Authors on Tour: Merry Jones — The Trouble with Charlie

with Merry Jones

We are delighted to welcome mystery author Merry Jones to Omnimystery News, courtesy of Partners in Crime Tours. We encourage you to visit all of the host sites on Merry's current tour; you can find her schedule here.

Merry is the author of two series mysteries, but her latest novel is a stand-alone — The Trouble With Charlie (Oceanview Publishing, February 2013 hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats).

Today we're pleased to introduce you to Merry's new book with an excerpt — the prologue — and invite you to enter to win a copy of the book (entry form below).

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 Sometime before Charlie moved out, I began reading the obituaries. It became a daily routine, like morning coffee. I didn't just scan the listings; I read them closely, noting dates of death, ages of the deceased, names of survivors. If there were photos, I studied faces for clues about mortality even though they were often grinning and much younger than at death. Sometimes there were flags at the top of notices, signifying military service. Salvadore Petrini had a flag. Aged 64. Owner of Petrini's Market. Beloved husband and father and stepfather and brother and uncle. Viewing and Life Celebration at St. Patrick's Church, Malvern.
 Some notices were skeletal, giving no details of the lost life: Sonia Woods went to be with the Lord on August 17. Viewing Friday, from 9 to 11, First Baptist Church. Service to follow. These left me disturbed, sad for the deceased. Was there, in the end, really nothing to be said about them? Were their lives just a finite number of breaths now stopped?
 For weeks, I followed the flow of local deaths and funerals. I tried to surmise causes of death from requests for memorial contributions in lieu of flowers. The American Cancer Society. The Vascular Disease Foundation. The American Heart or Alzheimers Association. When there were epigraphs, I read about careers accomplished, volunteer work conducted, music played, tournaments won. Lives condensed to an eighth of a page. Less, usually.
 Though the notices were brief, the words and patterns of language had a gentle rolling rhythm, comforting, like prayers, like nursery rhymes. And between listings, stark and straight lines divided one death from another, putting lives neatly into boxes, separating body from body. Soul from soul. Making death quantifiable and normal, a daily occurrence neatly announced on paper in black and white, on pages dense with ink, speckled with gray smiling photos. Smiles announcing that death wasn't really so bad.
 I don't know why I was compelled to read those listings every day. At the time, I'd have said it had to be about the death of my marriage. After all, my own life, in a way, was ending. My life as Charlie's wife was dying, but there would be no public acknowledgment of that demise. No memorial service. No community gathering to mourn. Maybe I read the listings to remember that I wasn't the only one grieving, that others had lost even more. Still, I would have felt better if the obituary page included dead marriages and lost identities: Mrs. Charles Henry Harrison (nee Elle Brooks) ceased to exist on (date pending), when the couple's divorce became final. Maybe it would help to have some formal recognition of the demise of my former self. Maybe not.
 It's possible that my own losses brought me to the daily obits. But I doubt it. Looking back, I believe what drew me was far more ominous. A premonition. An instinct. For whatever reason, though, every morning as I chewed my English muffin, I buried myself in the death notices, studying what I could about people who were no more, trying to learn from them or their photos or their neatly structured notices anything I could about death.
 Of course, as it turned out, the notices were useless. None of them, not one prepared me for what was to happen. According to the obituary columns, the circumstances of one's life made no difference in the end. Dead was simply dead. Final. Permanent. Without room for doubt. The pages I studied gave no indication of a gray area. And the boxes around the obituaries contained no dotted lines.

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Photo provided courtesy of
Merry Jones

Merry Jones is the author of the Harper Jennings thrillers and the Zoe Hayes mysteries. She has also written humor and non-fiction.

A regular contributor to Glamour, her work has been printed in seven languages and numerous magazines.

For the last fifteen years, she has taught writing courses at a variety of institutions, including Temple University and Delaware County Community College. She has appeared on radio and television (local and national), and participates in panel discussions and workshops regularly.

To learn more about the author and her work, please visit her website at MerryJones.com or find her on Facebook and Twitter.

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The Trouble With Charlie
Merry Jones

Elle finds the body of her soon-to-be-ex husband Charlie on her sofa, stabbed to death with her kitchen knife. Elle's close friends stand by her through the difficult funeral, but Elle alone must face the loss of the man she'd loved.

Except that the loss is not total — Charlie is still around. Elle feels his presence, smells his aftershave. Hears him accuse her of killing him. And even though she doesn't believe in ghosts, she argues with him, asserting her innocence.

Oddly, Elle has a gap in her memory; she can't account for her activity during the time of his murder. As she tries to clear herself by finding out how Charlie died, she discovers that she had plenty of reason to kill him.

Charlie had secrets. Infidelity. Unsavory business associates. Involvement with an international organization of sex abusers. The more she learns, the more danger she faces.

As unscrupulous people begin to fear shell expose them, Elle races against time to avoid arrest, fight off attackers, solve the murder, and make peace with Charlie's spirit.

        

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Enter To Win a Copy of The Trouble with Charlie!
If you cannot see the entry form; use this link to enter.

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