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Fiction Cozy

A Lethal Proposal

by (author) Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

Publisher
Renaissance Press
Initial publish date
May 2024
Category
Cozy, Amateur Sleuth, Women Sleuths
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781990086700
    Publish Date
    May 2024
    List Price
    $22.95

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Description

Jenna Hamilton and Adam Olsen co-own a bookstore on Granville Island, Vancouver. Jenna is also a Dating Coach who helps people deal with their qualms about dating. They attend the engagement party of Jenna's friend, Carla, and her fiancé, Bruce. Carla is also one of Jenna's clients and has been unlucky in love in the past. Her first two fiancés died, one in an accident and one in an unsolved murder, before the weddings could take place. But Carla is hoping the third time will be the charm.

The party is a huge success, but shortly after Jenna arrives home, she receives a frantic call from Carla. As she and the wedding party prepared to leave, she found a note telling Bruce to dump her or die.

Since Jenna and Adam had been influential in uncovering a killer the previous spring, Carla begs them to find out who left the note and why that person would threaten Bruce.

About the author

I was born in New Westminster, B.C. and raised in Edmonton, Alberta. I married soon after graduation and moved to a farm where I had two children. Over the years I worked as a bartender, hotel maid, cashier, bank teller, bookkeeper, printing press operator, meat wrapper, gold prospector, warehouse shipper, house renovator and nursing attendant. During that time I raised my two children and helped raise my three step-children. I belong to Crime Writers of Canada, Federation of B.C. Writers, the Port Alberni Arts Council and the Port Alberni Portal Players. My short story, "A Capital Offense" received Ascent Aspirations Magazine's first prize for flash fiction in 2010. I have since turned that story into a stage play and presented it at the Fringe Festival in Port Alberni in 2014.

Joan Donaldson-Yarmey's profile page

Excerpt: A Lethal Proposal (by (author) Joan Donaldson-Yarmey)

Jenna looked around for Carla and saw her sitting in the same chair she had occupied behind the head table. She looked pale and was tearing bits off a piece of paper. Bruce sat beside her, head in his hands. This did not look good. Surely they hadn't had a fight after such a lovely evening.

When Carla saw her, she stood and rushed to Jenna, tears in her eyes. "Oh, Jenna. It's happening again."

"What's happening again?" Jenna was confused.

Carla waved the tattered piece of paper in the air. "Someone is going to kill Bruce."

"What? Slow down." She glanced at Bruce who hadn't moved. "What do you mean?"

"This." Carla shoved the note at Jenna.

Jenna took the note and looked at it. BRUCE DUMP HER OR DIE was printed in capital letters in the centre of the paper. She looked into the frightened eyes of her friend. "Where did you find this?" She tried to keep her voice calm.

"It was on the table when we went to pick up our things to leave." Carla wrung her hands.

"Oh, what are we going to do?"

"Where on the table? Beside your purse, under a champagne glass?"

"Right here." Carla took the paper from Jenna, grabbed her arm, and pulled her to the table.

She pointed to where Bruce sat. "It was tucked just under his lunch plate." She demonstrated by pushing the note under the rim of his plate.

Bruce lifted his head to watch. Jenna felt sorry for him. His tie was off and the top button of his shirt open. He looked pale and miserable. Who wouldn't? He'd just been threatened. At his own engagement party. "Bruce, are you okay?"

Bruce nodded his head. "Just a little shaken." His voice was low. "This isn't what you expect from one of your guests, one of your friends."

"Was the note in an envelope?" Carla asked him.

"No. Just folded and set there."

"Have you called the police?"

Bruce shook his head. "We talked about it but decided not to."

"Why?"

"What could they do? We don't know who left it."

Jenna looked at the crushed and frayed paper. She doubted that any fingerprints or DNA could be taken from it now. "It would be on record, though. So that if anything else happens they would take it more seriously."

Bruce looked at Carla. "I guess we could take it to them tomorrow."

Carla nodded. "But I can't see any of our family or friends leaving it."

"It could have been one of the caterers, or one of the staff here," Jenna said.

"Yes, and with the guests, that's over three hundred people for the police to check. I doubt they would bother."

"So, why did you call me?"

"Because you know my history with my past fiancés and you helped figure out who killed Michele's boyfriend."

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