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Cozy Mystery Series: Something Fishy
When attorney Samuel Wong goes missing. wildlife magazine reporter Kristy Farrell believes the disappearance is tied into her latest story concerning twenty acres of prime beachfront property that the Clam Shell Cove Aquarium hopes to purchase.
Sam works for multi-millionaire land developer Lucien Moray who wants to buy the property for an upscale condominium. The waterfront community is divided on this issue like the Hatfields and McCoys with environmentalists siding with the aquarium and local business owners lining up behind Moray.
Meanwhile, a body is found in the bay. Kristy, aided by her veterinarian daughter, investigates and discovers deep secrets among the aquarium staff–secrets that point to one of them as a killer. Soon the aquarium is plagued with accidents, Kristy has a near death encounter with a nine foot bull shark, and a second murder occurs.
But ferreting out the murderer and discovering the story behind Sam’s disappearance aren’t Kristy’s only challenges. When her widowed septuagenarian mother announces her engagement, Kristy suspects her mom’s soon to be husband is not all he appears to be. As Kristy tries to find the truth before her mother ties the knot, she also races the clock to find the aquarium killer before this killer strikes again.
To purchase Something Fishy, click on any of the following links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Encircle Publications | Goodreads
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Published by: Encircle Publications
Publication Date: July 15th 2019
Number of Pages: 244
ISBN: 1948338793 (ISBN13: 9781948338790)
Series: A Kristy Farrell Mystery #2 || Each is a Stand-Alone Novel
My Thoughts on Something Fishy
It’s lovely to see a mystery with a strong, positive message entwined into the plot. Schmitt’s Something Fishy follows wildlife magazine reporter Kristy Ferrell as she investigates first a missing person and later, a murder. This allows Schmitt to integrate the themes of animal welfare and environmental conservation issues throughout the book.
The local aquarium hopes to purchase sensitive, beachfront property to expand their much-needed work to protect and preserve marine life. But the property would also make a local land developer even richer, and others in the community have their own agendas, making the battle for the land’s future a vicious one. But is it enough to prompt murder? Kristy Ferrell is determined to find out.
Something Fishy, though clearly on the side of the natural world, manages to balance the complicated dynamics of business versus environmental concerns. A community needs income to survive, and that often comes at a cost to the local flora and fauna.
Schmitt also provides Kristy with several personal challenges. From her mother’s too-good-to-be-true fiancé to Kristy’s close relationship with the missing man’s girlfriend, the reporter has a lot of reasons to investigate the goings-on, further supported by her role as a journalist.
The mystery itself is well set-up. A body appears in the first chapter and Schmitt moves the story along throughout the book. True to cozy form, there’s no excessive on-the-page violence, but there are plenty of suspects and clues scattered throughout to keep readers engaged.
Despite enough typos to distract some readers, the various threads come together neatly at the end, while still prompting fans to anticipate the next book.
Something Fishy makes for a fast, fun, enjoyable read, with a dash of real world concerns to give readers more seafood for thought.
Cozy Mystery Series, Excerpt from Something Fishy
CHAPTER ONE
“Something bad happened to Sam. I know it.”
Katie Chandler’s sea green eyes filled with tears. A sea lion trainer at the Clam Shell Cove Aquarium, Katie had been my daughter’s college roommate.
“Maybe Sam worked late and forgot to call,” I said.
Katie shook her head, her chestnut hair flying in the bay breeze. “No. He hasn’t answered my texts or phone calls. I stopped by his house twice too. No one’s home.”
Silence. I tried thinking of something helpful, or at least hopeful, to say.
“I called the police, Mrs. Farrell. The officer said being stood up for a dinner date isn’t enough for a missing persons case—that maybe it was Sam’s way of breaking up.”
I shifted my gaze to the whitecaps on the bay while Katie’s statement sank into my brain. Perhaps the officer was right. I knew from my daughter Abby that the relationship between Katie Chandler and Samuel Wong had hit a rough patch.
The conflict: Katie, who served as executor of her late grandmother’s charitable trust, was donating six million dollars of this money to the aquarium’s expansion project, which included the acquisition of twenty acres of adjacent land. Sam worked as executive assistant to multi-millionaire developer Lucien Moray who wanted to buy the bay front property for luxury condominiums. What started off as friendly bantering between Katie and Sam had escalated into explosive arguments that had become increasingly personal.
But Katie and Sam weren’t the only ones embroiled in this controversy. The community at large had become like the Hatfields and McCoys. Environmentalists wanted the property to go to the aquarium where it would be used for breeding grounds for endangered species, an aquatic animal rehabilitation center, and a research camp for marine scientists. Local business owners sided with Moray, hoping high end condo owners would bolster the area’s economy. I was writing an article on this for Animal Advocate Magazine. That’s why I was at the aquarium today.
Katie continued, “No matter what happened between us, Sam would never stand me up. He’s my fiancé not someone I picked up a few hours ago at a bar. Besides, Sam came around to my point of view. He had it with Lucien Moray. He hadn’t told anyone but me yet, but he was quitting his job at the end of the year.”
“I’ve an interview later this morning with Moray,” I said. “I’ll check around and see what I can find out. Someone in Moray’s office may know Sam’s whereabouts.”
“What if no one does?”
“Let’s take it one step at a time.” I glanced at my watch, then pushed myself off the rock where I’d been sitting, a task that would have been easier if I were ten years younger and twenty pounds lighter. “Speaking of interviews, my appointment with your aquarium director is in five minutes, so I better head inside. I’ll call you tonight.”
Katie sighed. “Thanks. I should get back to my sea lions too. We’ve a show at eleven.” She rose and stretched her small wiry body. “After the show, I’ll stop at Sam’s house again.”
Katie, shoulders slumped, wandered off in the direction of the outdoor sea lion amphitheater. I stood for a moment, inhaling the salt air while watching a seagull dive into the bay and zoom back to the sky with a fish in its mouth. As the autumn wind sent a sudden chill down my spine, I wrapped my arms around my body, thinking back to when Katie and my Abby attended college. Abby often acted impulsively, out of emotion, but Katie had always been levelheaded, never someone to jump to conclusions. What if Sam is really in trouble? The thought nagged at me as I trekked up the sandy beach and stepped into the building that housed the indoor exhibits.
I made my way down a long corridor, surrounded by floor to ceiling glass tanks housing ocean life from around the world. I paused at the shark tank and marveled at the grace and beauty of these fearsome predators gliding silently through the water, causing hardly a ripple. I would be back here soon. In addition to my article on the land expansion, I was writing a story on ocean predators.
I veered down the administration wing. When I came to a door marked DIRECTOR, I glanced again at my watch. Ten-thirty. Right on time. I knocked.
“Enter,” a booming voice responded. I pulled open the door and stepped inside.
Standing in front of me was a man who appeared to be in his mid-fifties. Noting his polished wingtips, sharply creased trousers, navy blazer, crisp white shirt, and perfectly knotted tie, I wished I’d dusted the sand off my shoes.
We stood face to face. Actually, it was more like face to chest. I was only five feet tall and this man towered over me by at least a foot and a half.
“Commander Conrad West,” he said, extending his arm. His handshake was firm and strong. “You must be Kristy Farrell, the reporter from Animal Advocate Magazine.”
Conrad West stood ramrod straight, probably a throw-back from his military training. A former naval commander—the youngest African American to be appointed a commander in the navy’s history—he had started his career as a medical corpsman. He had been director of the Clam Shell Cove Aquarium since his retirement from the navy last year.
He walked behind his desk and positioned himself in a large swivel chair.
“You may sit,” he said, pointing to a straight back chair facing him.
I slid into the chair, suppressing the urge to playfully salute.
He went straight to the point. “I understand you’re writing about the land acquisition. Have you seen our expansion plans?”
“Yes, and they are impressive. But how will the aquarium come up with the money to buy this land?” I asked, fumbling through my bag for my pad and pen. “You’re competing with the bottomless pockets of Lucien Moray.”
Commander West leaned forward, his hands clasped in front, as if praying that what he was about to say would come true. “The current property owner, Stuart Holland, is a business man who’s not about to forgo a profit. But he’s also an active conservationist and a lifelong resident of this area who would like to see the land used in an environmentally friendly manner. He’s kept it vacant until recent financial loses forced him to put it up for sale.”
The Commander leaned back. “There’ll be no bidding war. He set a price—ten million dollars. The land is worth more, but Stuart wants it to go to us, so he set a price he feels we can reach. If we can raise the money by next summer, the land is ours.”
“Ten million is a high goal.”
He nodded. “More than half of the funding will come from a trust set up by Alicia Wilcox Chandler. We also have one million in reserve that we accumulated during the past few years. Of course, we’re still three million short, but our new development officer is planning an aggressive fundraising campaign with—”
A loud knock on the door interrupted the conversation.
Commander West scowled. “Enter.”
A plump woman with a bad case of acne barged into the room. She wore jeans and a light blue shirt with an aquarium patch on the upper left pocket identifying her as Madge.
“Commander,” she said, slightly out of breath. “We have a problem. The sea lion show is in ten minutes, and Katie just ran out.”
“What do you mean she ran out?”
The woman shrugged. “She took a call on her cell phone, then flew out of the amphitheater.
“Didn’t she say anything?” The scowl hadn’t left his face.
The woman paused, furrowing her eyebrows as if deep in thought. “Oh, yeah. But I don’t know if it had to do with why she left.”
“What did she say?” He appeared to be talking through gritted teeth.
“She said two fishermen found a body floating in the inlet.”
Lois Schmitt, author of the cozy mystery series
Lois Schmitt: A mystery fan since she read her first Nancy Drew, Lois Schmitt combined a love of mysteries with a love of animals in her series featuring wildlife reporter Kristy Farrell.
She is a member of several wildlife and humane organizations as well as Mystery Writers of America.
Lois worked for many years as a freelance writer and is the author of Smart Spending, a consumer education book for young people. She previously worked as media spokesperson for a local consumer affairs agency and currently teaches at Nassau Community College on Long Island.
Lois lives in Massapequa with her family which includes a 120 pound Bernese Mountain Dog. This dog bears a striking resemblance to Archie, a dog of many breeds who looks like a small bear, featured in her Kristy Farrell Mystery Series.
Lois was 2nd runner up for the Killer Nashville Claymore Award for Something Fishy.
To learn more about Lois, click on her name, photo, or any of the following links: Goodreads, Twitter: @schmittmystery, Facebook: @LoisSchmittAuthor & Instagram: @loisschmittmysteries
Visit all the stops on the Something Fishy Cozy Mystery Series—Partners In Crime Book Tour!
06/01 Review @ Book Reviews From an Avid Reader
06/02 Guest post @ Novels Alive
06/02 Showcase @ Nesies Place
06/03 Review @ Margaret Yelton
06/04 Showcase @ Splashes of Joy
06/05 Showcase @ Im All About Books
06/06 Review @ Author Elena Taylors Blog
06/07 Showcase @ nanasbookreviews
06/08 Review @ sunny island breezes
06/09 Showcase @ BooksChatter
06/10 Interview/showcase @ CMash Reads
06/10 Showcase @ Celticladys Reviews
06/11 Guest post @ The Book Divas Reads
06/12 Interview @ A Blue Million Books
06/13 Showcase @ EienCafe
06/14 Interview @ Quiet Fury Books
06/15 Review @ Pat Fayo reviews
06/15 Showcase @ Books, Ramblings, and Tea
06/16 Review @ Avonna Loves Genres
06/17 Review @ Novels Alive
06/17 Showcase @ The Reading Frenzy
06/18 Showcase @ Brooke Blogs
06/19 Guest post @ I Read What You Write
06/20 Review @ Scrapping&Playing
06/21 Showcase @ The Pulp and Mystery Shelf
06/24 Review @ rozierreadsandwine
06/29 Review @ A Room Without Books is Empty
06/30 Showcase @ 411 ON BOOKS, AUTHORS, AND PUBLISHING NEWS
08/10 Interview @ Blogtalk Radio
08/10 Review @ Just Reviews
Elena Taylor is the author of All We Buried, available now in print, e-book, and audio book format at all your favorite on-line retailers. And don’t forget many independent bookstores can order books for you and have them shipped to your home or for curbside pickup.
For more information on All We Buried, click on the link here to visit the home page.
Foreword INDIE Award Finalist, Best Mystery 2020
Thanks for the great review! I thought this one sounded like it would be fun to read.
Very fun! And I really appreciated the environmental message woven in.
Thanks for giving my book such a great review. I am very happy that you like the environmental message too.–Lois Schmitt