Felicity Koerber is finally getting her life together. She has a fiancĂ©, her bean to bar chocolate shop on Galveston’s historic Strand has become a gathering spot for the community, and she is ready to embrace whatever the future holds. She’s ready for another launch party – despite the disaster at her grand opening, when she’d first gotten involved with solving a murder. And this time she’s embracing her status as a sleuth. She’s hosting a murder mystery weekend to celebrate the new Mystery Flavor line of craft chocolate bars. She’s held a contest to choose the attendees, who will all stay at her aunt’s flip hotel and enjoy the island. It’s all supposed to be perfectly random – only, Felicity starts to uncover connections between her guests. When one of them winds up murdered, Felicity has to keep her aunt from becoming the main suspect.
The killer is very clearly calling Felicity out, leaving clues that mean little to anyone other than her. But that doesn’t narrow down the suspect pool. Her guests are there because they love the true crime podcast she’s been featured on. And she can’t decide whether the killer wants her to catch them – or just wants to taunt her.
Meanwhile, Felicity is also playing host to her future in-laws and discovers that her fiancĂ©’s sister, who is also a cop, is very competitive. Can Felicity hold her own and make a good impression, while keeping her business together and her aunt out of jail? And can Felicity solve it in time to protect the people she cares about from becoming additional victims?
Satchmo the retired police dog turned therapy dog returns to help her sniff out a few clues, and one of the guests brings along a ferret named Cheeseburger, who keeps showing up in the most unexpected places.
A CHOCOLATE IS ANNOUNCED
The rest of the guests at least start showing up at the event arrival time, after I’ve had time to shower and change.
First, there’s a Doctor Ted Durango, with a thriving cosmetic surgery practice in Houston. He has a wide face, and an equally wide plasticky smile. He has dark hair with mutton chops that accent his neat facial hair and brown skin – though when he tilts his head to look at the palm tree, there’s an obvious bald spot in the back of his hair. He’s probably older than he looks, and I wonder if maybe he’s had a facelift. He doesn’t say much as he’s rolling his small black suitcase across the lobby.
He’s heading for the elevator when a woman bearing a striking resemblance to the Doc, and eeling a similar suitcase, comes in a moment or two behind him. Her hair is long and still thick, though there are some silver strands mixed in with the dark ones. And she has crow’s feet around her eyes, and deep smile lines. She is carrying a metal water bottle with some kind of filter at the top. She takes a long sip.
Logan says to the woman, “You must be Doctor Durango’s plus one. Though I don’t see him having marked one down here.”
She blinks at him. “I’m Doctor Durango, PhD. Celtic Languages and Literature.”
The elevator dings, but the original Doc Durango doesn’t get on it. Instead he turns and blinks at the new Durango. “Elena?”
“Ted?” She sounds equally surprised.
“You know each other?” I ask.
“I should say so,” Ted splutters. “Elena’s my twin sister. Who hasn’t spoken to me for the past six years.”
Elena says, “I wouldn’t be speaking to you now if you hadn’t blindsided me.” She turns to Logan and pokes him in the chest. “How dare you trick me into coming here?”
“Whoa. Wait a minute,” Logan says, “We didn’t have anything to do with this. You entered the contest, right?”
“Right,” both Elena and Ted say at the same time.
Ted says, “I’m a huge fan of true-crime podcasts.”
Elena makes a weirdo face at him, and says, “I love games. But more than that, I’m a huge fan of craft chocolate. We’re going to get to tour your chocolate shop, aren’t we?”
“Well, yeah. Tomorrow,” I say. It’s a bit odd that she just asked the same question as Hudson.
This whole interaction feels a bit odd, in fact. The contest was supposed to be entirely random. What are the odds of it having picked two people who are related? And not only that – they’re twins. Which is a big thing in A Murder is Announced. Suddenly, I feel incredibly uncomfortable. What might I have put in motion?
About Amber Royer
Amber Royer writes the CHOCOVERSE comic telenovela-style foodie-inspired space opera series, and the BEAN TO BAR MYSTERIES.
She is also the author of STORY LIKE A JOURNALIST: A WORKBOOK FOR NOVELISTS, which boils down her writing knowledge into an actionable plan involving over 100 worksheets to build a comprehensive story plan for your novel. She blogs about creative writing technique and all things chocolate at www.amberroyer.com.
She also teaches creative writing and is an author coach. If you are very nice to her, she might make you cupcakes. Chocolate cupcakes, of course.
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Thanks for the spotlight! I've been waiting for a chance to write a locked-room mystery with these characters.
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