Enid Carmichael here. I am not a busybody and I am not a lush, as some would say. I am an eighty-year-old crusader for safety in our elegant Pacific Heights apartment building where tenants are dying faster than the fog rolls in on a cool San Francisco evening.

I am a Fog Lady, which means my friends can count on me like early morning fog burning off by midday. There are six of us, and all but one live together in this jinxed building. Well, we’re not six anymore, are we? Muriel Bridge fell off a stool cleaning bugs out of her kitchen light. Mrs. Talwin slipped on bubbles in the bath and drowned. Or so they say.

Sarah, a young doctor-in-training in the building, thinks we are dying because we are old. What does she know? She’s overworked, overtired, overstressed. Plus, she’s in her twenties. She hasn’t seen much of life. I might be eighty, but I’m not dead yet. I have eyes. And my apartment does perch right above the front door. My hearing is sharp. Much sharper than people give me credit for. There are some benefits of being old. I often see and hear things people don’t intend. I saw Tommy, the handyman, with his new jewelry and his fancy new clothes. Tommy doesn’t have that kind of money. But the dead tenants did. And Tommy has keys to their apartments. And I know about Mr. Glenn. I heard him muttering about us. He doesn’t like the Fog Ladies. Not since that nasty business with Muriel Bridge. Not since his wife died. He thinks we were to blame, as if we’d stopped Bessie’s heart with our very own hands. Hmph.

Frances Noonan won’t hear of any bad talk about Mr. Glenn. She doesn’t even believe there have been murders, that evil lurks in our building. She sees too much good in people. Or if she even considers murder, she thinks it’s Big Owen and Chantrelle, those ne’er do well teen parents she got us mixed up with from her hospital volunteer project. Her and her good works. Well, the killer might be Big Owen and it might be Tommy and it might be Mr. Glenn, but whoever it is, people are dying and someone has to watch the comings and goings of the building. Someone has to keep us safe.

I have Mr. Glenn’s journal. He started it when his wife was sick and he just kept writing. He left it in the laundry room, and I’ll get it back to him. As soon as I’m done reading it. That’s what I’m going to do today. I have some coupons for those Starbucks lattes from the newspaper, I’m going to sit and drink that lovely, bitter, frothy coffee, and read Mr. Glenn’s journal. Then we’ll see who is right and who is wrong about our building. Then we’ll see who the killer is.

You can read more about Enid in The Fog Ladies, the first book in the NEW “San Francisco Cozy Murder” mystery series, released October 9, 2019.

Young, overworked, overtired, overstressed medical intern Sarah James has no time for sleuthing. Her elderly neighbors, the spunky Fog Ladies, have nothing but time. When, one by one, old ladies die in their elegant apartment building in San Francisco, Sarah assumes the deaths are the natural consequence of growing old. The Fog Ladies assume murder.

Mrs. Bridge falls off a stool cleaning bugs out of her kitchen light. Mrs. Talwin slips on bubbles in the bath and drowns. 

Sarah resists the Fog Ladies’ perseverations. But when one of them falls down the stairs and tells Sarah she was pushed, even Sarah believes evil lurks in their building. Can they find the killer before they fall victim themselves?

Purchase Link
# # # # # # # # # # #

Meet the author
Susan McCormick writes cozy murder mysteries. She is also the author of Granny Can’t Remember Me, a lighthearted picture book about Alzheimer’s disease. She is a doctor who lives in Seattle. She graduated from Smith College and George Washington University School of Medicine, with additional medical training in Washington, DC and San Francisco, where she lived in an elegant apartment building much like the one in the book. She served nine years in the military before settling in the Pacific Northwest. She is married and has two boys, plus a giant Newfoundland dog.

To learn more about Susan, visit her website at susanmccormickbooks.com.

Susan is also on social media at the following: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, BookBub, and Goodreads.

All comments are welcomed.