Hi. I’m Eliza and that’s all you need to know.

All right. Since this story is supposed to be about me, I’ll fill you in a little. I live in New York City but I’m not saying more than that because at the moment it’s best if nobody knows where I am. Let’s say there are people who are looking for me and I’d rather they didn’t find me.

See, my friend Damien, who I met in a class at New Amsterdam University a few months ago, is involved in some… slightly less-than-legal stuff, and now we don’t know where he is. There were a couple of guys following him and it’s possible they know about me. It’s also possible they don’t.

I’m also told there are two private detectives, a brother and sister called Fran and Ken, who are asking around about me and I don’t know why. Better to stay clear of them, too. You don’t know whose side anybody is on in this town.

My father, who I’ve been living with to avoid dorm fees, is probably convinced that I walked out because of him. Parents always think everything is about them. Yeah, I should let him know I’m alive, but if he knows where I am he can tell someone, and that’s not going to do me or him any good. Better to stay silent for a while.

I’ll just sit here with Rainbow and wait for Damien to come back, or for some word that the guys with the guns aren’t on my trail anymore. It might be a long wait.

Oh, and did I mention I’m a trans woman? No, I didn’t. Because it doesn’t have anything to do with this and that means you don’t need to know.

Gotta bounce now. It seems that someone is climbing up the side of my apartment building.

Same Difference, A Fran and Ken Stein Mystery Book #2
Genre: Traditional Mystery
Release: June 2024
Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Purchase Link

Nineteen-year-old trans woman Eliza is missing . . . and her worried father sets private investigators Fran and Ken Stein on her trail in this second instalment of the light-hearted and fun cozy mystery series with a paranormal twist.

Taking a break from their usual business of helping adoptees find their birth parents, New York private investigators – and super-sized, ever-so-slightly-paranormal siblings – Fran and Ken Stein accept a job to find a missing young woman.

Nineteen-year-old college student Eliza Hennessey is trans – and she has a rocky relationship with her father, their new client. Brian’s convinced his daughter’s vanished, rather than run away, but Fran and Ken aren’t so sure she wants to be found.

The PI duo investigate, and soon Fran is butting heads with her irritating sort-of-ex-boyfriend Mank at the NYPD, who has what seems to be a similar case on his desk. But not even Fran could guess how tangled their investigations are going to get, and how deep they’ll need to dive into murder and mayhem to solve the case!

About the author
E.J. Copperman is the author of SAME DIFFERENCE (where you can meet Eliza), the second novel in the Fran and Ken Stein (get it?) Mystery series, as well as the Jersey Girl Legal Mystery series (MY COUSIN SKINNY). But don’t worry—next year Copperman will add another series to fill the time.