How do cops investigate a white-collar crime?

Posted on by Diana Deverell

And how does an obvious suspect prove she’s innocent?

Sometimes, thieves don’t get their hands dirty when it comes to crime. Sometimes, it’s easy to pass along blame and culpability.

Particularly when the workplace is your backdrop, and the computerized bill payment system is under your control.

In this issue, we deal with those two questions and more in ten new short stories plus an essay about Agatha Christie and the Croydon Poisonings.

My story “Reckless Endangerment” features Winnie Yates, former cellmate of Nora Dockson, heroine of my legal thriller series. Winnie’s worked hard since her release from Oregon’s correctional center for female felons.

Happily married to Jake Denver and mother to nine-year-old Elijah, Winnie runs a freelance bookkeeping service from her home near Spokane.

Unfortunately, a review of the financial records of the owner of the successful Valley Pub and Grill confirms his gut-sense that money is mysteriously disappearing from his accounts.

If her client goes to the cops, she’ll be the first person they investigate for embezzlement. Winnie has another suspect in mind. But will the owner help her identify the real culprit before the cops ruin her?

Come enjoy the MCM syndicate’s take on White Collar Crime…if you dare.

Treat yourself to some great reads. Available in ebook, paperback, and large print. Click on the cover above or follow this universal link to your favorite retailer to buy your copy!

ENJOY OUR ANNUAL COZY ISSUE!

Posted on by Diana Deverell

“Cooking Up Crime”, (MYSTERY, CRIME, AND MAYHEM Book 19) releases today!

Want a slice of pie with your crime? Or perhaps some cookies. Maybe even some BBQ…

Welcome to the annual cozy edition of MCM!

Be sure to bring a snack, as these stories are sure to leave you hungry for more.

Get your copy from the publisher or follow this universal link to your favorite online bookseller.

For my story, “Baking Into the Dark,” I drew on memories of moving with our fifth-, seventh-, and eighth grade children from my Oregon hometown to the capital of Denmark.

All went well for us in real life, but my mother-gene conjured up dangerous hazards waiting our kids in a country where the legal age for buying beer from a local store was fifteen.

In my story, sixteen-year-old Toby gives his mother plenty to worry about as he takes the part of a medieval baker during an alcohol-fueled weekend role-playing event in a forest north of Copenhagen.

This fun-packed issue includes eight more short stories and one essay, all waiting to entertain you.

Follow the links above or click on the cover to get your copy.

MYSTERY, CRIME, AND MAYHEM #18 IS AVAILABLE NOW!

Posted on by Diana Deverell

Eleven tales of stolen cars, the thieves behind them, and what these thefts actually represent, are sure to delight readers of all kinds. Plus an essay about the Agatha Christie serial killer.

Click on the cover above to reach the publisher website and choose where online you want to buy your copy. Available in ebook, print, and large-print.

Or follow this universal link to online retailers who carry the book.

I think you’ll enjoy “Cool Ride”, my story in this issue. I had fun writing it. I revisit a character who originally appeared in the magazine’s second year. The theme required us to set the story at least fifty years in the past. Teddy Junior, as he was then known, was five years old and having his first encounter with the juvenile justice system.

In “Cool Ride”, Ted Tarrant is seventy-eight years old, and as the issue title suggests, has not spent all of his years on the right side of the law. So what’s he up to now?

In other stories in this issue, you’ll joyride with a woman desperate to escape her past. Deal with car thieves who keep stealing your car for an ever-increasing ransom. Delve into the mystery of a car that isn’t really stolen–it just disappears for a while. Or get into a rideshare car that appears to be driven by a zombie (if you dare…)

Surprising takes on this theme from the twisted minds of the MCM syndicate.