Murder Hooks a Mermaid
PRAISE FOR
Murder Buys a T-shirt
“A cantankerous parrot, a charming heroine, and a determined ghost vanquish a villain in Christy Fifield’s appealing debut mystery.”
—Carolyn Hart, national bestselling author of
Death Comes Silently
“A businesswoman, a parrot, and a ghost inhabit a souvenir store. That’s not the set up for a joke, but for Christy Fifield’s debut,
Murder Buys a T-shirt
, which packs a paranormal punch. Fifield expertly shifts the focus among the possible culprits and establishes Glory as a charming protagonist, sometimes impulsive, sometimes wary. And she invests the small-town setting with Southern spirit (and at least one spirit), as well as numerous recipes for traditional Southern food. A traditional mystery with an offbeat angle,
Murder Buys a T-shirt
will have readers, like Bluebeard, greedy for more.”
—Richmond Times-Dispatch
“An entertaining and clever Florida whodunit.”
—Midwest Book Review
“Fifield offers a nice blend of the cozy and contemporary with a hint of the paranormal. I look forward to getting to know Glory and her friends better. Good writing, an appealing ensemble cast, and a tightly woven mystery; definitely a series that’s a promising addition to the ‘cozy’ genre.”
—Once Upon a Romance
“A fun book that will make the dreariest of days a little brighter! Socrates’ Great Book Alert.”
—Socrates’ Cozy Café
“Very enjoyable…[A] delightful cozy mystery, and I will definitely be reading more of the series. Yummy recipes of traditional Southern dishes are also included.”
—Novel Reflections
Berkley Prime Crime titles by Christy Fifield
MURDER BUYS A T-SHIRT
MURDER HOOKS A MERMAID
Murder Hooks
a Mermaid
Christy Fifield
BERKLEY PRIME CRIME, NEW YORK
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) • Penguin Group (Australia), 707 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3008, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) • Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) • Penguin Books (South Africa), Rosebank Office Park, 181 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parktown North 2193, South Africa • Penguin China, B7 Jiaming Center, 27 East Third Ring Road North, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100020, China
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: The recipes contained in this book are to be followed exactly as written. The publisher is not responsible for your specific health or allergy needs that may require medical supervision. The publisher is not responsible for any adverse reactions to the recipes contained in this book.
MURDER HOOKS A MERMAID
A Berkley Prime Crime Book / published by arrangement with the author
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Berkley Prime Crime mass-market edition / January 2013
Copyright © 2012 by Chris York.
Cover illustration by Ben Perini.
Cover design by Sarah Oberrender.
Interior text design by Kristin del Rosario.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
ISBN: 978-1-101-61868-4
BERKLEY
®
PRIME CRIME
Berkley Prime Crime Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
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®
PRIME CRIME and the PRIME CRIME logo are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
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If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
| ALWAYS LEARNING | PEARSON |
With sincere appreciation to two marvelous
Southern women:
The “real” Linda Miller,
who willingly became a part of Glory’s world, and
Martha York,
my incredible mother-in-law, for everything—
including her wonderful help with researching
authentic Southern recipes.
Acknowledgments
A book starts with one person sitting alone in a room, making things up. However, if you’re sitting there writing and life throws you a curveball—heck, life throws you a
beanball
—you appreciate the people around you that help you keep going.
I’ve had more than a few beanballs lately, and I want to thank the friends and family who stood beside me and behind me, and occasionally pushed.
My special thanks to:
Michelle Vega, editor, for your patience;
Susannah Taylor, agent, for your support and advice;
Colleen, first reader, and gym buddy, for the motivation;
Kris and Dean, for shoulders and a swift kick, and knowing which one was needed;
Jeanne, Jan, Jeri, Louis, Shane, and Lynette, for being a family not only of blood, but of the heart;
And most of all to Steve, who makes it all worthwhile.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Karen’s Down-Home Dinner Menus and Recipes
Chapter 1
“COFFEE?”
The question greeted me when I came downstairs from my apartment over Southern Treasures, the eclectic gift shop I own in Keyhole Bay, Florida.
Maybe
own
is a slight exaggeration. I own 55 percent and my cousin Peter Beaumont owns 45 percent, but I was determined to change that in the near future.
The one thing I didn’t share ownership of was Bluebeard, the foulmouthed parrot I had inherited with my share of the shop. Bluebeard begged for coffee every day, and every day I had to tell him no. Parrots can’t have coffee.
Maybe saying Bluebeard begged wasn’t quite truthful, either. He was just the spokesman—spokesbird?—for my great-uncle, Louis Georges, who had left me the shop and the parrot. Or at least for Uncle Louis’s ghost.
Lately I had been forced to admit that Uncle Louis had
never completely left the shop. He was still hanging around, disrupting my life and talking to me through Bluebeard.
But since he was the closest thing I had to blood relations—if you didn’t count the annoyance of Peter and his parents—I was growing rather fond of having him with me.
Except when he begged for coffee.
“No coffee, Bluebeard. I know you want it, but it’s really bad for you.”
I unlocked the front door and turned over the sign from “Closed” to “Open.”
Across the street I spotted Jake Robinson doing the same at Beach Books. A newcomer to Keyhole Bay, he’d moved to town from the West Coast and bought the bookstore less than a year ago. In that time he’d turned the store into one of the best in the Panhandle, a spot that attracted tourists and locals alike.
Jake was a bit of an attraction himself—tall, with dark hair and gorgeous blue eyes—though I tried not to notice. He was helping me with my struggle to set up a website for Southern Treasures, and I was trading home-cooked meals for advice.
I stepped outside, waved to Jake, and called “Good morning” across the Monday-morning emptiness of the main drag.
“Coffee later?” he asked, waving back.
I nodded. Lately we had fallen into the habit of a mid-morning coffee break on slow days, though that would soon be a thing of the past. Spring break would start in a couple weeks, and we hoped not to see a slow day again until fall.
I went back inside, where Bluebeard greeted me with a
wolf whistle. “Pretty boy,” he said. I was reasonably sure he wasn’t referring to himself.
“I didn’t ask your opinion,” I answered as I got the shop, and Bluebeard, ready for the day. I changed the papers in the large cage where he slept and gave him fresh water and a shredded-wheat biscuit. It wasn’t coffee, but it was one of his favorite treats.
With the radio tuned to WBBY, the local station, I settled down behind the counter to review my inventory. Southern Treasures’ usual mix of vintage housewares, magazines and newspapers from the middle of the last century, and handmade quilts didn’t attract the spring break crowd much.
I worked through orders for garish T-shirts, postcards, seashell jewelry, and inexpensive snow globes. The snow globes still amazed me. I didn’t understand the appeal, when Keyhole Bay only had snow a few times a decade, but they were popular with tourists of all kinds, so I kept them on the shelves.