Good Morning, Booklovers!
Mystery author Lynn Slaughter is featuring her first mystery in a Book Spotlight this week. To learn more about Lynn and her books, check out her interview on my mystery blog HERE.
We might as well be comfortable while we check out your book, Lynn. How do you take your coffee?
Lynn: Black and Strong
Ally: Like minds. :) While I pour, let’s see the book and excerpt you brought.
MISSED CUE
Genre: mystery
Rating: PG-13
When ballerina Lydia Miseau dies onstage in the final dress rehearsal of Romeo and Juliet, homicide detective Caitlin O’Connor is faced with the most complicated case of her career. She strongly suspects that someone murdered the ballerina, and her investigation uncovers several people close to the star who had reasons to kill her. But the autopsy reveals no apparent cause of death. If Lydia Miseau was murdered, who did it, and how?
Meantime, there’s Caitlin’s hot mess of a personal life. She has a bad habit of getting involved with married men. She knows it’s wrong, so why does she keep entangling herself in unhealthy relationships? She’s finally decided to go into therapy to find out.
Buy links:
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Excerpt:
By the time Stan and I arrived at the theater, the stage area surrounding the funeral bed had been roped off. My chest tightened when I saw Chet Roberts, the medical examiner, who’d begun his preliminary investigation. Dancers, their faces wet with tears and streaked with ribbons of mascara, huddled in the wings. They reeked of sweat and hairspray.
“Please, no one leave,” I said. “I’m Lieutenant Caitlin O’Connor, and this is my partner, Sergeant Stan Bisso. All of you take seats in the audience. I’ll talk with you after I’ve checked in with the examiner.” I turned to Stan and gestured for two of the patrol officers to join us. “Will you clear the dressing rooms and tell everyone to come sit out front? Seal off the deceased’s dressing room.”
The officers nodded. I knew I had to talk to Chet. My limbs felt unnaturally heavy as I headed over to him. Two nights ago, he’d ended whatever it was we’d had together. He said he couldn’t leave his kids. Surely, I understood, didn’t I?
I was trying, but shards of pain pressed against my heart. “Anything?’ I asked in the coolest, professional tone I could muster.
He sighed and held his gloved hands up. Deep lines creased his forehead. His intense gaze latched on to mine. How many times had I gotten lost in those dusky blue eyes?
I forced myself to look away.
“No sign of a wound,” he said. “Looks like heart failure. We’ll know more when we get her on the table.”
I nodded and knelt to examine the body. Lydia Miseau had been beautiful—delicate nose, high cheek bones, and coltish shapely legs. Her lean muscular frame reflected a lifetime devoted to the rigors of ballet. She didn’t look like anyone ready to die.
I moved downstage toward the audience of dancers, orchestra members, and theater personnel. The work lights burned brightly. Rivulets of sweat worked their way down my spine. I shrugged off my jacket.
A sixtiesh-looking man wearing a fedora ignored the order to remain in the audience and clambered up the steps on to the stage. Splotches of red spread across his tear-streaked face. “I’m Victor Pesetsky, artistic director,” he said, his voice trembling. “Lydia is my wife. She is in perfect health. I don’t understand.”
“I’m so sorry for your loss. You have my word that we’ll conduct a thorough investigation.”
“Thank you, but that isn’t bringing her back. She is my muse, my soulmate.” A fresh torrent of tears spilled down his face.
Must have been a May-December romance. Pesetsky was tall and gaunt with piercing black eyes, a long, thin nose, and a shock of gray hair peeking out from under his fedora. My mother would have called him “distinguished-looking.” Distinguished or not, he was clearly much older than his late wife.
A wiry guy wearing jeans and a black turtleneck joined us. “Oh God, oh God. I can’t believe this. She was fine. This can’t be happening.”
“And you are?”
“Paul Gates, lighting designer. Lydia was my…my dear friend.” His whole body shook.
Pesetsky stepped between us, as though he wanted to cut off Gates. I wondered if he wanted to claim his spot as Lydia’s chief mourner, not this “dear friend.”
“I’ll need to talk with both of you,” I said. “But first, I want to say a few words to everyone.”
Gates turned to Pesetsky. “I’m so horribly sorry, Victor.” He reached for his arm, and the newly widowed director swatted him away as though he were a pesky fly.
Hmmm. Something going on with those two? Or was Pesetsky just a prickly guy? Of course, his wife had just unexpectedly died. I’d known plenty of survivors whose grief took the form of angry irritation at anyone who tried to come close. Sure enough, rather than take a seat in the audience with Gates and the others, Pesetsky held himself apart, pacing up and down the side aisle.
About the Author:
Lynn Slaughter is addicted to the arts, chocolate, and her husband’s cooking. After a long career as a professional dancer and dance educator, Lynn earned her MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. Her first mystery for adults, MISSED CUE, recently came out from Melange Books. She is also the author of four award-winning young adult romantic mysteries: DEADLY SETUP, LEISHA’S SONG, IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN YOU, AND WHILE I DANCED.
Lynn lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where she’s at work on her next novel, serves on the board of Louisville Literary Arts, and is an active member and former president of Derby Rotten Scoundrels, the Ohio River Valley chapter of Sisters in Crime.
Something unusual that isn’t in your regular bio: “My husband and I met in a dance company. Although our dancing days are behind us, we still love working together. We create and perform our own original music (I sing, and he plays the guitar).”
Contact Links:
https://lynnslaughter.com
Twitter: @lslaughter2
Lynn Slaughter is addicted to the arts, chocolate, and her husband’s cooking. After a long career as a professional dancer and dance educator, Lynn earned her MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. Her first mystery for adults, MISSED CUE, recently came out from Melange Books. She is also the author of four award-winning young adult romantic mysteries: DEADLY SETUP, LEISHA’S SONG, IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN YOU, AND WHILE I DANCED.
Lynn lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where she’s at work on her next novel, serves on the board of Louisville Literary Arts, and is an active member and former president of Derby Rotten Scoundrels, the Ohio River Valley chapter of Sisters in Crime.
Something unusual that isn’t in your regular bio: “My husband and I met in a dance company. Although our dancing days are behind us, we still love working together. We create and perform our own original music (I sing, and he plays the guitar).”
Contact Links:
https://lynnslaughter.com
Twitter: @lslaughter2
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