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COZY/CHICK LIT MYSTERY

THIS PEN FOR HIRE

Smarmy personals ads. Daring declarations of love. Writer-for-hire Jaine Austen has penned them all—and, in the process, glimpsed the truly desperate side of L.A.'s swinging singles scene. But when one of the love connections she made is broken up by murder, Jane finds herself freelancing free-of-charge—and uncovering more than she bargained for…

No one seems to need her help more than geeky, gawky Howard Murdoch. His request, though strangely stalker-ish, is simple enough: a letter proclaiming his undying love for Stacy Lawrence, a gorgeous aerobics instructor. The fact that he's never actually met the woman gives Jaine pause—but she soon overcomes her misgivings, warms up her computer, and starts pitching woo on Howard's behalf.

To Jaine's surprise, the letter is a success—the unlikely Romeo lands a date! But his triumph is, sadly, short-lived. On Valentine's Day, Howard finds Stacy bludgeoned to death with a Thigh Master—and is quickly named the prime suspect.

Upon hearing the news, Jaine is shocked. Sure, Howard's awkward, eccentric, and a tiny bit odd. But a murderer? That's hard to believe. Especially after a little sleuthing turns up a whole bunch of people who harbored less-than-loving feelings towards the svelte Stacy. Like the woman who coveted her spacious apartment. The jealous wife who saw her husband's eye wander in Stacy's direction. The ex-best friend, who's still angry at Stacy for stealing her man….

Things only get crazier when Jaine meets Stacy's neighbor, Cameron. He's handsome and cultured, sophisticated and sexy—in other words, too good to be true. Still, Jaine's too distracted by a nagging sense of obligation to her client to focus fully on much else. After all, if she hadn't been so good at her job, the only cops on Howard's case would be the fashion police. Before Jaine knows it, she's become a nosier—and bolder—version of her usual self, flashing her Bloomies charge card in lieu of a press pass and lying her pants off in her quest for the truth. But Jaine had better wrangle her clues quickly, before a crafty killer catches on—and puts a whole new spin on her ghost writing career.…

Read A Review:

Jaine Austen runs a writing service out of her apartment, in Los Angeles, called This Pen for Hire. She writes resumes, letters, brochures and personal ads – lots of personal ads. She shares her apartment with her cat Prozac.

Jaine’s neighbor Lance Ventable is constantly telling Jaine to be quiet. He must live with his ear on their adjoining wall. He even complains that Prozac is too loud!

Howard Murdoch hires her to write a love letter to Stacy Lawrence, the aerobics instructor at his gym. Much to Jaine’s surprise, Stacy agrees to go out with Howard.

Then Stacy is found dead, bludgeoned to death with a Thigh-Master. Howard is arrested, but he says he didn’t do it. Detective Rea feels they have the right person in jail. Jaine decides to look into it. She feels responsible because, if she hadn’t written the letter, Stacy wouldn’t have agreed to go out with him and Howard would be arrested.

In the course of her investigation, Jaine meets Cameron Bannick, a major hunk, who knew Stacy but had an iron clad alibi. She is very happy about this when they start dating. She can’t believe her luck.

Jaine uncovers quite a few people who weren’t too sad that Stacy was dead. Some even had possible motives to kill her. In the course of her investigation, the killer begins to catch on and in the end, Jaine finds herself in a lot of danger.

I truly enjoyed this book. Jaine is such a likeable character. She is very much a three-dimensional character.

The additional characters in the book are all well written and the plot is well crafted. I highly recommend this book and the series. The 2^nd book, Last Writes, has been published and is another terrific book!

Dawn Dowdle

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