Hello again. Claire Conover here. I am so excited to be back at Dru’s Book Musings. I’ve been here before, but it has been several years, I think. I’m excited to update everyone on everything.
I am still a child welfare social worker for the Jefferson County Department of Human Services. My career keeps me very busy, plus I’m a foster mom now. When I was working on Samantha Chambless’s case last year (Little Girl Gone), I met a thirteen-year-old girl black girl named LaReesa Jones. It turns out LaReesa’s mother, Amara, was in prison for drugs and prostitution and Reese lived mostly with her grandmother. When Reese’s grandmother died, she ran away, but she eventually showed back up and she needed a place to live. My boss, Mac McAlister, was kind enough to bend the rules for me and let Reese stay with me and Grant Summerville, my live-in boyfriend.
Or, at least he used to be. I screwed up and cheated on him in a moment of passion and he has left. I am heartbroken about it, but it was my fault. Now Reese’s mother is out of prison, and she has been showing up at my house and trying to see Reese. Contact from her mother sends LaReesa off the rails, as if I need more things to stress me out.
Kirk Mahoney was the cute reporter who bothered me relentlessly, starting with little Michael Hennessy’s death last year (Little Lamb Lost). He and I sort of developed an interesting partnership, and he proved to be very helpful in solving Samantha’s case and looking into the bombing last year of the mayoral candidate’s office (Little White Lies). However, the Birmingham News, where he worked, has been absorbed into a digital media corporation. They fired most of the journalists, but moved him to Montgomery to cover Alabama state politics, which is fine with me. He was the moment-of-passion mistake I made, and I regret it every day.
Mac called me into his office earlier and said there has been a report of child abuse filed against Grant. Grant fired a woman named Regina Maynard last winter, and she is now claiming that Grant molested her son, Dylan. What a liar! Grant would never, ever hurt a child. Mac has assigned the investigation to my friend and office-mate Russell DePaul, and ordered me to stay out of it.
I have to admit I don’t always listen when Mac gives me an order. I am going to clear Grant’s name, even if it costs me everything. At any rate, it will give me a reason to talk to him again and maybe fix things. Even if we can’t be a couple again, at least we can be friends, I hope. We’ll see. I have to get back to work, but I hope you will join me on my adventures in Little Boy Blue and enjoy spending time with us. Thanks to Dru Ann Love for having me here!
Little Boy Blue, A Claire Conover Mystery Book 4
Genre: Traditional Mystery
Release: October 2024
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link
The latest installment in Fenton’s acclaimed southern mystery series, Claire Conover Mysteries, featuring Birmingham, Alabama child welfare social worker Claire Conover, Little Boy Blue is a confident, compelling, and captivating tale about long-buried secrets, revenge—and how nothing, absolutely nothing, is quite as it seems.
Claire Conover is in the midst of personal upheaval: an indiscretion has cost Claire her relationship with longtime love Grant Summerville, and she is trying to weather the challenges of being a single foster mother to 13-year-old LaReesa Jones. At least her job hasn’t put her in danger again—at least until Grant is accused of child abuse by a former employee, Regina Maynard. Even though she and Grant are broken up, Claire vows to prove his innocence, despite repeated protests and warnings from her Unit Supervisor, Mac McAlister. Convinced of Grant’s innocence, Claire starts to investigate.
Then Regina is murdered, and Claire takes charge of Regina’s six-year-old son, Dylan. When she starts to unravel the destruction and chaos Regina left behind, Claire realizes there is no shortage of suspects in Regina’s murder, including Grant himself. Regina had plenty of enemies, including people she stole from and ex-lovers she was blackmailing. But who wanted her dead? And more importantly why?
Complicating matters even further, LaReesa’s drug-addled biological mother comes back into the picture, causing the teenager to spiral– and causing Claire immeasurable anxiety over what the future could hold.
The stakes have never been higher: against the backdrop of a ticking clock, Claire and Grant must work together to solve Regina’s murder before Grant loses everything. But it’s clear that someone doesn’t want the truth to come to light, and soon Claire herself becomes the target. She’s lost Grant, she’s afraid she could lose LaReesa …but this time, Claire may lose something even more valuable: her life.
Teeming with tension, simmering suspense, and a riveting storyline, Little Boy Blue is mesmerizing. An extraordinary new entry in Margaret Fenton’s Little series, Little Boy Blue is a brilliantly rendered, briskly paced mystery that brims with real, relatable characters, authenticity, and a powerhouse of a plot that will leave readers breathless.
About the author
Margaret Fenton writes the Little mystery series featuring child welfare social worker Claire Conover, published by Aakenbaaken and Kent. She spent nearly ten years as a child and family therapist for her county’s child welfare department before focusing on writing. She has been a planning coordinator of Murder in the Magic City in Birmingham, Alabama since its inception in February 2003 (mmcmysteryconference.com). Margaret lives in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover with her husband, a retired software developer, three adorable Papillon dogs, and lots and lots of books. Her website is margaretfenton.com and she loves to hear from readers.