My name is Micki Demetrius. I’m a retired English teacher from an eastern private school and I now live in the central Florida town of Serendipity Springs. I’m divorced. Have been for several years. My ex, Ignatius, who goes by the name Iggy, is a charming man who can’t resist the ponies, and I don’t mean riding them. I put up with his gambling for over ten years before I called it quits. He claims to be reformed these days. Time will tell; let his new wife deal with it. As for me, I’ve remained single. Maybe someday love will find me again, but for now, I enjoy my independence and my new life in the sunshine state.

I don’t know if I could describe a “typical” day, because my schedule depends in large part on whatever is going on with my three friends, Kat Faulkner, Marianne Putnam and Sydney Bonner. I met them through Mah Jongg. I never played the game before coming to Florida. Since I didn’t know a soul when I arrived, seeking out ways to meet people, I took a class at the community center and met Marianne and Syd. We hit it off immediately. I see eye-to-eye, literally, with Syd, since we’re both nearly six feet tall. Though much shorter, five-one or so, Marianne is the heart of our group. She’s the listener, our cheerleader, while Syd and I are more likely to hog a conversation, make decisions and charge ahead.

Kat added the perfect balance to our sisterhood when she moved to town a year later. Like Marianne, she’s less boisterous, although where Marianne is the scientist, actually a former pharmacist, Kat is musical. She’s sung in local cabarets on occasion. She also is a lottery millionaire. Her winnings bought her one of the town’s mini-mansions, where I prefer to hang out rather than at my cluttered, one-bedroom condo.

In recent months, the four of us have been pulled into local murder investigations. Not that we’ve sought them out, or even have the training to collect evidence or interrogate suspects. But we know the locals, who are more likely to share information with us than the sheriff and his people.

It’s all the fault of our Mah Jongg friends. That’s how it started, when one of the other players thought she might be arrested for her husband’s murder—he’d been cheating on her—and begged us to gather intel on the down low from our friends and acquaintances. Although we eventually identified the real killer, Syd had a rather scary run-in with that individual. What we did was supposed to be hush-hush, but somehow word of our exploit leaked and before we knew it, other friends sought our help. Not that Serendipity Springs is a haven for homicide, but even in this paradise, people are only human with human problems.

Anyway, if we’re in the midst of an investigation, morning might find us camped out at the local coffee shop when not gathered in one of our homes. The baristas now know us and think nothing of our hours-long visits, unless they’re busy, which isn’t typically the case because most customers tend to get their beverage and leave. Fortunately, the staff has never tuned in on our discussions of potential suspects and how to surreptitiously interrogate them, or our table in the back corner might no longer be available.

I recently helped a friend gain restitution for the numerous construction defects she discovered in her new condo. She wanted me to write an article that would shed light on the unwillingness of the developer and builder to take action. In the course of putting this piece together, her son was murdered by unknown parties, and it became difficult for me to focus solely on the construction issues, because the grieving mother kept imploring me to find his killer. I won’t spoil that story by giving away more except to say it resulted in my gaining the attention of the Orlando Gazette, who invited me to become one of their freelance contributors.

Since then, when I’m not “working a case,” my days are spent researching and interviewing. Not a far cry from a murder investigation, although hopefully less dangerous. I walked away from my friend’s experience vowing to look deeper into how those and other construction flaws could have been missed. Coming up with other ideas is almost as much fun as writing the stories, because they emanate from my life as a retiree: ballroom dancing, gardening, pickle ball, basket making, cruises, you name it. But other more serious stories beckon as well. Like surviving on a pension, living alone with no family support and dealing with failing health.

So, I don’t have any one particular daily schedule. But each day flies by just the same. There’s so much to do. My plate is full. I invite you to check in and find out.

You can read more about Micki in Connect The Dots, the third book in the “Mah Jongg” cozy mystery series, released February 1, 2019.

How could a thirty-something man fall to his death from a fourth-floor balcony he knows is defective? That’s the question freelance writer Micki Demetrius is asked to answer by the man’s grieving mother, Clarissa White, who refuses to believe his death was an unfortunate accident. But when the authorities determine it was homicide, Micki is shut out of her investigative efforts.

Giving up is easier said than done for Micki. She can’t resist a mystery, and suspicious characters won’t leave Clarissa alone, from the woman claiming a stake in the victim’s life to a cagey character who wants his business. As the threat to Clarissa grows, Micki feels compelled to help her in spite of the danger.

Micki’s three mah jongg pals—Sydney Bonner, Marianne Putnam and Katrina, Kat, Faulkner—are drawn into the mystery, but the retirees have their own challenges. Syd and husband Trip do grandparent duty while their daughter deals with marital issues. Marianne “finds herself” by writing a one-act play. And Kat must decide how public to go with her growing friendship with the sheriff. Together, they must connect the dots in a nefarious web of greed, neglect, secrecy and murder.

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Meet the author
Prior to beginning the Mah Jongg Mystery series, Barbara Barrett was already published in contemporary romance with eleven novels and two novellas. She is a member of Sisters in Crime and its Iowa chapter. She is also a member of the Mystery/Romantic Suspense chapter of Romance Writers of America, Iowa Romance Novelists and Spacecoast Authors of Romance. Like her protagonists, she is retired and a resident of Florida, although she heads back to her home state of Iowa for “cooler” weather in summer. She spent over three decades as a human resource management analyst with Iowa state government. She is also an instructor in her town’s Lifelong Learning program.

To learn more about Barbara, visit her website at barbarabarrettbooks.com.

All comments are welcomed.