My typical workday starts when I creep onto campus under the cover of darkness just to get a thing or two done before the daily whirlwind kicks in. But that doesn’t stop the interlopers from interrupting my first sip of coffee from the office pot. Hot, half and half, no sugar. The coffee, not the interlopers.

Eighty-year-old Miss Etha is usually the first caller. The neighborhood snoop occupies the corner lot in her trailer across the street, ever ready with her laundry list of complaints about some aspect of my leadership at the island’s failing elementary school. Considering I’ve only been the principal of Moccasin Cove Elementary for six months, I bristle at hearing about problems from years past. But when you’re a hometown girl whose been gone fifteen years saving the world, it’s kinda your job to suck it up and smile. Just like momma taught me.

By the time Miss Etha’s diatribe winds down I’ve reviewed my to-do list and cranked open the Jalousie window by my desk to let in the cool salt-tinged breeze from the Gulf of Mexico. I gently touch the framed drawing of crooked red hearts and say hello to Sheneece. I feel my balance return as the first grader smiles back at me from her photo, tucked next to the hearts she drew for me with crayons she salvaged from the trash can. Sheneece and a thousand kids like her remind me of my mission. Rescuing failing schools. Returning bright futures to the students and their communities.

When I got the call to come home to Moccasin Cove, I’d been travelling for fifteen years. I’d helped ten failing schools in impoverished communities across the country and built up a reputation as a turnaround principal. I have job offers lined up for the next fifteen years. But my hometown school was failing. Fast. Triage was needed or state closure would shutter the historic campus. I reluctantly agreed. Not because I don’t love my hometown, but because I’ve never reconciled the grief locked in my heart over the loss of my fiancé. When Josh died in Afghanistan, I ran away, shoved my pain deep inside, and dedicated my life to my work. Nothing more.

It didn’t take long to see the reason for the school’s slide into the failure zone. Moccasin Cove Elementary and the island town it was named for were stuck in a tsunami of economic chaos that started with the closure of the largest local employer a decade earlier. Those with skills fled for the mainland and all points north. That left everyone else behind. Unemployment rates and the associated social maladies skyrocketed. Our students range in age from five to twelve years old and have never known stability or lack of want—the exact opposite of my middle-class Moccasin Cove childhood. Carefree days of sun, surf, sand, and academic focus put me on the path to achievement. I want nothing less for the students there now.

Last July, the second I came home, I put my gameplan into action and we’ve chalked up a few small victories this first semester of school. Now, six-months into the turnaround, the school is on an even keel, and I’m feeling skeptically optimistic that this flip will be a success when the state test scores come out in June. Well, I was feeling it, but as most school principals will tell you, “Nothing’s ever easy in public education.” Instead of shoring up my exit plans for next summer, Fate has decided to commandeer my to-do list:

Item 1: Fight the unexpected challenge for control of Moccasin Cove Elementary by Doo-Well Charter Schools Incorporated. If I lose, the powerhouse corporation will fire the entire faculty and the students will be bussed off-island to an unfamiliar campus staffed with strangers.

Item 2: Untangle the emotions in my heart and mind that can’t reconcile the love I still feel for my deceased fiancé with that undeniable connection to Mac Campbell, the retired Air Force Colonel in charge of school security, who is the first man I’ve let get under my skin since Josh died.

Item 3: Solve the tragic murder of a kind young man who worked at my school, to prove the innocence of an old friend, without getting myself fired or killed in the process.

So, that’s my new normal. I hear the learning curve on solving murder is steep. Until I can check all three items off my list, I’ll have a little more homework than usual, and less time to ride my trailbike through the mangroves and along the beaches. But right now, I hear the school busses pulling up out front along with that whirlwind I was telling you about. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you get a chance to come down to the Cove sometime soon. You’ll find folks to be friendly in their own endearing and quirky manner. And if you come by on the weekend, I’ll treat you to some coffee and hot Citrus Blossoms at the OBC.

ChainLinked, A Moccasin Cove Mystery #1
Genre: Traditional with a cozy edge
Release: August 2021
Purchase Link

Principal Ana Callahan knows a thing or two about turning around troubled schools, but she can’t fix the grief constricting her own heart. Now she must do both. . . while solving a murder.

Ana Callahan’s life fell apart, so she went out to save the world, one failing school at a time. Fifteen years later she’s back home in Florida, working her magic on the floundering elementary school of her childhood.

But Moccasin Cove is not the sunny, middle-class beach town she left behind. With one eye on her school rescue plan and the other on her exit plan, Ana gets to work and chalks up a few small victories.

Her confidence falters when a school contractor is killed, and a friend is implicated in the murder. An ambitious journalist tries to link Ana’s tragic past to the crime, and a powerful charter school corporation seizes on the political chaos by threatening a takeover of Ana’s school.

Adding “investigate murder” to her lengthy to-do list, Ana finds herself paired with the school district’s handsome new security chief. The disturbing secrets they uncover about her friend and the killer’s twisted motives, force Ana to admit she has a lot to learn about murder.

If you like your mysteries with a cozy edge, a hint of Southern snark, and always a happy ending, this series is for you. Multi-Award nominated debut series.

Meet the author
ChainLinked, Book 1 in the Moccasin Cove Mystery Series is Liz Boeger’s publishing debut. If you like your mysteries with a cozy edge, a hint of Southern snark, and always a happy ending, this Daphne du Maurier Award nominated series is for you. AppleJacked, Book 2 will launch on February 2, 2022. Boeger’s membership in the of Sisters in Crime, explains the odd assortment of search topics on her laptop and the crime scene tape on her bookshelf. Don’t ask her about her run-in with the Secret Service, she’s saving that for her next plot. You can read more about her writing rants at her Moccasin Cove Mysteries blog. 

All comments are welcomed.