Trevor Spellman is the name, and news reporter is my game. The time is 1967, when people turned to their local newspapers for fair and accurate reporting of world events. Most large cities had at least two competing papers as well as morning and evening editions so readers could stay current of late-breaking events.

Every wide spot in the road had a local ragsheet to cover the social clubs, lodges, schools, kids sports, weddings and obituaries. Newspapers were the heartbeat of the community.

I graduated from Indiana University as a journalism major with high hopes of landing an ace reporting spot on a big city paper. Somehow I ended up back in my sleepy hometown of Yuletide, a rural burg in south central Indiana. The town’s claim to fame is the Country Christmas Family Fun Park, where Santa Claus lives all year long for the tourists willing to part with their cash.

As I wrote my stories on my electric typewriter, I itched for that big scoop, that hard-hitting news piece that would rocket me out of this staid town of Scout troops and rummage sales.

Then my spidy-sense began to tingle when Noelle McNabb began investigating murders.

Noelle and I have been buddies since in our days at Yuletide High School. We were lab partners in freshman biology; she was the only girl in class who didn’t throw up when we dissected frogs. As seniors, Noelle and I worked on the yearbook. At the school basketball games, we sat together in the bleachers and cheered on the Elves home team, screaming loud enough to wake up the early-to-bed farmers. We don’t have any romantic chemistry between us; we’re more like partners in the sense of John Steed and Emma Peel of The Avengers.

So I didn’t mind Noelle tagging along when I went to report on the most exciting thing to happen in Yuletide since one of the local farmers got run over by his tractor: a group of robe-wearing hippies riding into town in a converted school bus. They called themselves SPARK: Spiritually Pure And Radiant Kin. Their leader was Wise One, a charismatic guru who rarely showed up in public. His aide, First Sage, ran the day-to day operations and served as the group’s spokesman. I couldn’t pin down exactly what this group believed in. Their doctrine was a mishmash of Eastern thought, astrology and peace, love, pass the mashed potatoes.

The SPARKlers, who were in their 20s and 30s, spent their days dancing, singing, playing games and “witnessing,” that is, begging for money on the sidewalks.

The townspeople, alarmed by SPARK, were aghast at what they considered an attack on their morals and values. The group was going to leave our fair town after a few days, so I saw no harm in their presence.

Until one of the cult members died.

Noelle found the body. She and I were at the Holiday Acres campgrounds where the group was staying. While I was interviewing First Sage, Noelle wandered off to look for Blossom, one of the members. Noelle found the missing girl at the camp’s fire pit. The body had needle marks in one arm; a hypodermic needle lay on the ground beside her.

Our local police chief—who made Barney Fife look like a genius in comparison—jumped to the conclusion that the girl died of a drug overdose. However, Noelle began snooping around. She believed that Blossom was murdered. But who would want to harm the naïve, sweet girl?

Before I could investigate further, my newspaper, the Herald, killed my story on Blossom’s death. Why?

Then Noelle began acting strangely. I could never reach her by phone, not at home or at the Groovy Vinyl record store where she worked. She wouldn’t tell me what she’d been doing. Her cat showed up wearing a peculiar-looking collar; her pet never wore collars. What was going on? I’ll keep digging until I find out. If I didn’t know my friend better, I’d say she was working for a secret spy agency.

Small town life got a lot more exciting.

Hippie Haven Homicide is the second book in the “Psychedelic Spy” cozy mystery series, released June 14, 2020.

Get ready to flip your wig over another groovy 1967 retro-cozy with actress and amateur spy Noelle McNabb.

Spy agency SIAMESE (Special Intelligence Apparatus for Midwest Enemy Espionage and Surveillance) turns Noelle’s pet, Ceebee, into an “acoustic kitty” to listen in on an agent known only as Old Scratch. Meanwhile, a counterculture religious sect led by the Wise One infiltrates the staid town of Yuletide, Indiana.

When one of the sect members makes a premature departure to the Spirit in the Sky, Noelle investigates, but finds herself in deep water—literally. With her undercover disguiser, Noelle really knows how to sock it to ‘em. However, she still can’t solve the secrets of a certain family member. Don’t miss this fab story of saints, sinners and spies!

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About the author
Sally Carpenter is a native Hoosier now living in Southern California. She writes retro-cozies for Cozy Cat Press. She’s penned four books in the Sandy Fairfax Teen Idol series. Her Psychedelic Spy series, set in 1967, has the titles Flower Power Fatality and Hippie Haven Homicide. She has short stories in three anthologies. Reach her at scwriter@earthlink.net or her Facebook page or her website at sandyfairfaxauthor.com.