwood's house to ask some questions about the cold case of the remains of the three girls found at Wiscoy Creek. The girls were part of the Friends of Foster Families program. Dave is allowed to tag along with Pepper if he keeps his mouth shut (the reason is explained earlier in the story). Shelia sits in a chair staring out at the yard through the French doors, her husband Jeffery besides her. Dave is standing next to Pepper who speaks first.

“I’m working on a cold case and I’m hoping you can help me with it.”

“A cold case—a cold case of what Miss Black? There’s no alcohol here if that’s what you mean," Mrs. Underwood snapped, "not with the children in the house, if you’re implying we’re up to something.”

Mr. Underwood signaled them, and whispered, “Please excuse my wife, she hasn’t been well.”

“Children ma’am? Well I am here about some children, but they're ones that died about twenty years ago,” said Pepper, keeping her focus on Shelia.

“I don’t understand Miss Black---how can we help you with that?” asked Jeffery.

Sheila tilted her head and stared at Dave a moment, her words spat out like venom, “Why is that boy here? Never listened, always hiding. He was such a bad boy, that one was."
***

The link to the other Weekend Writing Warriors is here. You're bound to find something to pique your interest.

The Sunday Snippet writer's on Facebook are here. Between the two there is something for everyone. Thank you for any comments you leave me. Much appreciated!

*** 
BLURB:
When three small coffins are unearthed near the Wiscoy Creek during a routine dredging operation, it’s the last thing DAVE ROBERTSON, of the Lamont Weekly Times, expected. Pinned to the skeleton’s clothing are pictures from milk cartons of missing girls.

Dave is stunned to find that one of the girls is Sally―a foster child his parents had cared for through the Friends of Foster Families (FFF) program. Cold case files reveal the girls disappeared over 20 years ago. Knowing his house was the last place he saw Sally alive, he can’t help but suspect his dad.

How can he write the biggest story of his career if his father turns out to be the killer? If the voice in his head would shut up and let him remember, he might figure it out before he loses his mind and his dad is charged with murder.

Full blurb and snippet recap here.


Share:

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Milk Carton Murders 29

This is much later after Hal's questioning. Dave has boxes he pulled from their attic. One has Friends of Foster Families files, the other two, photographs from over the many years. Dave and Pepper are trying to match pictures of the children in their files with any photos in the box. 

As always the italics is the other voice in Dave's head.

Dave took the lid off the first box. Inside were old black and whites, a man in a civil war outfit, some tintypes, and photos of both his parents when they were children themselves—even their baby pictures. At least someone had the good sense to write on the backs of most of them who was who. Unfortunately, there was nothing that was relevant to the case. He put the lid back on, pushed it to the side, and pulled the other one in front of him. This box of photographs held more promise, they were in the right time frame. There were a few of himself as a kid.
 

What? No baby pictures of our little, Davy? That’s weird, don’t you think?  


***

The link to the other Weekend Writing Warriors is here. You're bound to find something to pique your interest.

The Sunday Snippet writer's on Facebook are here. Between the two there is something for everyone. Thank you for any comments you leave me. Much appreciated!

*** 
BLURB:
When three small coffins are unearthed near the Wiscoy Creek during a routine dredging operation, it’s the last thing DAVE ROBERTSON, of the Lamont Weekly Times, expected. Pinned to the skeleton’s clothing are pictures from milk cartons of missing girls.

Dave is stunned to find that one of the girls is Sally―a foster child his parents had cared for through the Friends of Foster Families (FFF) program. Cold case files reveal the girls disappeared over 20 years ago. Knowing his house was the last place he saw Sally alive, he can’t help but suspect his dad.

How can he write the biggest story of his career if his father turns out to be the killer? If the voice in his head would shut up and let him remember, he might figure it out before he loses his mind and his dad is charged with murder.

Full blurb and snippet recap here.


Share:

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Milk Carton Murders 28

SETUP: We're leaving last week's scene where Dave's dad is being questioned. I'm leaving a lot of the next part out as it has too many clues to post before it's published (at some point). Let's just say there are other suspects and Dave is determined to help Investigator Pepper Black figure out who those people are. A lot of people worked at the dairy twenty years ago in the milk carton plant, not just Dave's dad. (Remember, Dave and Pepper have a deal, he can tag along for an exclusive for not printing the milk carton photos in the newspaper, and she wants to keep him close anyway, positive he's holding something back.) Below is a conversation between Dave and Pepper. She shows Dave a photo, hoping for a reaction, of what was in the coffin with the one foster girl who stayed at Dave's house when he was about 13. Pepper speaks first.
As always the words in italics is the "other" voice in Dave's head.


"The girl you knew as Melissa Riggs, a.k.a. our victim Samantha Briggs—who by the way, we need to start calling her by her real name—she had a stuffed dog, more teddy bear style construction, made of polyester which is why it survived.”

 Dave didn’t want to look at the photograph, nor did he need to. “Was it yellow?”

“Yes, extremely dirty, but it was yellow—and you knew this how?”

Dave slumped against the jeep, dragged his fingers through his hair, and back again. Please, he thought, no more headaches—focus. “Because I gave it to her; I think I won it at the county fair.”

You think? Oh come on Davy, quit being such a chicken shit, you can remember—or do I have to tell you?

***

The link to the other Weekend Writing Warriors is here. You're bound to find something to pique your interest.

The Sunday Snippet writer's on Facebook are here. Between the two there is something for everyone. Thank you for any comments you leave me. Much appreciated!

*** 
BLURB:
When three small coffins are unearthed near the Wiscoy Creek during a routine dredging operation, it’s the last thing DAVE ROBERTSON, of the Lamont Weekly Times, expected. Pinned to the skeleton’s clothing are pictures from milk cartons of missing girls.

Dave is stunned to find that one of the girls is Sally―a foster child his parents had cared for through the Friends of Foster Families (FFF) program. Cold case files reveal the girls disappeared over 20 years ago. Knowing his house was the last place he saw Sally alive, he can’t help but suspect his dad.

How can he write the biggest story of his career if his father turns out to be the killer? If the voice in his head would shut up and let him remember, he might figure it out before he loses his mind and his dad is charged with murder.

Full blurb and snippet recap here.




Share:

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Milk Carton Murders 27

SETUP: We continue the scene of Dave's dad, Hal, being questioned by the sheriff and Investigator Pepper Black for 20-year-old crimes---the murders of three small girls. One of the victims was Melissa Riggs (whose real name turns out to be Samantha Briggs), a foster child in their house when Dave was a kid. Their bodies were recently found when three coffins slide out of the Wiscoy Creek bank after a storm. Pinned to each is a piece of a milk carton with a missing child photo. Back then, Hal worked in the plant that made the milk cartons at the local Wiscoy Dairy.

Hal insisted they bring along a box of old "Friends of Foster Families" files that Dave had pulled out of the attic, thinking it would help clear things up. And now the snippet.

 Sheriff Nazzaro put the photograph of Samantha Briggs that was sent to them by the Center For Missing Children to the left of the photo marked Melissa Riggs from his dad’s file box, and the milk carton piece to the right.

“I’m not seeing how your foster files help you, Hal,” said Pepper, then she turned to face Nazzaro. “Look closely at the pictures sheriff; all of them are the same girl, no doubt about that—but the photo of Samantha used on the milk carton, and the photo of Melissa from Hal’s file are exactly the same —identical.”

Dave was perplexed; it was true—they were the same pose, dress, hairstyle—duplicates, a reprint. “Maybe the killer made a copy somehow,” Dave said, trying to defend his father.

“Oh come on, Dave, someone else got their hands on your dad’s files to put the photo on the milk carton? This paper clip has been stuck to that photo on the file folder so long it’s rusted to it,” Pepper pointed out, “like it's never moved."

 “I can’t explain it, okay?” Dave blurted out.

“Well I can,” said Hal.

***
This is the last I'll post of this scene as I can't tell you what Hal says. It is after all a mystery.:) I plan to get it published one way or another and don't want to give away too many clues.
***

The link to the other Weekend Writing Warriors is here. You're bound to find something to pique your interest.

The Sunday Snippet writer's on Facebook are here. Between the two there is something for everyone. Thank you for any comments you leave me. Much appreciated!

*** 
BLURB:
When three small coffins are unearthed near the Wiscoy Creek during a routine dredging operation, it’s the last thing DAVE ROBERTSON, of the Lamont Weekly Times, expected. Pinned to the skeleton’s clothing are pictures from milk cartons of missing girls.

Dave is stunned to find that one of the girls is Sally―a foster child his parents had cared for through the Friends of Foster Families (FFF) program. Cold case files reveal the girls disappeared over 20 years ago. Knowing his house was the last place he saw Sally alive, he can’t help but suspect his dad.

How can he write the biggest story of his career if his father turns out to be the killer? If the voice in his head would shut up and let him remember, he might figure it out before he loses his mind and his dad is charged with murder.

Full blurb and snippet recap here.





Share:

Saturday, October 05, 2013

Milk Carton Murders 26

Dave's dad Hal is being accused of a 20 year old crime---the murders of three small girls. Last week we left off with Dave randomly referencing his Boy Scout pinewood derby car. We pick up in the same place right after Pepper says, "In the middle of all we have been doing the last week, you were thinking of your Boy Scout car?”

As always the words in italics is the "other" voice in Dave's head.


“I was trying to trigger my dad’s memory about Sally," said Dave.

“Trigger my memory—that’s what the car bit was all about?” said Hal, annoyed. “Why the hell didn’t you just come out and ask me?”

“Hal, if you have something you want to get off your chest about all of this, I'm asking; it’s time to let it go,” said Sheriff Nazzaro.

Their playing good cop, bad cop again, Davy—Nazzy with his let-me-help-you-ease-your-conscience shit.

“You're right, they're doing the good cop bad cop thing,” said Dave. Pepper gave him a quizzical look. Too late to take his words backhe had answered himself out loud except no one heard the other voice he was talking to.
***

Well, one of the reasons for the derby car, but not the only one. Sally (whose real name is Samantha) was a foster child at Dave's house when he was a kid. She watched as Hal helped Dave make his derby car. Hope I didn't loose too much this time in the creative editing to fit the eight.
The link to the other Weekend Writing Warriors is here. You're bound to find something to pique your interest.

The Sunday Snippet writer's on Facebook are here. Between the two there is something for everyone. Thank you for any comments you leave me. Much appreciated!

*** 
BLURB:
When three small coffins are unearthed near the Wiscoy Creek during a routine dredging operation, it’s the last thing DAVE ROBERTSON, of the Lamont Weekly Times, expected. Pinned to the skeleton’s clothing are pictures from milk cartons of missing girls.

Dave is stunned to find that one of the girls is Sally―a foster child his parents had cared for through the Friends of Foster Families (FFF) program. Cold case files reveal the girls disappeared over 20 years ago. Knowing his house was the last place he saw Sally alive, he can’t help but suspect his dad.

How can he write the biggest story of his career if his father turns out to be the killer? If the voice in his head would shut up and let him remember, he might figure it out before he loses his mind and his dad is charged with murder.

Full blurb and snippet recap here.



Share:

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Sunday Snippet Pepper's Story 01

Welcome to my Sunday Snippet. Since hubby and I went on a date to the drive-in last night and I totally forgot to get on the Weekend Writing Warriors list, I decided to post from another story. Don't want to cheat some of my Milk Carton Murders followers of a segment, you know?

This snippet is related, however. This is Investigator Pepper Black's story, the same cop, many of the same characters, and the same town as in the Milk Carton Murders. It predates MCM so as not to revel anything. I did it in April for Camp NaNoWriMo and Blogging A-Z (a different letter every day). I did the whole story daily on my blog. You can read the entire murder mystery here.

A body is found along a hedge row in the rural town of Lamont. Some creative punctuation is used to keep it to 10.
***
She had been a beautiful woman in life. If it wasn’t for the polka dot scarf around her neck it would be obvious her head was no longer attached to her body.  An adze lay only a few feet away embedded in a partially hewn log. Sheriff Clayton Nazzaro walked over to the hedgerow where the coroner, Herbert Wilde, was crouched down near the body.

“So, the murder weapon you think, Herb?” asked Clayton, with a tilt of his head towards the log.

“I’m not guessing on that one until I get her back to the morgue,” said Herb, “and not until your forensic guys have that adze removed—no mistaking who she is though.”

“Nope. Jack Webster’s daughter,” said Clayton. “Worked up at McCormick’s boat rental last I heard—quiet girl. What do make of the clothes?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say I’ve ever seen her dress this flashy. Skirt seems a might short for her, and the blouse a bit too revealing.”
 
***
If you would like to read snippets from other great authors the links to them are above. Thanks for visiting and any comments.
Share:

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Milk Carton Murders 25

Hal, Dave's dad, was accused of the 20-year-old murder of one of the girls who was found by the creek-- one of the many foster children that passed through Dave's house as a child. Hal agrees to go to the sheriff's station to try and explain his side. He makes sure Dave grabs two boxes to bring along. And just what are in those boxes anyway? Sheriff Clayton Nazzaro and Investigator Pepper Black are asking Hal a few questions. Some of the Q&A in the last few snippets has gotten a bit heated and confusing. (A little creative punctuation to meet the 8.)
“Everybody take a breath,” said Nazzaro, “and Hal, why don’t you try starting from the beginning instead of jumping in at the middle expecting us to understand what you’re talking about.”

“Well that’s why we brought the boxes, Clayton,” said Hal, as if the sheriff was blind. “All the files of every child we had are in it—you can’t expect me to remember everything from that long ago, I’m sixty-five for Christ sakes.”

Nazzaro winced, and shook a finger in Hal's direction. “That's not that old, Hal, and there’s nothing wrong with your mind—I know—my mother is your canasta partner.”

“What’s in the other box?” asked Pepper.

“Just random photos from over the years I found in the attic when I went up there to look for my pinewood derby car,” said Dave.

“In the middle of all we have been doing this last week, you were thinking of your Boy Scout car?” asked Pepper, dumbfounded.
***

The link to the other Weekend Writing Warriors is here. You're bound to find something to pique your interest.

The Sunday Snippet writer's on Facebook are here. Between the two there is something for everyone. Thank you for any comments you leave me. Much appreciated!

*** 
BLURB:
When three small coffins are unearthed near the Wiscoy Creek during a routine dredging operation, it’s the last thing DAVE ROBERTSON, of the Lamont Weekly Times, expected. Pinned to the skeleton’s clothing are pictures from milk cartons of missing girls.

Dave is stunned to find that one of the girls is Sally―a foster child his parents had cared for through the Friends of Foster Families (FFF) program. Cold case files reveal the girls disappeared over 20 years ago. Knowing his house was the last place he saw Sally alive, he can’t help but suspect his dad.

How can he write the biggest story of his career if his father turns out to be the killer? If the voice in his head would shut up and let him remember, he might figure it out before he loses his mind and his dad is charged with murder.

Full blurb and snippet recap here.
Share:

Available in paperback and eBook formats

Available in paperback and eBook formats

Now Available At:

Barnes & Noble
Amazon
The History Press
Walmart

Carried by over 40 college/university libraries across the county, according to daily updates by worldcat.org, including Columbia University, Oklahoma State, Texas A & M, and Yale University Law Library.

Book Trailer

Weekend Writing Warriors

Weekend Writing Warriors
WeWriWa

Bread & Butter the Murders of Polly Frisch

Bread & Butter the Murders of Polly Frisch
Available on Amazon

Other Great Reads

Followers

Recent Posts

A to Z - 2015

A to Z - 2014

A to Z - 2014

A to Z - 2013

A to Z - 2013

Goodreads

Cindy's bookshelf: read

Waiting for Harvey
4 of 5 stars
Alone, in a cabin in the woods, with a ghost. Who could ask for more in a ghost story? Harvey starts right out with a hint of foreboding in a conversation between brothers John and Erik. Already my curiosity is roused as to what happened...
tagged: books-i-read-to-me
James Potter and the Curse of the Gate Keeper
3 of 5 stars
I randomly downloaded this on my iPad when I hit the wrong button being a bumble fingers, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I've never read fanfic before. It was pretty good. But like many other people, it still can't compare to J. K. Row...
CHIMERAS
5 of 5 stars
I beta read a few chapters of a different book by this author (one that isn't out yet) so when this one was out I had to read it as it was the same character in the one a betaed a bit of--the character of Track. I have a fondness for thi...
tagged: books-i-read-to-me

goodreads.com