To my family, friends and coworkers, my name is Ashley Compton. But to the majority of Las Vegas, I am the voice of Miss LARE, the Love And Relationship Expert. I’m a radio advice personality using a pseudonym because I’m not a counselor or psychologist, and the callers don’t know. I want to keep it that way. I just say I work in radio, and don’t associate the two names unless I’m desperate for information.

Karma was a B when I spilled the Caramel Frappuccino on my favorite purple silk blouse while trying to avoid a white limo packed with screaming women that cut me off. I sped through more yellow lights than I’m willing to admit, while looking for traffic cops, in case they knew a certain homicide detective whose obstruction list I was on. I called my BFF Nathan to find out if the blouse could be salvaged. I grabbed the spare cotton top from my desk and spent the better part of thirty minutes listening to Nathan’s dating dramas and dabbing at the stain.

The show went well. I think. It gets boring sometimes, answering the same questions all the time. I need challenges, else I might walk out. If I’m acting like your best friend, give me something to work with.

There was one caller. He asked if limousines were worth the expense. Talk about PTS. I kind of went off, telling him Las Vegas has too many limo drivers hogging the roads and he needed to think outside the box. I told him it would be more fun and classier to rent a Rolls Royce Ghost or a Bentley Flying Spur, because that turns heads. I mean sure I was a bit miffed at that moment, but if it was me, I’d rather ride in a cool car than what everyone else does. Maybe I was projecting, but it’s what I do.

Later, my producer Cheryl talked to me about dating. Again. She keeps trying to set me up with her single male friends. If you can call someone you flirt with shamelessly and boss around a friend. We got into it in the bullpen. She’s a broken record, always saying I can’t give love advice if I don’t have a love life. I stood nose-to-nose and told her not everyone needs a soulmate. Friends with benefits will do in a pinch. She stomped off as the bullpen applauded and my boss Tom snickered from his doorway. I spent the rest of the day at my desk, head down, avoiding the attention and gossip. If they knew what I knew about Cheryl, they might act differently.

Las Vegas keeps secrets, and so do I.

CALL IN FOR MURDER
Series Name: A Neon Desert Mystery, Book 1
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release: October 2025
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

A Dead Caller. A Shady Casino. A Cocktails of Clues. Place Your Bets.

Call-in radio host Ashley Compton is Las Vegas’s best friend when it comes to giving relationship tips to strangers. But when a repeat caller is found murdered after exposing her woes on the air and accepting the challenge to put up or shut up, Ashley questions if her homespun advice was the catalyst for the murder.

Afraid of losing her job and destroying her reputation, Ashley heads to the seedy side of Las Vegas to snoop around. There she encounters shady dealings: lies, gambling, adultery, and potential criminal activities. When her two-timing and felonious suspects spout glib excuses to justify their behaviors, she digs deeper and is threatened, injured, and gets what she dishes out: advice she doesn’t always like.

Can Ashley’s sleuthing skills catch the killer, or will she end up just another crime statistic? Can she save her career, or will she be put on the Do-Not-Call list?

Meet the author
Tammy Barker is a government bean counter by day, and a veracious reader, people and television watcher, and writer of mysteries at night. She is a jack-of-all-trades renaissance woman who likes to try things just see if she can do it. She loves all things nostalgic. Tammy is an empty nester who lives with her husband in Northern Virginia.