The Twelve Suspects of Christmas
by Ana T. Drew
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GENRE: Cozy Mystery
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BLURB:
Grannies, gangsters, murders—and a rollicking journey across France!
It’s January 4, 1961, and Marseilles housemaid Annie Malian is in love. It’s also the day her fiancé René takes his life under peculiar circumstances.
Many decades later, an old Christmas postcard addressed to Annie arrives, and all her doubts come flooding back.
At 84, there’s no time to waste!
Annie enlists the help of Rose Tassy, an eccentric retired teacher and amateur sleuth.
Thus begins an unforgettable journey from Provence to a quaint village in Picardie and then on to the sparkling Riviera with a detour through wintry Paris.
Amid yuletide festivities, Annie and Rose navigate perilous terrain. Their list of suspects quickly grows. Was it Rene’s older brother? Maybe the ex-gangster turned chicken farmer? The powerful Monegasque tycoon?
Stumped, Rose begins to question her detective mettle when a new death compounds the plot…
This Christmas, will Annie receive the overdue truth as a gift?
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Excerpt One:
Annie sets the mug down on the table and levels her gaze with Rose’s. “It’s cold.”
Rose’s head jerks back. “The tea?”
“No, my case,” Annie says. “A suicide has been troubling me for decades. But there’s been a recent development.” She pauses, looking for the right words.
“Decades.” Rose narrows her eyes. “How cold are we talking about?”
“Nineteen sixty-one.”
“Whose suicide do you want me to look into?” Rose asks. “A family member? A friend?”
“He was my fiancé.”
“Well, then.” Rose winks at Annie. “You just solved your case!”
“What do you mean?”
Rose stares at Annie, her mischievous smile slipping.
A lump forms in Annie’s throat as she catches Rose’s drift.
Rose grabs her hand. “It was a bad, insensitive joke, Annie, darling! I’m so sorry.”
“We loved each other,” Annie says, withdrawing her hand.
Rose fidgets, studying Annie’s face with a mixture of regret and sympathy. “I’m sorry he killed himself. Truly.”
“He didn’t kill himself.”
“I’m so silly!” Rose exclaims. “That’s why you’re here. You believe he was killed.”
“That’s right.”
“I’m listening.”
“René Chantome,” Annie begins, “was twenty-one and a student at Sciences Po in Paris. In the early days of 1961, he was accused of murdering his roommate, Grégoire Lacaze. He was about to be arrested when he allegedly killed himself.”
“What makes you think he didn’t?”
Annie gazes at the objects on the shelves without seeing them. “Several things. One, he hadn’t killed Grégoire, and I’ll explain why. Two, he hadn’t called or written me before he allegedly committed suicide. Three—”
“Sorry to be mean again,” Rose interrupts her, “but regarding your second point, have you considered that you hadn’t meant as much to him as he had to you? How long had you known each other?”
“Three years, since his parents hired me as a maid in their Marseilles mansion. René, only a year on me, was finishing high school at the time. I’d quit at fifteen so I could work.”
“A maid?” Rose hikes an eyebrow. “Were the Chantomes rich?”
“René’s father, Pierre-François, owned a flourishing auction house.”
Rose nods. “So, the heir and the maid fall in love. How romantic!”
“A second son,” Annie corrects her. “René was an idealistic young man, passionate about social justice and other progressive ideas floating around at the time.”
“Weren’t we all?”
I just wanted to marry for love and have kids.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
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Ana T. Drew is the evil mastermind behind the recent series of murders in the fictional French town of Beldoc. When she is not writing cozy mysteries or doing mom-and-wife things, she can be found watching “The Rookie” to help her get over “Castle”. She lives in Paris but her heart is in Provence.
Visit ana-drew.com for a free cookbook and a game!
Website: www.ana-drew.com
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/ana-drew
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnaDrewAuthor
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/ana-t-drew
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/anadrew
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Thank you for featuring this book today.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like an interesting book.
ReplyDeleteThere are NOT enough words for how much I LOVE this book cover!
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