BooksChatter: ☀ Picture Not Perfect: The Not So Reluctant Detectives [2]

Thank you for joining us on the Release Celebrations for Picture Not Perfect, a Romantic Suspense by D.E. Haggerty (21 January 2019, D.E. Haggerty, 230 pages).

This is the second book in the The Not So Reluctant Detectives series.

**Available for pre-order for only 0.99 for a limited time!**

PREVIEW: Check out the book's synopsis and the excerpt below.

Author D.E. Haggerty will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Please do take part: comment on our post and follow the tour where you will be able to read other excerpts (☀), and reviews (✍).

|| Synopsis || Teaser: KCR Preview || The Series || About the Author || Giveaway & Tour Stops ||

Synopsis

A picture tells a story. But is it the truth?

When the police find pictures of Melanie hanging up at her murdered colleague’s house, they’re convinced he was stalking her. Maybe she even killed him. Melanie was not being stalked! And she certainly didn’t kill her supposed stalker – as if. But Mel – always up for a bit of drama – jumps at the chance to go search for the real killer. When Mel’s ex-boyfriend, Owen, discovers her plans, he pulls out all the stops to ensure she’s safe and to win her back. No matter what happens with the murder investigation, he’s not letting her go. With the police setting their sights on Mel, he may need to jeopardize his own career on the police force to protect her.

Will Mel find the real killer before the detectives arrest her for murder?

Teaser: Excerpt

Chapter 1

There once was a creepy dude

“I’m not sure how gentrification will get more students to read,” Mel complained as she shelved yet another book. Why had she agreed to help her friend re-shelve the entire library? Oh yeah, because she would be getting a nice little bonus in her next paycheck. Usually, she had two days off during parent-teacher conferences. As the school guidance counselor, she didn’t teach classes. This year, however, her friend Terri who was the school librarian had convinced her to help out in the library for two days. It was the evening of the second day and Mel was beyond bored. She didn’t understand how her friend could get excited by books. She wasn’t a reader. Sitting still was not an activity she did unless forced.

“Not gentrification. Genrefication.” Terri corrected.
  “Genrefication?” Mel chuckled. “Now you’re just making up words.”
  Terri grabbed her arm. “You’re getting crabby. Time for a break.” Mel opened her mouth to deny she was crabby but stopped herself. If being crabby bought her a chance for a break from the endless boredom of shelving books, she could be crabby. Judging by the number of books still stacked on the floor, they were going to be here a while.
  “Genrefication is the organization of books by type instead of using the Dewey Decimal system,” Terri explained as they sat down at the big table at the front of the library. Amongst the litter from the remains of their lunch was a freshly brewed pot of coffee.
  “Uh-huh,” Melanie mumbled as she poured herself a huge cup of coffee. Terri may be her best friend in the world, but when she started to speak library geek, Melanie tuned her out.
  “I know you’re not paying any attention to me, but I don’t care. The library is going to be awesome. Students are going to be able to find books they want to read easier. Everyone’s going to be reading more.” Terri rubbed her hands in excitement.
  Melanie hoped her friend was rightsince Terri had been working her butt off.She’d spent the past month re-cataloging and assigning a genre to all the fiction titles in the library. Then, she’d made new labels for each book before creating signage for all the genres. Huh, looks like she didn’t tune out Terri’s library geek speak the entire time after all.
  “And,” Terri waggled her eyebrows, “how’s Owen?”
  Melanie huffed. Terri had been nagging her about her ex-boyfriend, Owen, for the past month. She’d rather listen to library geek speak than talk about her ex. “We’ve haven’t gone out yet.” Which Terri knew since she asked Mel the same question every single day. Talk about a broken record.
  “Really? It’s been a month since you promised to go out with him.”
  Melanie had agreed to go on a date with Owen after he provided her with information she’d needed to help Terri solve a murder. With his police connections, he’d been able to find the address of some goons who’d chased them. It was a long story. “It’s not my fault. He’s been busy.” She may claim she didn’t want to go out with the man, but she was more than a bit miffed he didn’t seem to have time for her.
  “Busy? Doing what?”
  Mel shrugged. She had no idea, and it was literally driving her crazy. First, the man bugged the heck out of her insisting she agree to a date, and then he dropped her. Well, he didn’t completely drop her. He still sent her text messages a few times a day, but he didn’t seem to have the time to take her to dinner. She couldn’t wait to get the entire obligation over with. The waiting was killing her!
  “He must be busy. The man is majorly into you.” Terri waggled her eyebrows again. She looked completely ridiculous, and Mel couldn’t help but laugh. “Uh oh, incoming.”
  Mel turned to look out the glass windows covering the entire front of the high school library. She watched as Alfred Schultz, the social sciences teacher, walked to the entrance. “Please tell me you locked the door,” Mel’s words were muffled as she tried to speak without moving her lips.
  “Of course, it’s locked,” Terri whispered before shouting. “We’re closed, Mr. Schultz. I’ll be open tomorrow.” She smiled and waved as he nodded in acknowledgment. “Now, walk away, creepy dude.”
  Mel and Terri watched as he backed up and slowly walked past the glass windows keeping his eyes locked on Mel who held her breath until he was out of sight.
  “He totally creeps me out.” Terri shuddered. “I can’t believe you borrowed his car.” Mel had borrowed his car a month ago when she and Terri were doing some surveillance to catch a killer. “He’s totally obsessed with you, and now he probably thinks he has a chance to get down and dirty with you.”
  Mel grunted. Her friend seemed to be full of naughty thoughts since she got together with her neighbor. Normally, she found it amusing, but when Alfred Schultz was involved, it only gave her the creeps. “It was worth it. We found Jessica’s killer, and now you’re practically shacked up with hotneighbor dude, Ryder.”
  “I’m not sure it was worth it. I don’t think he’s going to leave you alone.” Mel tried to hide her face in her coffee mug as she felt her cheeks heat up. “Oh no! He is bothering you, isn’t he?” Mel suddenly found the library shelves extremely interesting. “What’s he been doing? We can report him to the principal.”
  Mel sighed. She’d already looked into reporting him. As the guidance counselor, she was well aware of the rules regarding harassment of students by teachers and anti-bullying regulations. But when she’d looked up the rules for relationships amongst teachers and harassment, she’d been disappointed to learn Schultz’s actions didn’t rise to the level of harassment. Sure, he was super creepy, but he hadn’t made any sexual advances or made any comments which interfered with her job performance. Apparently, being creepy wasn’t an offense.
  Mel hesitated before finally admitting.“He gives me the creeps, but he hasn’t done anything wrong.”
  “Huh. Has he approached you?”
  “He seems to be everywhere I am. Every time I turn around, he’s there. He doesn’t actually do anything. He doesn’t touch me or crowd me. Just says ‘hi’ and asks how I’m doing. There’s nothing wrong with what he says or does, but he feels slimy.”
  Terri shivered. All the female employees avoided Schultz and his creepiness. “Do you need me to talk to him?Get him to lay off?”
  Mel chuckled. “What are you going to do? Give him a puppy? You’re too nice to challenge him.”
  “I could sic Ryder on him.”
  Terri’s boyfriend, Ryder, was a former police officer turned private investigator. At over six-feet tall, he had being intimidating down to an art. He was also over-protective of his woman. If he had any inkling Schultz was bothering Terri, or Mel by association, he’d probably lose his mind. Mel wasn’t going to be responsible for his overreaction. “Let’s leave the option open.”
  “Let me know if you change your mind. Ryder would be happy to do it. He likes you.”
  Mel snorted. Ryder didn’t like her. He found her incredibly annoying, but he put up with her for Terri’s sake. She didn’t hold his opinion against him. Most people found Mel annoying. She had an overabundance of energy and couldn’t sit still for more than five minutes before she started to fidget. Luckily, Terri didn’t seem to mind her hyper-ness.
  “Come on,” she jumped up. “Let’s get these books shelved.”
  Terri slowly followed her. “I don’t know how you can have any energy after spending two days moving thousands of books but thank goodness you do. I’m freaking exhausted.”
  Mel smiled and tried to ignore the sting created by Terri’s words. She knew Terri didn’t mean to hurt her with her comment. She wasn’t Mel’s mother telling her to ‘relax’ or ‘focus’ or ‘do less’. She forced memories of her mother out of her head and picked up another stack of books.

Hang on to your hats — Mel and her friends are on the case!

Picture Not Perfect
Pre-order NOW for only 0.99!

The Series: The Not So Reluctant Detectives

Click on the book cover to Look Inside the book on Amazon and read an excerpt.

Finders, Not Keepers [1]

**FREE on Kindle Unlimited and Kindle Owner's Lending Library**

What do you do with a diamond no one wants? You can’t keep it. Or can you?

While cleaning her ex-husband’s effects out of the attic, Terri finds an exquisite diamond pendant necklace. She’s determined to return the necklace to its proper owner, but the owner was brutally killed, a murder which remains unsolved, and her heirs want nothing to do with the diamond. Terri embarks upon a journey researching charities to which she can donate the diamond. When her research becomes dangerous, Terri contemplates solving the murder herself. Her best friend, Melanie, jumps feet first into investigating the murder, but her neighbor, Ryder, doesn’t want Terri exposed to any danger. Ryder, to Terri’s surprise, also wants to be more than neighbors with Terri. Luckily, he’s prepared to take any measure necessary to keep her safe because someone is determined to stop her inquiries.

Join Terri on her quest to find a home for the diamond, which may result in the unveiling of a murderer – if she survives long enough.

[Published 16 August 2018, 175 pages]

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About the Author

I grew up reading everything I could get my grubby hands on, from my mom's Harlequin romances, to Nancy Drew, to Little Women. When I wasn't flipping pages in a library book, I was penning horrendous poems, writing songs no one should ever sing, or drafting stories which have thankfully been destroyed.

College and a stint in the U.S. Army came along, robbing me of free time to write and read, although on the odd occasion I did manage to sneak a book into my rucksack between rolled up socks, MRIs, t-shirts, and cold weather gear. After surviving the army experience, I went back to school and got my law degree. I jumped ship and joined the hubby in the Netherlands before the graduation ceremony could even begin.

A few years into my legal career, I was exhausted, fed up, and just plain done. I quit my job and sat down to write a manuscript, which I promptly hid in the attic before returning to the law. But practicing law really wasn’t my thing, so I quit (again!) and went off to Germany to start a B&B. Turns out running a B&B wasn’t my thing either. I polished off that manuscript languishing in the attic before following the husband to Istanbul where I decided to give the whole writer-thing a go.

But ten years was too many to stay away from my adopted home. I packed up again and moved to The Hague where, in between tennis matches and failing to save the world, I’m currently working on my next book. I hope I’ll always be working on my next book.

Picture Not Perfect is my fourteenth novel.

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