Holidays in Ocean Alley
Elaine L. Orr
Author Bio
Elaine L. Orr is the Amazon bestselling author of the Jolie Gentil cozy mystery series. “Behind the Walls” was a finalist for the 2014 Chanticleer Mystery and Mayhem Awards. Annie Acorn Publishing will issue the first book in Elaine’s River’s Edge cozy mystery series (“Newsprint to Footprints”) in late fall 2015. Elaine also writes plays and novellas, including the one-act, “Common Ground,” published in 2015. Her novella, “Biding Time,” was one of five finalists in the National Press Club’s first fiction contest, in 1993. Elaine conducts presentations on electronic publishing and other writing-related topics. Nonfiction includes “Words to Write By: Getting Your Thoughts on Paper.” A member of Sisters in Crime, Elaine grew up in Maryland and moved to the Midwest in 1994.
Elaine graduated from the University of Dayton with a BA in Political Science and from the American University with an MA in Government. She did some journalism course work at the University of Maryland and has taken fiction courses from The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, MD, the University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival, and Georgetown University’s Continuing Education Program. She is a regular attendee at the Midwest Writers’ Workshop and Magna Cum Murder.
Description
Aunt Madge is residing in Ocean Alley’s Silver Times Assisted Living Apartments for a few weeks. That’s where you end up after you stand on a stool to hang garland and lose your balance. Her niece Jolie’s good friend Scoobie has been known to call the place detention central.
Madge’s broken wrist and ankle are healing enough that she plans to join the family at her Cozy Corner Bed and Breakfast for Christmas dinner. The body that falls into her apartment not long after midnight one morning kind of changes things. The Silver Times Senior Living Complex is apparently not as safe as it looks.
Did the killer come into the building intent on murder, or was it simply a crime of opportunity? Could the murderer be a resident with a grudge, or a randy neighbor who didn’t want to get caught in a woman’s bed? Aunt Madge’s scooter rides take her to the laundry room where she thinks she spots a body in a bin, and into the cold to check out the exit doors—which may have given the entry to the killer. All Madge gets is a reputation for being nosy. It’s hard not to be when a dead woman’s blood ended up on your carpet.
Does the murderer think Aunt Madge knows something she shouldn’t? Will she follow the advice she often gives to her niece Jolie — to let the police handle it and accept that she may not ever know all the answers? It seems Madge has had a change of heart. She wants answers.
In this “between the numbers” book of the Jolie Gentil series, the story is told from Aunt Madge and Scoobie’s points of view. Readers often say these are their favorite characters, and with Aunt Madge laid up, Jolie is running the appraisal business because her boss (and Madge’s husband) Harry is busy with the B&B. Plus, Jolie has a few other things on her mind.
Good humor at the Jersey shore. Except for the murder. Add the Christmas and Hanukkah season, and it’s lots of good fun. “Holidays in Ocean Alley” is available for preorder — and worth the wait!
Book excerpt
I’VE NEVER BEEN one to take afternoon naps, but after the morning’s therapy session and lunch, I had needed one. That nap was one reason I couldn’t sleep in the wee hours of Saturday morning.
The therapist had also wanted an afternoon session to see how well I transferred from the scooter to the recliner and back. That gave Harry a chance to see me in action, as he put it.
I could tell Jolie and Scoobie had been more enthusiastic about the scooter than he had. But my husband is flexible. When he saw I wasn’t going to fall and break my other wrist, he kissed me on the cheek and went back to the B&B to walk Mister Rogers and Miss Piggy. He has become my retrievers’ favorite person….
The clock next to my bed said twelve-thirty. Most people get sleepy from pain medicine. I get hyper and they still want me to take a pill before bedtime. I’ve tried hiding it under my tongue to spit out later, but it tastes terrible.
I moved onto the scooter, careful to place my good foot on first and hold onto the handle bar with my good hand. Then I swung onto the seat. The automatic door let me into the hall and I turned right to drive toward the game room, which is really a game niche. Lance keeps threatening to teach me bridge. I tell him I’d rather jump off one.
I stopped outside the laundry room. Was that someone talking? After a few seconds of hearing nothing, I started driving again, this time toward the dining room. I would not go beyond it, or Gina could see me from her perch in the office. I’m entitled to be where I want, I just didn’t feel like hearing someone else warn me to be careful.
The three-point turn I did was nearly perfect. One more swing down the hallway I lived in and I’d feel confident enough to take the scooter onto the sidewalk outside the building before lunch.
Near the laundry room, a sound made me stop again. It was definitely a person, and it sounded as if they were grunting. I looked up and down the hall. The only other person up now would be Gina. If she was hurt, it would do no good to press the help button around my neck.
I pulled the scooter close to the door, turned the handle, and began to nudge the door with the scooter. The front tire squelched on the metal plate on the bottom front of the door, and I paused.
A grunting sound came again, and then silence.
I increased the scooter speed so the door opened fully. The laundry room held only the industrial washer and drier, a folding table, and a bin on wheels that staff used to take sheets and towels from the apartments to the laundry.
The bin was the only place a person could be. My scooter still held the door open, and the bin was only a few inches away. I reached its edge and pulled it toward me.
A man was facing the wall, his knees pulled to his chin. He was so still I felt sure he was dead.