Welcome Guest Duffy Brown!

Mackinac Island really is an island. Not just a chunk of land that’s a bridge away but more like a fifteen minute ferry ride with Lake Michigan on one side and Huron on the other. It’s one of those places with no cars and lots of horses and bikes and maybe a dead body or two...

...and that’s the problem. Not the dead so much as no one liked this person anyway but that body scares off the tourists!

If there’s one thing everyone on the island does not want to happen is that! Our little island that’s a time warp back to the 1800s relies on the tourists, called fudgies ‘cause they buy so much of the stuff, to stay afloat...at least financially.

So the thing is where can we hide that body till after the busiest weekend of the year? I have a few ideas and you can tell me which one appeals to you. Keep in mind all of these require strapping the body to a bike or renting a horse and buggy.

First we can hide the body in Arch Rock. There’re enough bushes to hide the corpse.

Or we shove the body back in Skull Cave. That place sounds a lot scarier then it is and the cave is too small. Then again maybe the fudgies will think its part of the attraction.

There’s Fort Mackinac. I saw a pit where they used to put the bad guys back in the day. Maybe we can dump the body in there...till it starts to stink.

Saint Ann’s Cemetery is a good choice a body just fits right in. What’s one more dead guy.

The Grand Hotel might work. Just prop the corpse up in one of those rocking chairs on that really looooong front porch they have, put a martini in his hand and he’ll look like he fell asleep.

Or just push the body off the East Bluff and into Lake Huron. Weight it down with some rocks. Glug, glug, glug.

Or heave-ho the body off Shepler’s dock, or maybe the ferry ride back to the mainland.

Where would you get rid of the body? Mackinac Island is a great place for more than riding bikes and eating fried green beans. Some people have a drop-dead good time...and just wait till you see where I did hide that pesky dead body!

I’ll give away three Geared for the Grave totes from your answers.

Duffy Brown loves anything with a mystery. 
While others girls dreamed of dating Brad Pitt, Duffy longed to take Sherlock Holmes to the prom. 
She has two cats, Spooky and Dr. Watson, and conjures up who-done-it stories of her very own for Berkley Prime Crime. 
Duffy also writes romance as Dianne Castell and is a USA Today bestselling author.

The publisher has generously offered a copy of Geared for the Grave to one of my readers. Please comment below, WITH A VALID EMAIL ADDRESS, before midnight on December 24, 2014. Entries from the US only, please.

Cozy Monday

Geared for the  Grave (Cycle Path Mystery #1) by Duffy Brown (Berkley Prime Crime mass market, 2 December 2014).

Hoping to gain a promotion by doing a favor for her busy boss, Evie Bloomfield goes to Mackinac Island to help Abigail's father, Rudy, with his bike rental shop, which is just too much for him to handle with a broken leg.  A city girl to the bone, Evie has a hard time adjusting to the little island that doesn't allow motorized vehicles.

When wealthy, eccentric islander Bunny Harrington's body is found in the bushes at the bottom of a hill, it's assumed she had a  cycling accident, until it's discovered that the brake lines were cut.

Unfortunately, Bunny and Rudy had a prickly relationship, and he's arrested. Evie's attempts to explain that Bunny had less than cordial relationships with most of the island's residents are unsuccessful, so she's forced to find another suspect.  Abigail's father ending up in prison would not be good for Evie's career prospects.

Evie's attempts to investigate are fraught with calamities, very much like what befalls Lucy Ricardo in almost every "I Love Lucy" episode.  Her propensity for disaster notwithstanding, Evie is an intelligent and resourceful young woman, which quickly endears her to the reserved islanders.

Readers will also be charmed by the loyal, tenacious young woman, and this series certainly have no trouble building up a following.



FTC Full Disclosure:  Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with a
review copy of the book.