from My Enemy My Love by Lacey Blevins

We have with us Candice Fulton, who owns a large plantation in Monticello, Georgia. Candice is not in law enforcement, but was instrumental in solving a murder. 

Candice, tell us a little bit about yourself.
I inherited Fuloton Station Plantation when both my brothers were killed in the Civil War. When I returned from boarding school , I found two freed servants there to feed. The home and land were run down, and the taxes hadn't been paid for several years.  Also, a
sister-in-law, that I didn't know I had, arrived on my doorstep with my brother’s son.  I couldn't borrow any money. I also had a carpetbagger, who wanted me to sell him my property. He started stalking me. I advertised for an overseer. Hunter McFarland, a northern soldier, applied for the job, and I hired him. He had the money to hire workers and buy seeds for planting, but he asked for…well, it was an expensive price to pay.

What did he want?
My hand in marriage. But we agreed that it would be a marriage in name only.

Did things get better after that?
Not really. My nephew was kidnapped. Then Silas Philpot, the carpetbagger, was found murdered on my plantation, and I am arrested for his murder. Hunter had to bail me out. Together we looked for the murderer.

Was Hunter able to help you with the investigation?
Yes, without his knowledge and my tenacity,  I would have been tried and probably
convicted of murder. 

How did all of this affect your life?
This has affected my life in many ways. I fell in love with a man who a former enemy. I also learned the meaning of love and caring for other people.

Thank you, Candice, for being with us today. Congratulations on your marriage!


 
Lacey Blevins has two books published. More information about her or her books can be found on her website www.laceyblevins.com.

 


from Seven Deadly Samovars by Morgan St. James and Phyllice   Bradner


   


Today we have 80 year old former vaudeville magician Flossie Silver with us. Her twin daughters, Goldie Silver who lives in Juneau, Alaska and Godiva Olivia DuBois, a Beverly Hills advice columnist often wind up knee-deep in murders. Sometimes Flossie and her brother-in-law Sterling, a fellow magician, use disguises and tricks to help her twins, even though they are warned to stay home and smell the roses. This time they almost made their final curtain call.


Flossie, you are obviously not with the police department. How and why did you get involved in this case?
Well, I spent lots of years in show business, you know. My dear  departed husband was the great magician Harry Silver and he taught me and his brother Sterling how to spot things. My brother-in-law and I have some pretty nifty tricks and disguises. Now you see, lots of people don’t even know that a samovar is a big fancy Russian teapot, and some of the antique ones are worth a bundle. But they’re not worth killing for, so when my daughter Goldie sold some samovars and folks started getting killed, we knew there was some dangerous monkey business going on. Godiva’s boyfriend Caesar Romano, he’s the fancy TV chef, you know, had one of the samovars and that made him a sitting duck. The girls tried to keep us out of it like they always do, but you gotta get up pretty early in the morning to stop this old lady! When the no-goodniks got down to LA, Sterling and I jumped right in the thick of it.


Tell us about this case. 
 Well, my daughter Goldie got this shipment of seven antique samovars at her Silver Spoon Antique Shoppe. They came all the way from Vladivostok—that’s in Russia, you know. It so happens, when the shipment arrived Godiva was in Alaska for a big shindig for Goldie’s crazy mother-in-law Belle Pepper’s birthday. Luckily, Sterling and I got out of going because we had to be in Seattle for the Icons of Illusion banquet. They were honoring my Harry (he should rest in peace). Good thing, too, because that woman is nuts, but that’s another story. I think she made her money as a madam, but you didn’t  hear it from me. Anyway, five of those teapots had been sold when these two big   Russians stormed into Goldie’s shop demanding all of the samovars. She said they were sold and they threatened her. She had to call the police. 

Wouldn’t you know it? Her shop was broken into that night and, oy vey, the crooks stole the last samovars and all of Goldie’s sales slips. The next day her friend who bought two was killed and her samovars were gone. The girls tried to tell the police about the Russians, but those cops are as dumb as a box of rocks. The girls gave up on the police and came to Seattle for the banquet. A lady from Seattle, a passenger on a cruise ship, bought one those fersthunkener teapots and they wanted to warn her before she met the same fate as Goldie’s friend. They were too late. The woman’s maid was killed and the samovar was missing. That’s when we decided the girls needed our help. My girls never could resist a good mystery, it gets them into hot water all the time. Sterling and me—well we spot things they don’t see and we do have lots of tricks up our sleeves.


What made the case so hard to solve?
All four of us figured out that something was hidden in those cursed samovars. That wasn’t the hard part. It was my daughters that made it hard. They tried to clip our wings. Even after we helped them, they warned us to stay out of it. Would you believe they threatened to take away Sterling’s car keys?  

Anyway, we pulled one over on them. Ha! They’re no match for Sterling and me. We’re still the Scintillating Silvers. We may be old, but we’re pretty darn clever. So we snuck out saying we were going to a movie and dinner at Denny’s, but instead we headed for Caesar’s house. Any fool could see it was the next place those Russians would hit if they were after the samovars. Even though Godiva’s friend Ricky was watching the place—he was in the Special Forces, you know—we had a great idea to trap the crooks with one of our special illusions. But it didn’t work out the way we expected. Those bumbling thugs
tried to kill us. Can you imagine?

Did anyone help you with your investigation?
Oh, I guess you have to give credit where credit is due. The girls figured out what was hidden in the samovars, and I guess they did their share. We had a little help from a lady whose husband is a police chief. She was one of crazy Belle’s friends—they met at a Mad Hatter conference—they all wear funny hats. Then there was a motorcycle gang that helped Ricky. All I can say is it ended in one wild affair. For one time in my life, I was really scared. I’m too young to die.

You know what really fries my fanny? That we didn’t get to pull off the illusion at Caesar’s house before the “surprise guest” made me tie up Sterling and tried to kill us all. The jerk. I used the trick knots from one of our illusions. Then he made Caesar tie me up. It didn’t take Sterling long to get out of the ropes, after all, it’s part of our act. He untied me and even though everything looked fuzzy---I lost my glasses in the scuffle---I grabbed a  heavy candlestick and knew just what to do.

How has this case affected your personal life?
Well, those girls never give us proper credit. We’re used to top billing and they shove us in the corner like a couple of worthless old troublemakers. We both live in cottages on Godiva’s Beverly Hills estate, so she keeps a close eye on us. Sterling and I agreed that we need to polish up our act, get out from under Godiva’s thumb. Her son just moved to Las Vegas and we figure maybe we can get on a big stage again instead of our Thursday gig at the Home for Hollywood Has-Beens. Magicians are hot there, you know.

Thank you for being with us today. Good luck in taking your magic to Las Vegas. 
 

Morgan St. James has written three Silver Sisters books. Seven Deadly Samovars is the second in the series. The third book is due out later this year. She also writes as Arliss Adams.  Information on her or any of her books can be found on any of her websites at www.silversistersmysteries.com or www.morganstjames-author.com.


 

From She Felt No Pain
by Lou Allin


Holly Martin is a new corporal of the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) in charge of a detachment of three officers in tiny Fossil Bay on Vancouver Island. After basic training and seven years as a constable, she’ has come home to British Columbia.

Holly, Fossil Bay is so small. Is there much crime?
Normally, not much happens in Fossil Bay other than routine traffic checks and the occasional domestic. However, one day I was dispatched to a small camp of summertime homeless and found the body of a man in his fifties who had apparently died of a drug overdose. 

What happened?
 An autopsy revealed that he had died from a powerful synthetic opiate mixed with his heroin. He also had several hundred-dollar bills on him.

Did anyone help you with this case?
One of our volunteers, a boy of twelve, helped me find a geocache in the woods nearby where the body was found.

A geocache? What is that?
Geocaching is a worldwide game where people hide small “treasures” according to Global Positioning System coordinates.

What treasure did he find?
Inside a wrapped coffee canister was a faded notebook with several acts in an old-fashioned play. What did it have to do with the man’s death? Why had he been hiding it? Who was he and why had he returned to the island after nearly thirty years?

How has this case affected your life?
An ongoing mystery in my life concerns my mother. She disappeared over ten years ago while deep in the bush in the northern part of the island. An activist fighting for the welfare and rights of women, she came in contact with many people who wished her harm. I live with my father, a professor at the university, who also has been devastated by our loss.

Thank you for talking with us today. Geocaching sounds fascinating, and I am glad it helped you with this case. 


 Lou Allin has published ten books, starting in 2000. She Felt No Pain is the second in her Holly Martin series set on Vancouver Island. It was released in the fall of 2010. Her other series is set in Northern Ontario and features a realtor, Belle Palmer. Her books can be found on Amazon. Lou Allin can be reached on her website www.louallin.com  or emailed at louallin@shaw.ca.


 

   


from Murder on the Interstate by Jean Henry Mead


                 


This is Sheriff Walter Grayson of Stanislaus County in California. Sheriff Grayson, can you tell us a little bit about your background?
I was elected sheriff after serving as a police dog trainer for ten years in Modesto, when my predecessor was thrown out of office for corruption.

What makes  this case so special?
While I was investigating a triple  murder in my home territory, Dana Logan, the woman I’m in love with, and her  friend Sarah Cafferty, managed to get themselves in a mess in Arizona. They were  driving their motorhome along I-40 in Arizona when they found the body of a  young woman recently shot to death in her Mercedes convertible. While they were  investigating, the killer came back to make sure the woman he shot was dead,  and found Dana and Sarah. Thank God he shot out the tires on their RV instead of them. A woman trucker named “Big Ruby” McCurdy rescued them and they all took off in her produce truck to get the killer’s license number, but before long they realized he was stalking them. To make matters worse, they got caught in a flash flood and nearly drown  while trying to get to Phoenix to meet my plane. And to top it off, they were kidnapped by homegrown terrorists.
 
What made the case hard to solve?
I flew in several times to help, but Dana kept pushing me away, telling me they could handle it themselves. Right! I told them they should go home and leave the murder investigation to the Arizona police, but they wouldn’t listen. I did all I could by getting
information about the suspect and his cohorts, who were planning to take down the government by poisoning the water systems, bombings, and short circuiting the nation’s power grids. Little did any of us know that the FBI had been tracking the terrorists and were using Dana, Sarah and Dana’s journalist daughter Kerrie as decoys.

Did anyone outside of the police department help you solve this case?
Dana’s daughter Kerrie works as an investigative journalist for City Magazine in Denver. She had already been investigating the murders of three other young blond women shot to death in their cars at night. The woman Dana and Sarah found made it a four state killing spree. Kerrie was approached by an FBI agent on the case and . . . well, I don't want to give away anything.

Has this case affected your personal life in any way?
It brought Dana and I closer. I think she may even accept my marriage proposal now that she realizes how hard I worked to help her solve the case, although it wasn’t in my jurisdiction. 



Jean Henry Mead is a mystery/suspense and western historical novelist. She's also an  award-winning photojournalist. One of her fortes is interviewing writers, actors, politicians, artists and ordinary people who have accomplished  extraordinary things. She's written and published 14 books, both fiction and nonfiction. Murder on the Interstate is the third book in the Logan & Cafferty mystery/suspense series.
Visit her website:www.jeanhenrymead.com/  for more information.