married sleuths

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Blake and Shelby Gunner think they’re living the perfect life. He’s a hotshot homicide detective and she is doing what she loves best, small theatre acting. But after an arrest goes badly and Blake is shot and injured, they decide to leave the crime-ridden city for the quiet, quirky little hamlet where he grew up. Nestled along Lake Superior in the upper peninsula of Michigan, Port Scuttlebutt isn’t as calm and serene as they anticipated. Below an innocent Mayberry surface are secrets as dangerous as the great lake’s rip currents.
Staying at The Drunken Sailor Bed and Breakfast they learn that the proprietor’s wife was killed in an unsolved hit-and-run and there’s more to this mystery than meets the eye. The mayor, the librarian, a homeless man, and a rich old woman all have legitimate motives for murder. Can the Gunners figure it out before the killer’s next victim is lying dead in the road?
Roadkill is the first mystery in the Double Barrel series, but with Blake’s background as a homicide detective and Shelby’s ability to “act” like a detective, sleuthing comes naturally to these two and murder has nowhere to hide in Port Scuttlebutt.

Targeted Age Group:: teens to adults

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
My husband and I took a road trip to the Upper Peninsula. It was fall and the bold colorful forest leaves, the blues of the lake and sky, and the quaint little shops in every tiny town we drove through remained vivid in my mind. There are many interesting places, people, and things to see. I took a lot of pictures at the time. I thought it would make a great setting for a book one day, but didn’t really pursue it until about a year later. I woke up in the middle of the night with the names of my characters, the town, the bed and breakfast in the story, and other crazy details as clear in my mind as if I’d actually been to this place. Usually when I get an idea at night, if I don’t write it down that very minute I tend to forget about it. But the next morning, it was still nagging at me. So I wrote everything down I could remember and started doing online research. A few months ago, we took another trip to the area to fuel my writing. I still plan to go in the winter when the ice caves are open. I think that would be a great place for a body to turn up.

When her career is outsourced to Asia, fledgling romance author and empty-nester Gracie Elliott wants a job that will allow her time to write. So she opens Relatively Speaking, becoming a wing woman to the senior set. Since her clients need several hours each morning to find their teeth, lube their creaky joints, and deal with lower GI necessities, and they always turn in after the early bird specials, she has plenty of time to pen her future bestsellers.

Gracie deliberately avoids mentioning her new business venture to husband Blake until after she signs her first client. Blake joins the company as a not-so-silent partner, tagging along to make sure Gracie doesn’t cause a septuagenarian uprising. When Client #13 is found murdered in the parking lot behind the Moose Lodge, Gracie knows, no matter how much Blake protests otherwise, she can’t wait around for the police to find the killer if she wants to save her livelihood.

Targeted Age Group:: adult

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I’ve always loved the old Thin Man movies from the 1940’s and wanted to create a modern day spin of them. With my husband and wife sleuthing team, the wife is the sleuth, and her husband tags along to try to keep her out of trouble.

Roadkill (Double Barrel Mysteries #1) by Barbara Ellen Brink

Definitely Dead by Lois Winston