In sixth grade, I declared my name to be Gypsy Lee Miller. I told people it was because I didn’t like the name Martha Miller. How dull. The real reason was that I planned to spend my life going from place to place.
After college, I moved from my Eastern Shore Chesapeake Bay town of Bay View Harbor to Washington DC. I saw this as my first step to worldly travels. In less than five years as an event planner, I felt off kilter, unfocused. I went back to my starting point to learn how to forge ahead.
How to do that? Two months after renovating an older brick building, my cousin Linda and I opened the Bay View Harbor Bakery. Within what seemed like no time at all, the local handyman was dead on our floor after eating one of our cupcakes. My new moniker became the Killer Cupcake Woman.
Tough times test the soul and you realize what you’re capable of. That sounds very grand. In reality, I didn’t want to lose my shirt so I started asking questions. I made a few enemies, but I helped the police find the killer and saved the business. Now, I seem to be known for getting to the bottom of things.
Take today. It’s the second day of the spring festival in Bay View Harbor. Linda and I baked for weeks and we’re impressing the town and tourists. If our booth weren’t next to local art-critic-cum-gadfly Marcus DuBois, we’d have more fun doing it.
When he vanishes and the ransom note appears at our booth, it’s a problem for Marcus and us. To find a motive, I need to learn more about not just his art but the forgeries he appears to be selling. Not sure I can do that before the kidnap victim turns into a dead body.
I never planned to be a baker and I certainly didn’t plan to be a sleuth. Life takes sporadic turns. I may need to pitch my gypsy caravan in the town I never intended to revisit. At least until I figure out what happened to that art critic.
THE ART CRITIC’S LAST FORGERY
Series: A Bay View Harbor Mystery, Book 2
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release: August 2026
Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Amazon | Barnes & Noble
After Gypsy Lee Miller learned who killed the local handyman, she thought things in Bay View Harbor on the Chesapeake Bay would calm down. Not so much.
Marcus Porter has visited the Bay View Harbor Bakery many times since Gypsy Lee and her cousin Linda opened it last year. He talked them, as well as Maggie at the Inn she may or may not own, into hanging pictures drawn by local artists. If they sell one, he and the artist have a payday. He often badgers Gypsy Lee and Linda to display more pictures.
Marcus writes a blog and considers himself more of an art critic than an artist. Though he isn’t a judge, he’s quick to comment on paintings submitted to the Bay View Harbor Annual Spring Festival. His observations are not always popular.
Still, the artwork he provides to the bakery brings customers, so Gypsy Lee and Linda don’t mind that his booth of local paintings is next to the bakery’s at the festival near the boardwalk. Don’t mind until the second day of the event when Gypsy Lee discovers a ransom note from his kidnappers in a tub under their booth.
It’s a race against time to find him before he’s hurt — or worse. It’s especially important because whoever has Marcus wants it to look as if Gypsy Lee and Linda are involved. Sure, he’s trash-talked the bakery behind their backs because they won’t display lots more local art. They ignore him. But exactly whose art is it, and why has Marcus been so anxious to promote it? When his reputation starts to unravel, the spotlight on the bakery gets even brighter.
About the author
After decades doing analytical work in and around the public sector, Elaine L. Orr published her first fiction in 2011. She’s at 40 and counting. The first two books in her new Bay View Harbor Series are The Handyman’s Last Bite and the Art Critic’s Last Forgery. They and her Family History Mystery Series are set in her home state of Maryland. Though these books have recipes, she isn’t a particularly good cook, so she steals recipes from friends and family (with appropriate credit). Connect with Elaine on her website: www.elaineorr.com.