A new book in the Matinee Classics Cozy Mystery Series!

I'm delighted to share that The Invisible Corpse is out in the world!

This book is 2nd in the series. The mystery is a complete standalone, though Stevie, Melanie, Roddy, and the crew have their own lives going on, so I recommend starting the series with book 1, Here's Looking at Murder, Kid.

I have two favorite things about writing this series:

1. I love being with Stevie as she tiptoes somewhere she isn't supposed to go. I remember as a kid wanting to be like Nancy Drew, and sometimes venturing to those forbidden places.

We had a neighbor across the street who lived down a long driveway that disappeared into the trees. We couldn't even see his house, and we never saw him. (Why am I assuming it's a him? Hm.) The only sign of life there was every night around midnight, he backed down his driveway, the headlights shining up into my bedroom window. When he left again was a mystery.

One night around ten o'clock, we knew he wouldn't be home for a few hours and decided to venture down his driveway. We even had a reason in case we got caught, something to do with a school fundraiser. I didn't think to come up with an answer to the obvious question, why we were fundraising that late at night.

I also can't remember who I'd talked into taking this adventure with me, but considering how it ended, I can guess. It wasn't my try-anything friend, and it wasn't my rule-following little sister. It might have been my brother who for some reason trusted me, or my if-you-think-it's-a-good-idea friend. Because once we crossed the street and took a few steps toward that gaping black hole where the trees swallowed the driveway, I knew in my bones that it was a terrible idea to go down there. I told whoever was with me--I'm thinking it was my brother--and we decided to go home.

Nancy Drew would have been so disappointed in me, but we lived to tell the tale.

With Stevie's story, I find that she has no such qualms. She doesn't purposely put herself in danger, but she does venture to places where I never would. Stevie is Nancy Drew in her forties.

2. The second reason I love this series? I'll write about that next time.

Happy reading!

Della