Isn’t it strange that one small decision in an ordinary day can change your whole life? Especially when it’s a decision that you never thought would have any repercussions.

I was merely trying to perform a good deed that day. All I wanted to do was to return the watch that Mr. Scavullo had forgotten on the diner’s lunch counter. He was a man I’d known at church, who used to check his pocket watch whenever the sermons ran long. I saw how much Scavullo treasured that timepiece. So I picked it up and followed him.

My name is Esmé de LaForet. I was a reporter but now I write plays, and I plan to see my name in lights someday soon, here in New York city. My play, Leaving Alamogordo, is set to open in a few days in an almost respectable Broadway theatre.

If I live that long.

All my life, I longed to make it to the Big Apple and take a bite out of it. Yet I thought I’d never leave the small and dusty western city where I was born and raised, the only child of rather elderly parents. But they died within a week of each other a few winters ago during a terrible flu epidemic. Like a tumbleweed, I now had nothing to hold me down. Ahead of me were hopes and dreams and the flickering neon lights of Manhattan.

Right now, however, I had bigger problems.

I never imagined my pursuit of Scavullo would lead to an elementary school, strangely empty on a Friday. Then I remembered today was a brand-new holiday, Columbus Day, declared by President Franklin Roosevelt, October 12, 1934. It was a play to his Italian-American base. But I didn’t have time to think about that, and I never found Scavullo, because shots rang out above my head from somewhere on the second floor. I had to hide.

All the classroom doors were locked, so I took shelter in an unlocked utility closet. My heart was drumming wildly, like the mad rhythm of a swing tune. Unfortunately, the shooting started again and a previously placid cat, also hiding in the closet, levitated with a startled shriek, upsetting boxes on the shelves, creating a terrible racket.

The gunshots stopped. It was quiet, except for my ragged breath. I thought I was safe—until the door was yanked open by a man with improbably blue eyes and gun in his hands. He wore a black pinstripe suit, a black shirt, and a tie cheekily decorated with blue martini glasses. I knew a thug when I saw one. I’d been to the movies. But where did he get that English accent?

“What are you doing in here?” he demanded.

Crook Tales For Two
Genre: Historical Mystery, Screwball Noir
Release: January 2024
Format: Digital
Purchase Link

“It occurred to me that if I hadn’t tried to do a good deed and return the gold watch Mr. Scavullo left at the lunch counter, a strange man wouldn’t be holding me at gunpoint.

That was the problem with good deeds. Unintended consequences.”

Comedy, mystery, and romance intertwine in a frothy mix in Crook Tales For Two, a caper set in New York City in 1934 with an Art Deco verve. Prohibition is over and those with money pop the bubbly, dance the nights away, and attend the latest plays.

Mere days before her first Broadway opening, playwright Esmé de LaForet discovers what happens when good deeds go awry: murder, mobsters, reporters, dangerous dames from high and low society, and nerve-wracking opening nights. Esmé has enough on her plate. She doesn’t need the complications that come when she tries to return a lost watch to its owner, a man she’s seen at church. There’s a lot about this Scavullo guy she doesn’t know. She follows him with the watch and sees him duck into an empty school, so she does the same. That’s when shots ring out and she seeks safety in a supply closet, only to be discovered by a stranger–with a pistol in his hand. He claims to be one of the good guys, but he’s dressed like a flashy mobster.

Scavullo’s murder kicks off their first meeting with a bang, and Esmé finds herself playing cat-and-mouse with this secretive stranger, private investigator Graydon Chase, while coping with his “other women,” his mother, lurking mobsters, and a major dose of romantic chemistry. This detecting duo dig, clash, crash, and match wits, while juggling temperamental-yet-dramatic actors, unpredictable gangsters, and a deadly virus sweeping the city. Oh, and with Esme’s life at risk from an unknown killer, a case of love at first shot!

Crook Tales For Two is an effervescent, fun and delightful read with a stylish Nick-and-Nora vibe.

About the author
Mystery and Thriller writer Ellen Byerrum is a former journalist in Washington, D.C., as well as a produced and published playwright. She is the author of the Lacey Smithsonian Crime of Fashion mysteries. Two of her books, Killer Hair and Hostile Makeover, were filmed for Lifetime Television. Her newest book, Crook Tales For Two, is a departure from her previous books in terms of setting and time. Crook Tales is set in 1934, right after the end of Prohibition. Yet it is still screwball noir, incorporating mystery, comedy, and romance. She has also penned a thriller, a children’s picture book, and several short stories.

You can find Ellen on her website at ellenbyerrum.com, on Facebook at Facebook.com/EllenByerrum, on Instagram at @ellenbyerrumauthor, and on YouTube at @ellenbyerrumsfashionbites2378.