**Valentine**
I’d just arrived in Niagara Falls, New York, for the weekend and was excited to attend my childhood friend’s bachelorette party. It’d been years since I’d seen Babette Lang, and I couldn’t wait to catch up.

Might not have been the wisest choice leaving Beaumont’s, my salon, and three employees ranging from, Lord he’s hot to She’s got scissors in her hand, run for the hills. But sometimes the umbilical cord had to be cut.

My name is Valentine Beaumont, and my salon’s in a suburb of Boston. I’d received an invite to Babette’s party from another one of her friends. Seemed there were some of us who were in charge of organizing this bash. Being in the beauty industry, it was fitting that the decorations were my responsibility. Only problem was, my party bag with all the trimmings didn’t make it to Buffalo with the rest of my luggage. How was I going to be creative now?

I patted my black beauty bag that I hauled everywhere. I had used it on numerous occasions to defend myself and catch the odd crook. It had come to my aid then, and time would tell if it would help me now.

**Kate**
“Crackers?” The perky flight attendant leaned close and offered me some ginger snaps.

“Yes,” I replied, five months pregnant with twins, and I wanted the ginger snaps, peanuts, pretzels, anything she had to offer, and I’d already wolfed down the breakfast sandwich I’d packed and two power bars.

She smiled, then grabbed a handful of plastic wrapped bags and deposited them onto my tray table. “I hope it’s a special occasion that has you traveling cross-country.”

I nodded. “My dear friend from college is getting married. Bachelorette party is in Niagara falls. I’m in charge of the food.” Rubbing my belly, I added, “I wonder if my little ones will leave anything for the guests.”

The flight attendant laughed and moved to the next aisle.

I popped open the ginger snaps and thought of my friend Babette. The last conversation we’d had, I’d brought her up to date on my budding PI business and the birth of my darling eight-month-old baby, Laurie.

My heart hurt thinking of my little dolly. This was the first time I’d taken an overnight trip without her, and even though I’d just said good-bye to her a few hours ago, I already missed her.

I chewed on the cookie and fortified myself. At least the twins were along for the ride!

**Merry**
“Flying as a civilian is way better than flying as a spy. Once I flew fifth class on a cargo plane across Honduras. Never heard of fifth class? It’s awful – the chickens fly third class and goats get fourth. Howler monkeys and me were in fifth. I still can’t bring myself to talk about it.

I’m heading to Buffalo for a bachelorette party and looking forward to seeing Niagara Falls. We don’t have anything like it in Who’s There, Iowa — unless you count the time Annie O’Meara drunkenly knocked the giant butter churn off the roof of the pig pavilion at the county fair. You should never put that much butter on a roof in the middle of summer. It melted the butter skunk!

I’m Merry Wrath and six years ago the Vice President ‘accidentally’ outed me as a CIA operative. Now, at 30, I’m retired and running a Girl Scout troop in Iowa.

It’s weird going to a party for a woman I haven’t seen in years, with people I don’t know. I shouldn’t be nervous. After flying Aeroflot dressed as a chicken to escape the Russian FSB, this’ll be a piece of cake. Ooh! Cake! I love cake!

**Franki**
“Hey, lady.” A thirtyish hipster ahead of me in line to board a Niagara Falls flight pressed a fedora over his mouth and nose. “Is she sick or something?”

I followed his wide-eyed gaze to a plump, middle-aged woman seated at our gate, clutching a cowrie-shell necklace and muttering to herself. Her face glistened, and the whites of her eyes were as blood red as her head wrap. “Nah. She’s fine.”

“Yo, you sure?” He gave his neck an uneasy scratch. “Because I’m immuno-compromised.”

And clearly a New Yorker. “Franki Amato, PI.” I didn’t dare try to shake his hand. “I’m based here in New Orleans, so I can tell she’s a voodoo mambo.”

He started and dropped the fedora. “You mean, a voodoo priestess?”

I nodded. “Don’t be alarmed. Sometimes they look a little scary, but they’re harmless—for the most part.”

The guy gaped at me like I had a raging case of the plague and bounded onto the plane.

Swallowing a chuckle, I followed him on board. As much as NOLA had grown on me, I was looking forward to escaping its eccentricities for a few days, meeting some nice, normal people at the bachelorette party I’d been invited to. And even though I hardly knew the bride-to-be, I wasn’t worried. I was in charge of the drinks, so it was going to be one killer shindig.

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4 Sleuths & A Bachelorette, A Killer Foursome Mystery #1
Genre: Cozy
Release: March 2022
Purchase Link

Four USA Today bestselling authors team up to bring you your favorite female sleuths in a hilarious new mystery series!

Tonight is Babette Lang’s bachelorette party. Problem is, there’s no bachelorette, only an unusual group of disgruntled guests—a wannabe hand-model bartender, a chain-smoking talent agent, the bride-to-be’s cheapskate boss, plus the sloshed fiancé and his furious sisters.

It’s not a party until there’s a body!

When one of the guests drops dead, four women with a tendency for trouble join forces to catch a killer.

Valentine Beaumont ~ Boston sleuth and gutsy beautician
Kate Connolly ~ San Francisco part-time crime-solver and sleep-deprived new mom
Merry Wrath ~ Iowa ex-CIA operative turned Girl Scout leader
Franki Amato ~ New Orleans PI and victim of a serial-matchmaking Sicilian nonna

Will these sleuths untangle this double mystery and save the party? Or is it already too late?

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About the authors
Leslie Langtry, Arlene McFarlane, Traci Andrighetti, and Diana Orgain are the USA Today bestselling authors of the Merry Wrath Cozy Comedy series, the Murder, Curlers series, the Franki Amato Mysteries, and the Maternal Instincts Mystery Series. Now they’ve teamed up to write the Killer Foursome mysteries. Why? Because the initials of their last names spell LMAO!

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The authors have generously offered to give away one copy of 4 Sleuths & A Bachelorette, either Kindle/Nook (open to everyone) or paperback (U.S. residents only), winner’s choice. To enter, please leave a comment below. One entry per person. The giveaway ends May 25, 2022. Good luck everyone!

All comments are welcomed.