The smell of bacon rouses me from my sleep. I smile. The sun is peaking over the mountain where I own a rustic bed-and-breakfast, birds are chirping, and all is right with the world. It takes me a second to realize someone who isn’t me is in the kitchen making breakfast. I groan and close my eyes as I remember the sudden appearance of Poppy Phillips in my lobby yesterday morning.

Most days, I juggle running the inn and learning as much as I can about the hospitality business. Built in the nineteen thirties in hodge-podge pieces, the inn’s quirkiness is the key to its charm, as well as the cause of many headaches. My former life as an L.A. cop, a career I had to retire from after an injury cut it short, didn’t prepare me for paperwork and sometimes kissing butts.

It’s a quiet life with random interruptions, like finding a dead body in my lobby last December. Deputy Gregg Marks accuses me of being a magnet for trouble. Neighbor and café owner Jackson Thibodeaux thinks I like it when things get interesting in Pine Cove. They’re both wrong. I like my peaceful routine. And then Poppy shows up claiming to want to turn over a new leaf.

The guests have been thrilled. While I struggle to make a palatable cup of coffee, Poppy proves herself to be a whiz in the kitchen. That, combined with her pixie-like appearance and British accent, have won over the hearts and minds of most everyone within a twenty-mile radius, including my grandmother. My brother Liam, not so much.

It took me a while to get the truth out of the so-called “former” cat burglar as to why she was really here. She literally stumbled onto a dead body at her last job, robbing a safe in an executive’s office. Every cop in six states and a few in Interpol would love to finally have something to hang on “The Ghost”, as whimsical members of the media call Poppy. The problem is, I believe her when she says she didn’t do it. So now I’m going to have to spend time away from the front desk to figure out who really is the murderer and keep an innocent woman from going to jail. Well, innocent is a bit of a stretch when it comes to Poppy, but she’s no killer.

Groaning again, I push myself out of bed and shuffle to the bathroom, corralling my auburn waves into some sort of order. In less than five minutes, I dress and head to the kitchen for my first cup of coffee. I figure it’ll take two, three days tops for me to find the real killer and restore order and peace to my daily routine. Then I hear my grandmother bark, “Christ on a cracker. Just because breakfast is included doesn’t mean you get to eat for two.”

Who let grandma intermingle with the guests? I hurry down the hall, rushing to put out a fire. Just another day in paradise.

Framed For Murder, A Pine Cove Mystery Book #1
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release: June 2024
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

After a life-changing injury, Mel O’Rourke trades in her badge for bed sheets, running a B & B in the quirky mountain town of Pine Cove. Her peaceful life is interrupted when an old frenemy, the notorious and charismatic cat burglar, Poppy Phillips, shows up on her doorstep, claiming she’s been framed for murder. While she’s broken plenty of laws, Mel knows she’d never kill anyone. Good thing she’s a better detective than she is a cook as she sets out to prove Poppy’s innocence.

The situation gets complicated, however, when the ruggedly handsome Deputy Sheriff Gregg Marks flirts with Mel, bringing him dangerously close to the criminal she’s hiding. And just when her friendship with café owner Jackson Thibodeaux blossoms into something more, he’s offered the opportunity of a lifetime in New Orleans. Should she encourage him to go, or ask him to stay? Who knew romance could be just as hard to solve as murder?

Meet the author
Marla White is an award-winning novelist who prefers killing people who annoy her on paper rather than in real life. Her first full-length mystery novel, “Cause for Elimination,” placed in several contests including Killer Nashville, The RONE Awards, The Reader’s Favorite, and finishing second in the Orange County Romance Writers for Romantic Suspense. Originally from Oklahoma, she lived in a lot of other states before settling down in Los Angeles to work in the television industry. She currently teaches at UCLA Extension and gives seminars about the art of script coverage. When she’s not working on the next book, she’s hiking, cheering on the LA Kings, or discovering new craft cocktails (to, you know, drown her sorrows over the Kings).