My Humorous Cozy

And Snakes Oh My, is my 83,500-word cozy, the first book in a humorous mystery series. This manuscript was a finalist in the 2013 Daphne Contest.  

Berni, a disenchanted parole officer, opens her late daddy’s horse farm to give four troubled teens an alternative to jail. The city kids didn’t know they were volunteering to become servants to horses until they found themselves cleaning horse poop out of stalls. After one of her charges, Shane, is arrested for murder, Berni’s forced to investigate a Bible-thumping, snake-handling religious sect.

The story opens when the Hartsville police rudely interrupt Berni’s horse training demonstration to arrest Shane. Berni had dated the police chief but never allowed him past first base. She believes Shane’s incarceration is payback since the boy is two-hundred pounds lighter than the witness’s description. 

During the investigation she survives an attack in her bedroom by two very-obese men, a kidnapping, two visits to a religious compound, and even a snake-handling ceremony, where she meets a copperhead named Mabel. Through these ordeals, both an old flame lawyer and the murder victim’s best friend chase her looking for love with a little dirty talk on the side. 

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