My name is Madeline Mona Moon. I am a cartographer by trade. I had just gotten back to New York from an archaeological dig in Mesopotamia and was in dire need of another paying gig when I discovered my application to an expedition in the Amazon had been denied. Why? Simply on the basis that I am a woman. I was counting on the job as I had only three hundred dollars to my name. That money would have to stretch until I could find other employment, which wouldn’t be easy during the Great Depression. Twenty-five percent of the country was out of work, and now I counted myself among that army of unemployed as well. I dreaded to think I’d be reduced to selling apples on the street corner.
I was in my one-room flat on the lower east side when a knock sounded at my door after midnight. Gathering a pistol from my purse, I opened the door. There stood a middle-aged man in wire-rimmed spectacles holding a briefcase. “I bring glad tidings,” he said. “Your uncle, Manfred Michael Moon, has passed and bequeathed to you the Moon fortune, including Mooncrest Farm. You are one now of the richest women in the country.”
At first I thought it was a prank as my Uncle Manfred and I had been estranged. Why would he name me as his heir when he had a sister, my Aunt Melanie, living with him? Didn’t make sense. Nevertheless, who was I to punch Lady Luck in the face? After all, it was 1933 and people were starving. I didn’t intend to be one of them. “Where do I sign?” I asked.
Within a week, I found myself in God’s country—the Kentucky Bluegrass with its famous horse farms boasting white fences bordering emerald pastures and elegant Southern mansions where the swells sipped oak-cured bourbon. Dexter Deatherage, my uncle’s lawyer and now mine, personally escorted me to Mooncrest Farm, my new home. I kept reminding myself that I was now mistress of Moon Manor, a palatial mansion. I met the household staff who were less than enthusiastic. After all, I was an interloper and worse—a Yankee in their eyes—but I was determined to make a go of it.
I couldn’t escape the feeling there was something off about Moon Manor. My uncle’s death didn’t feel right, and my suspicions were confirmed after I read Uncle Manfred’s death certificate. It seemed odd to me that a sick man with heart disease and a full time nurse would tumble to his death down the grand staircase. Why was Uncle Manfred out of bed in the middle of the night? Where was his caretaker?
Things became more complicated when I discovered the nurse claimed she had been drugged that fateful night. My imagination ran wild. I felt as though people were conspiring against me and that I was being watched every second. If I died, my aunt would be next in line to inherit the Moon wealth. Would I be next to meet an untimely death?
I couldn’t let my guard down even when my charming next-door-neighbor, Lord Farley, the son of a British duke, began pursuing me. If only Robert Farley hadn’t been so handsome. He was hard to resist, but I didn’t time for romance. I had a murderer to catch.
You can read more about Madeline in Murder Under A Blue Moon, the first book in the NEW “Mona Moon” historical cozy mystery series, released April 29, 2019.
Mona Moon is not your typical young lady. She is a cartographer by trade, explorer by nature, and adventurer by heart. But there’s a problem. Miss Mona is broke. It’s during the Depression, and National Geographic has just turned down her application to join an expedition to the Amazon. What’s she to do? Perhaps get a job as a department store salesgirl. Anything to tide her over until a next assignment. There’s a knock on the door. Who could this be in the middle of the night? Holding a revolver, Mona reluctantly opens her door to a man wearing a Homburg hat and holding a briefcase. “I bring glad tidings. Your Uncle Manfred Moon has died and left you as his heir to the Moon fortune. You are now one of the richest women in the country!” he says. Mona’s response is to point her revolver in his face. If the stranger is telling the truth, she will apologize. If he is a fraud, she will shoot him.That’s how Mona does things in 1933.
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Meet the author
Abigail Keam is an award-winning author who writes the Josiah Reynolds Mystery Series about a female beekeeper turned amateur sleuth, the sweet Last Chance for Love Romance Series, and the Princess Maura Tales series.as well as the Mona Moon series.
Miss Abigail is also an award-winning beekeeper who has won 16 awards at the Kentucky State Fair including the Barbara Horn Award which is given to beekeepers who rate a perfect 100 in a honey competition. She currently lives on the Kentucky River Palisades in a metal house with her husband and various critters. She still has honeybees.
To learn more about Abigail, visit her website at abigailkeam.com.
You can follow her on social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, BookBub, and Goodreads.
All comments are welcomed.