A normal day, huh? That’s impossible to describe since none of my days are normal anymore. But I can tell you what a normal day used to be like—back when my life made sense and dead people couldn’t send me text messages.

My name is Sydney Farina, and I’m a baker. I work at Summertime Sweets, which means getting up at the crack of dawn so I can get all the scones and muffins ready for the morning commuters who want a sweet breakfast before work. Not that Beaverfield, Michigan is a bustling hive of commerce or anything, but we have enough of a population to support a bakery.

I spend most of the day in the kitchen, but sometimes I have to step out front and put on a fake smile as I man the register. Walk-in customers make up some of our business, but most of it comes from catering. That’s when I get to do the fun stuff like make hyper realistic human brain cakes or little dragon cupcake toppers made from modeling chocolate.

It’s a good thing I like my job, because I’m there all the time. My boss, Glenda, thinks forty-hour workweeks are for unmotivated quitters who want her business to fail, so I end up working a lot of unpaid overtime. When I get home, I usually crash for the evening. Sometimes I have dinner with my sister. Sometimes I even make it to a bar and have something resembling a social life.

But that was before Glenda got murdered and her ghost started texting me.

Dead Messages, A Texts From Beyond Mystery #1
Genre: Cozy
Release: January 2022
Purchase Link

Sydney Farina is having a bad enough week when her boss forces her to go into work on her day off. When she arrives to find police cars surrounding the bakery and her boss’s corpse on the floor, her week gets a whole lot worse.

She’s shocked to learn it was murder—though maybe not too shocked. Her short-tempered boss, Glenda Whitaker, made more enemies than she did sprinkled cupcakes.

Then the texts start coming.

They’re from Glenda’s number, demanding Sydney find out who murdered her. Sydney thinks the messages are a bad joke at first, but when they reveal things only Glenda would know, she’s forced to accept the truth:

She’s getting texts from a dead woman.

Glenda’s ghost wants justice, but Sydney doesn’t know the first thing about solving murders. As she investigates her own coworkers, can she find out who killed Glenda? Or will she join her grouchy boss on the other side of the grave?

Meet the author
If Kristen Brand could have any superpower, she’d want telekinesis so she wouldn’t have to move from her computer to pour a new cup of tea. She lives in Florida with her husband, and her hobbies include reading comic books and desperately trying to keep the plants in her garden alive. An author of speculative fiction, she writes stories with fire-forged friends, explosive fight scenes, and kissing. Visit her at KristenBrand.com to learn more and read free stories.

All comments are welcomed.