Traveling is the ultimate escape, isn’t it? Hi, I’m Stefanie Adams, senior private banker at Markham-Briggs Banks. Oops, former private banker at Markham-Briggs, but I don’t want to dwell on that.

Looking out the window of the Aegean Airlines flight from Athens to Santorini, all I can see is blue water below. Endless, like the possibilities on this trip. I’m open to anything and everything! No more planning seven steps ahead for me. I’ve learned my lesson. From now on, I’m embracing opportunities as they come.

Like this trip to Santorini, where I’ll be one of the first to see the newly discovered Akrotiri treasure. Gold necklaces, shells, and that most fabulous find, the gold Akrotiri Snake Goddess. My only regret is that Dad isn’t alive to see it, too. He passed away from cancer last year. He was the one that discovered the marble cylinder seal that depicted her—recognizable from the engraved dove on her tall flat hat and the Akrotiri skyline behind her.

Would Dad have come with me, though? I don’t know. That was on Crete, forty years ago. Before my time. He turned away from archaeology that disastrous summer and switched his degree to one with a more secure future, accounting. Following in his footsteps, I tried a summer internship in archaeology for six weeks the summer after my sophomore year. All I’d found for my trouble was pot sherds. So I learned from Dad and went into banking, starting at a small private bank in St. Louis.

I like people and it didn’t take long to learn that if I listened to what they wanted in a bank and found a way to provide it, they’d invest their money with us. I set my goals: first the number of clients I brought in, then the annual deposit amounts I was responsible for. As I met my goals, I met a lot of interesting people. You know what? It’s surprising what people will tell you in the privacy of the safety deposit vault. When bank owner Harold Markham recognized my potential, he started sending all of our wealthiest clients my way.

I spent lunch hours and cocktail hours convincing them to invest their funds in our bank and our community, no easy feat after the housing crash and with all of their other options for investment. The long hours cost me my marriage, but, I admit, I became more invested in my career than the marriage. My efforts paid off when Markham promised me the vice presidency whenever Thornhill retired. So for three years I wined and dined clients with plenty of money who enjoyed having a sympathetic ear. And finally, the day came. Thornhill retired.

I floated on cloud nine, as light and airy as the few wispy clouds I can see out this airplane window. I wore a new suit, mid-blue with knee-length pencil skirt and an asymmetrical jacket. Professional, yet stylish. I was ready when Markham called me into his private office. The vice presidency was mine, earned through careful planning, hard work and follow-through. That’s when Markham introduced me to his nephew, who’d just graduated with a bright shiny MBA. So much for hard work and dedication.

Planning every step doesn’t mean you control the outcome. It merely limits your choices along the way.

I can see Santorini below now, crescent shaped, with the small islands in the center a reminder of what it used to be before that disastrous volcanic eruption so long ago. Who knows what adventure awaits me there? A little romance? I hope so. After all, I’m available, ready for whatever opportunity presents itself. Particularly if he’s tall, dark and handsome. Santorini, here I come!

Death In The Aegean, Intrepid Traveler Mystery #1
Genre: Traditional
Release: May 2022
Purchase Link

When private banker Stefanie Adams takes a much-needed vacation to the Greek isles, vowing to embrace opportunities as they come, instead of finding romance and adventure she is suspected of murdering a bride who accused her deceased father of artifact theft. Unfortunately, the newlywed’s accusation also ties Stefanie, a former archaeology student, to the robbery of a newly discovered Minoan statue, the golden Akrotiri Snake Goddess.

With two high-profile crimes to solve, Greek police are under pressure, and both crimes lead straight to Stefanie. To avoid Greek prison and maintain her career, Stefanie must identify which of her fellow travelers is the real killer.

Between the light-fingered backpacker with an eye on the bride’s jewelry, the travel blogger whose career the dead woman ruined, a flirtatious German tourist who is after more than romance, and the long-suffering bridegroom, Stefanie’s task won’t be easy. Everyone, it seems, had a motive for wanting to see the last of Emma Keller.

Stefanie’s investigation entangles her in a web of danger and intrigue, international crime and long-buried secrets. When she herself becomes a target, Stefanie doesn’t know who to trust. As charming Thomas Burkhardt warns, Where Greed Leads, Murder Follows. . .

Meet the author
M. A. Monnin’s debut mystery novel Death In The Aegean came out in May from Level Best Books. Like her heroine Stefanie Adams, Mary loves the excitement and adventure of foreign travel. If there’s the chance to check out an archaeological site, so much the better for this avocational archaeologist. She lives in Kansas City, Missouri, with her husband Bob and Siberian huskies. To hear the latest news about her author events, visit her at mamonnin.com.

All comments are welcomed.