When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout. Or, better yet, make a decision. I hate hovering between two or more choices, don’t you? Yet, sometimes a choice seems impossible to make because I don’t know the outcome. Running in circles, screaming and shouting doesn’t help much, but that’s what comes to mind. It’s being tossed on the horns of a dilemma.
Maybe I like Darcy, Flora and Ned because sometimes these brave sleuths make wrong decisions just as I do. Oh, they try to do the right thing but sometimes what they meant for good doesn’t turn out that way.
In The Cemetery Club, Darcy and Flora get hold of an old map. Should they try to find someone to decipher that strange word in its margin or should they just forget it, hoping that it doesn’t hold any clues to the past?
In Grave Shift, these daring mother/daughter sleuths get a letter asking them for help in finding a missing woman. They are tempted to disregard it but who could ignore this heart-felt plea? Their decision leads them into strange places.
The mysteries which seem to plague them take on a personal twist in Best Left Buried. They find a secret that has been long buried in a well and deciphering its mystery leads them to making one of the hardest decisions of their lives. Was it the wrong one? Life would certainly have been smoother if they’d never known the secret.
Nobody really asked Darcy if she wanted to know more about the man who lived in a nursing home, nor if she was falling in love with the new preacher, nor why she confronted a cold-blooded killer. But, in Grave Heritage, Darcy has to choose between two men and whether to keep a secret from a long ago romance and whether to risk a flood or a murderer’s wrath. Decisions!
The life of Ned McNeil doesn’t run smoothly either. Should she continue to live alone in the house bequeathed to her by her uncle? What is there about the house that makes it a danger to her? Who should she trust? Moonlight Can Be Murder and By the Fright of the Silvery Moon are packed full of possibilities and Ned sometimes makes the wrong decision which lands her face to face with evil.
When I made a decision to enter a book contest, it turned out to be the right one because I, who seldom win anything, won a book! In Those First Bright Days of Elvis by Josephine Rascoe Keenan, will soon be headed my way. I can hardly wait to read it. Thank you, Josephine!
A better choice than running in circles when faced by a hard decision, is to write a mystery. I’ll just let my heroine handle it!
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