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Review: Spend some time in Magnolia Bluff where the town is quaint, the people eccentric, and death is never far away.

Lately, Magnolia Bluff, a quiet little community in the Texas Hill Country near the Burnet Reservoir, has seen too many gruesome murders. In Linda Pirtle’s The Dewey Decimal Dilemma, Caroline, the town’s librarian, found the body of her friend Terresa Brown in the alley which separated their Victorian homes. Terresa was only the first to be targeted.

Six months have passed since Caroline McCluskey’s friend, neighbor, and fellow Standard Poodle owner, Esther, disappeared while visiting the Magnolia Bluff Public Library. Left behind were her new crimson hat and her dog named Adam. Neither the local police nor the FBI have been able to find her. Caroline temporarily adopts Adam. She plans on reuniting him with his owner.

In Pirtle’s The Dog Gone Diamond Dilemma, Caroline, sleuth extraordinaire, has grown weary of waiting for the authorities to solve the disappearance of her friend Esther. She organizes a group of friends and creates a mystery club called The Round Table. Caroline, along with Magnolia Nadine, LouEllen Mueller, and Daphne Leigh, are determined to find their missing friend.

Looking for clues, the women become cat burglars when they break and enter Esther’s house. Their search is interrupted when they hear voices of two men who have also entered the house. The words diamond stock certificates and the words she still won’t talk even though we stole her dog for her tells the members of the Round Table that Esther is still alive.

However, where is she being held and by whom? Why would anyone think that Esther, a retired school teacher, could own stock certificates in a diamond mine? Daphne, owner of the Head Case Salon, gathers an important clue. Alas, someone finds out about it, and Daphne becomes another victim. Will the Round Table members be able to rescue Esther from her captors before they, too, become the next victims?

Meet Linda Pirtle:

It is only natural that I would one day wind up in the literary field. I taught the art of writing and understanding literature for years as an English teacher at St. John High School, Lancaster High School, and Ennis High School as well as Business Communications at Navarro College.

When I retired, I turned my attention to working with my husband to create and build Venture Galleries, a book publishing company. Our website, CalebandLindaPirtle.com is a literary Website devoted to connecting readers with today’s growing population of authors throughout the world. I have served as editor for some great books presently in the marketplace, and a year ago I entered the field as an author myself.

It was a perfect transition. I have long read and reviewed mysteries, and I found myself infatuated with the kinds of cozy hometown mysteries produced by Agatha Christie and Diane Mott Davidson. I am fascinated with dastardly murder mysteries solved by the lady next door who relies on intuition, instinct, and deductive reasoning.

I decided to write a cozy mystery series – The Games We Play — which focuses on how people bent on evil can ruin an innocent, fun game. The first novel, The Mah Jongg Murders, takes place in the mythical small East Texas gated community of Leisure Lake. The location was patterned after Hideaway Lake, where I live with my author husband Caleb Pirtle III and my Standard Poodle named Piper. My protagonist Lillian Prestridge loves her husband, her poodle, Mah Jongg, and riddles. She doggedly sets out to find the person who is murdering her friends and neighbors.

The second novel in the series, Deadly Dominoes, is set in the mysterious bayous of Caddo Lake, shadowed by Spanish moss dripping from the oaks. It’s a perfect backdrop for murder. Lillian and her husband leave the security of their gated community, hoping for a peaceful vacation in their new RV. Lillian is puzzled by the warning she receives from the young man who loads her groceries into her SUV. “You’d better be careful. Crazy things have been happening out at that RV Park.” Escape mysteries? That’s impossible for Lillian. An explosion rocks the couple’s first night at Caddo and is quickly followed a string of murders.

In the third novel of the series – Tarot Terrors. Lillian faces two challenges in this story: the death of her husband as well as the difficult task of finding his murderer in the mysterious and mystical area that surrounds Sedona, Arizona. A tarot card reader suggests Lillian travel to Pagosa Springs, Colorado. There she will not only find the one who killed her husband but also enough adventure and danger to last a lifetime.

I have been blessed with the following recognitions: Nominated as Top Female Author 2017; Author of the Month, KC Books and Music; and selected as a Readers Favorite for Deadly Dominoes.

Please click HERE to find The Dog Gone Diamond Dilemma on Amazon.