Discount Detective Mystery

When two investigators, Cameron Chandler and Yuri Webster, discover a body next to a pile of stolen signs, what began as a prank becomes a murder investigation. The campaign for the U.S. Congressional seat was referred to in the press as "Mr. Smith goes to Washington versus the carpetbagger." The local candidate gets all of the endorsements, but he can't compete with the unlimited resources of his opponent. Funded by an east coast family in the oil business, the out-of-state candidate takes the state by storm, marrying the daughter of a local prestigious family and flooding the airwaves with ads, many of them negative. Cameron and Yuri soon find themselves targets in a battle between the local candidate, big oil interests and anti-big oil activists, and they discover that there is no doubt that Campaigning Can Be Deadly.

Single mom, Cameron Chandler, is on her way to work at Penny-wise Investigations, a discount detective agency conveniently located in a suburban shopping mall, when she comes across a crying woman. It' s not in her DNA to ignore another person' s misery, so she stops to see if she can help. The woman ends up hiring Penny-wise to keep an eye on her niece during an upcoming re-enactment of a human sacrifice ritual during a full moon. The Full Moon Society' s charismatic leader has convinced the client' s niece, Tilly Jamison, that she should allow herself to be drugged to make playing the part of the sacrificial victim more realistic. Cameron and her colleague, Yuri Webster, follow the participants to the park where the midnight re-enactment is to be held. Under the full moon, two things happen that turn a simple assignment into a complex and dangerous investigation: Tilly disappears after the ceremony, and a man is stabbed to death with an antique dagger. Tilly has been kidnapped, not for ransom, but by someone obsessed with her. A witness claims she saw Tilly and her boyfriend fighting before the ceremony, and the murder victim was her boyfriend. The police aren' t sure whether Tilly is a victim or an accomplice. Cameron and her colleague, Yuri, rescue Tilly from her kidnapper and then try to help prove her innocence. Their investigation takes them to a climate change rally put on by eco-feminists where an explosion results in Cameron being arrested for reckless endangerment. The story ends with a confrontation between Cameron, armed with a hand-held mixer, and the murderer wielding a chef' s knife. In the epilogue, three Penny-wise employees try once again to learn more about their mysterious and secretive boss, P.W. Griffin. And once again, she foils their efforts.

A young boy witnesses a kidnapping in a homeless encampment and flees for his life.    After rescuing a young boy trying to escape from two men who are chasing him, private investigator and single mom Cameron Chandler is repeatedly told that "you can't save everyone." Nevertheless, she takes on several clients who want her and her partner Yuri at Penny-wise Investigations to find missing homeless relatives, including a three-month-old baby.     Challenged by an investigation that ventures into a complex world of camaraderie and hardships where no one is safe, Cameron finds solace in her quirky but supportive family, her partner's trivia rants, her dog's obsession with stuffed endangered species toys, and a handsome detective who may or may not be interested in more than a professional relationship.