Wire brush in hand, I’m viciously attacking the crusty barnacles that mindlessly attach to my home—a 38-foot Island Packet sailing cruiser. I’m Kylee Kane, a retired Coast Guard investigator. After graduating from the Coast Guard Academy, I spent twenty-seven years in the service. The Coastie motto? Semper Paratus–Always Prepared. That’s how I felt when I was serving. Now that I’m retired, not so much.

A few months before I retired, I bought my floating home and rented a slip at the marina in downtown Beaufort to be close to my widowed mother, Myrt. Even if Mom weren’t living nearby on Hullis Island, the South Carolina Lowcountry is an awesome location for an old salt like me. Actually, I don’t feel “old” though my age just reached the half-century mark.

Last year, I lived under the same roof with Mom for months as she battled and, eventually, beat the snot out of her breast cancer. Yet, the minute she was upright, Mom booted me out of her house. “Once kids leave the nest, parents should rent their rooms or make them into saunas.”

Mom was right. It was time to leave. Since we’re stubborn cusses, we can get on each other’s nerves.

I’m single and physically fit. Mentally competent? That’s another question. Somehow, my childhood friend, Ted Welch, talked me into working as his company’s security consultant. Ted’s biggest selling point was our shared concern for my mother’s safety. Ted’s firm, Welch HOA Management, counts Mom’s HOA as one of its dozen-plus homeowner and condo association clients. Hullis Island owners are feuding over how to solve the island’s deer over-population conundrum, and, naturally, Mom broadcast her opinion. The resulting hate mail threat arrived the same night Ted and I discovered a murder victim a few blocks away. The killer posed the arrow-pierced corpse with a trophy deer head in his lap.

Like Mom, I have difficulty keeping my mouth shut. This brings me to Deputy Sheriff Nick Ibsen. Short of shooting him, I can’t seem to get rid of this human barnacle. Nick was briefly a lover before I discovered his handsome exterior hid an ugly misogynist core. Unfortunately, the man doesn’t handle rejection well. When he pushed my buttons at the Hullis Island murder scene, I retaliated. Humiliating Nick in front of fellow officers was quite satisfying, but not terribly bright. Too bad HOA feuds and murder seem to ensure the deputy and I will have many more crime scenes to share.

With Neighbors Like These, An HOA Mystery #1
Genre: Traditional
Release: July 2021
Purchase Link

MANAGING AN HOA IS MURDER. . .
He championed shooting deer inside the HOA’s nature sanctuary. Now his corpse is posed curbside, cradling a trophy deer head. The theatrical murder panics residents, and Ted Welch asks Kylee Kane, retired Coast Guard investigator, to help his HOA management firm calm fears. Kylee agrees. Her own mother is getting death threats over her crusade to protect the deer.

HOA=DOA TERROR REIGNS. . .
When a belligerent owner in another HOA is murdered, terror reigns. The Sheriff’s Department blames Ted for letting HOA feuds spiral into homicide. Kylee discovers links between the victims and suspects a recently-pardoned general is next. Authorities and the arrogant general dismiss her warning. Can she foil the third act in the crafty killer’s death-as-theater game or will she be the next corpse on display?

About the author
A journalism major in college, Linda Lovely has spent most of her career working in PR and advertising—an early introduction to penning fiction. With Neighbors Like These is Lovely’s ninth mystery/suspense novel. Whether she’s writing cozy mysteries, historical suspense or contemporary thrillers, her novels share one common element—smart, independent heroines. Humor and romance also sneak into every manuscript. Her work has earned nominations for a number of prestigious awards, ranging from RWA’s Golden Heart for Romantic Suspense to Thriller Nashville’s Silver Falchion for Best Cozy Mystery.

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