I came to Washington to escape a murder rap.

Wait. That came out wrong.

What you need is some background. My boyfriend, Dean, died when he fell from the balcony of our Brooklyn apartment. It was the most horrible day of my life. But things were about to get worse: little did I know at the time that I would soon be arrested and charged with Dean’s death.

I didn’t do it.

After months of frustration and waiting, a guy who lived across the street from our apartment came forward to tell the police what I had been trying to tell them all along—that he had seen Dean fall to his death and that Dean had been alone on the balcony at the time of his fall. The man simply hadn’t realized there was an investigation going on or he would have come forward sooner—I assume.

I was so sick and tired of New York by then that I wanted to get out as fast as I could. When the police cut me loose, I packed up the apartment and moved to Washington, DC. I didn’t have a job or a place to live, but I found both quickly.

Now I work at a human rights journal, putting my Masters in anthropology to good use. I love my job; what I don’t love is my boss. He’s a micromanager with a short temper, so not all my days are good ones.

And speaking of bad days, I’ve had my fair share recently. First my boss’ wife was murdered, then a couple days later her married lover was murdered, too. I didn’t know either one of them, but my best friend has been implicated in the lover’s murder, so I find myself involved in a murder investigation yet again.

As much as I wish I could set everything aside and help my friend by figuring out who really killed the lover (and my boss’ wife), the bills don’t get paid that way. So I’ve thrown myself into the research for a series of articles on women’s history. Lately I’ve become obsessed by interested in a diary that a man brought to our offices. It tells the story of a young woman in the mid-eighteen hundreds in the Nebraska Territory.

As an anthropologist, I find it interesting because it offers clues to the everyday habits of people who lived in a rugged part of the country at a time when perils were at hand in every direction.

But as a woman whose best friend is in trouble, I find the diary intriguing because of the identity of the man who brought it to the office. I can’t help feeling that the diary is somehow connected to the murders.

We’ll see what happens.

You can read more about Daisy in Trudy’s Diary, the first book in the “Libraries of the World” traditional mystery series, released April 16, 2019.

Daisy Carruthers moved to Washington, DC, from New York City following an emotionally draining murder investigation, little knowing she would soon be involved in two more. But when her boss and her best friend come under suspicion for killing two adulterous lovers, Daisy has no choice but to help when they ask.

And when she comes across a diary and an old dime novel with suspiciously similar stories and unknown origins, she knows all the mysteries are somehow connected.

Can she figure out the identity of the killer–or killers–before it’s too late?

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About the author
Amy M. Reade is a recovering attorney who discovered, quite by accident, a passion for fiction writing. She has penned eight mysteries and has plans to release two more this year. She writes in the Gothic, traditional, contemporary, and cozy mystery subgenres and looks forward to continuing the two series she has begun since December, 2018. She also loves to cook and travel and can often be found wishing she lived in Scotland. She can also be found in the laundry room, but that’s not as much fun.

She is the author of Secrets of Hallstead House, The Ghosts of Peppernell Manor, House of the Hanging Jade, the Malice series, the Juniper Junction Holiday Mystery series, and the Libraries of the World Mystery series.

To learn more about Amy, visit her website at amymreade.com.

All comments are welcomed.