Dying to Celebrate. Lynn Cahoon

      Dying to Celebrate

      A Tourist Trap Mystery

      Rockets’ Dead Glare

      A Deadly Brew

      Santa Puppy

      Lynn Cahoon

      LYRICAL UNDERGROUND

      Kensington Publishing Corp.

      www.kensingtonbooks.com

      To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.

      LYRICAL UNDERGROUND BOOKS are published by

      Kensington Publishing Corp.

      119 West 40th Street

      New York, NY 10018

      Rockets’ Dead Glare

      Copyright © 2018 by Lynn Cahoon

      A Deadly Brew

      Copyright © 2018 by Lynn Cahoon

      Santa Puppy

      Copyright © 2018 by Lynn Cahoon

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

      Lyrical Underground and Lyrical Underground logo Reg. US Pat. & TM Off.

      First Electronic Edition: March 2020

      ISBN-13: 978–1–5161–0822–0 (ebook)

      ISBN–10: 1–5161–0822–1 (ebook)

      First Print Edition: March 2020

      ISBN–13: 978–1–5161–0823–7

      ISBN–10: 1–5161–0823–X

      Dear Reader,

      One of the most frequent questions I get during Q&A is where did you get the idea for this book. It’s funny how things happen in the publishing world. I was talking to my editor over dinner, telling her how excited I’d be about being in an anthology with some other cozy authors. It’s a great marketing project where we all share our reader lists and, hopefully, we all get new readers. The conversation changed to a discussion of novellas in general and what I’d like to see in a Tourist Trap holiday novella. A few weeks later, I had an offer for three novellas. The plan was to release digital only first, then move to a print version later.

      The hard part was we’d left Killer Party with a bit of a cliff hanger (Jackie dumping Harrold with no explanation) that would be resolved in Memories and Murder, the next full-length Tourist Trap book. I went to the past to find adventures for Jill and Greg. As a bonus, you’ll see some of your favorite characters who have moved on to different lives.

      Want the exact list?

      GUIDEBOOK TO MURDER

      MISSION TO MURDER

      IF THE SHOE KILLS

      DRESSED TO KILL

      ROCKETS' DEAD GLARE (NOVELLA #1)

      KILLER RUN

      A DEADLY BREW (NOVELLA #2)

      SANTA PUPPY (NOVELLA #3)

      Welcome back to South Cove. I hope you enjoy your stay.

      Lynn

      Books by Lynn Cahoon

       The Tourist Trap Mysteries

      Memories and Murder

      Killer Party

      Hospitality and Homicide

      Tea Cups and Carnage

      Murder on Wheels

      Killer Run

      Dressed to Kill

      If the Shoe Kills

      Mission to Murder

      Guidebook to Murder

      Novellas

      A Very Mummy Holiday

      Mother's Day Mayhem

      Corned Beef and Casualties

      Santa Puppy

      A Deadly Brew

      Rockets' Dead Glare

       The Cat Latimer Mysteries

      Sconed to Death

      Slay in Character

      Of Murder and Men

      Fatality by Firelight

      A Story to Kill

       The Farm-to-Fork Mysteries

      One Potato, Two Potato, Dead

      Killer Green Tomatoes

      Who Moved My Goat Cheese?

      Rockets’ Dead Glare

      A Tourist Trap Novella

      Lynn Cahoon

      LYRICAL UNDERGROUND

      Kensington Publishing Corp.

       www.kensingtonbooks.com

      Dedication

      To Esi, who listens to my crazy ideas and puts them into play.

      Chapter 1

      Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Truer words were never spoken, especially in small towns where big fish rule. I think a lot about power and influence during our monthly South Cove Business-to-Business meeting. To be completely honest, sometimes I think about the cheesecake sitting in the walk-in cooler in my office, but mostly I think about relationships and secrets and small-town politics. Like today.

      Bill Sullivan, our chairman and a city council member, had invited the volunteer South Cove fire chief to open up the meeting since there had been a few changes in policy approved by the council for the upcoming season. Unfortunately, Barry thought he’d been invited to lecture the group on the history of fire prevention, rather than just give a quick update of his program.

      I’m Jill Gardner, and as the business liaison to the council I was responsible for hosting and setting up the meetings. By my count, today’s group of business owners had gone through three rounds of coffee carafe refills and the cookie plates were totally empty. I shook my head when Sasha Smith, one of our baristas, asked me a nonverbal question about refills. We hadn’t gotten our supply order from Pies on the Fly yet, and if the meeting didn’t end soon, we’d be out of food to sell to actual paying customers.

      “Safety is our number one priority.” Barry Gleason stood in front of the shop owners gathered for the June meeting and pounded the table with his fist. The volunteer fire chief paused, and when he knew he had the crowd’s attention, he ran a beefy hand with a garnet ring from his college football glory days through his wavy, too long salt-and-pepper hair.

      Amy Newman, my BFF and the secretary for the meeting, leaned toward me and whispered, “Someone should tell him that hair style went away with the Bee Gees.”

      I tried to keep my lips from twitching, but from the glare I got from Mayor Baylor, I guess I had failed. I glanced down at the agenda. Once the fire chief relinquished his stage, the only other thing was Darla and the finishing