An Update . . .

Hi, my name is Katie Bonner and everything in my life is going WRONG.

Okay, not everything, but way too many things.

My two-year relationship with Andy Rust is over. That was hard enough to accept, but that he seemed to have moved on within weeks was just as hard to come to terms with. And my friendship with Ray Davenport, ex-Sheriff’s detective, is on the skids, too. I could blame his teenage daughters, who thought it was great to have me as a friend–until they thought their father might have more in mind than friendship with me. Me and Ray together? Not a chance. Really!

And then the second floor at Artisan’s Alley, the arts-and-crafts arcade I own and manage, began to sag. Oh, it was already saggy–but then it became “lawsuit” saggy and needs to be fixed ASAP before one of my vendors or a customer falls through it. To top it off, my ex-mother-in-law has come for a visit.

Worst of all Jamie Siefert, partner of my dear friend and pseudo big brother Seth Landers, died right in front of my tea shop, Tealicious. That he died from ingesting poison, which everyone assumes was from the food we serve, makes it even worse. And it turns out Jamie might not have been the person we all thought we knew.

Yeah, just about everything in my life is wrong. The only thing that’s holding me together is the fact I have good friends. Okay, things might be a little strained, but I have faith that we can work things out. Maybe.

I hope.

Dead Man’s Hand, Victoria Square Mystery #8
Genre: Cozy
Release: February 2021
Purchase Link

Katie’s been dealt the Dead Man’s Hand . . .

It’s all fun and games when Katie Bonner and her friends play poker for chocolate-covered peanuts, but the very next day Jamie Seifert collapses and dies after visiting Katie’s tearoom on Victoria Square.

Katie’s business in on the line and she needs to prove Jamie wasn’t poisoned at Tealicious. Her first order of business is to locate the mysterious woman he was dining with, and her next step is to go undercover at a nearby poker club where Jamie won big just a week before. It seems everyone there might have had a motive to rub Jamie out. . .and if they learn Katie has been lying to them, she might be next!

About the Author
The immensely popular Booktown Mystery series is what put Lorraine Bartlett’s pen name Lorna Barrett on the New York Times Bestseller list, but it’s her talent — whether writing as Lorna, or L.L. Bartlett, or Lorraine Bartlett—that keeps her in her readers’ hearts. This multi-published, Agatha-nominated author also pens the exciting Jeff Resnick Mysteries as well as the acclaimed Victoria Square and Lotus Bay Mystery series, and the Tales of Blythe Cove Manor, and has many short stories and novellas to her name(s).

All comments are welcomed.