ABOUT Karen Cantwell

Karen Cantwell
I have been writing plays and short stories for many years, some of which were published in various college literary magazines.  More recently, my short story “The Recollections of Rosabelle Raines,” was published in the mystery anthology Chesapeake Crimes: They Had it Comin More...

Description

Film lover Barbara Marr is a typical suburban mom living the typical suburban life in her sleepy little town of Rustic Woods, Virginia.  Typical, that is until she sets out to find the missing link between a bizarre monkey sighting in her yard and the bone chilling middle-of-the-night fright fest at the strangely vacant house next door.  When Barb talks her two friends into some seemingly innocent Charlie’s Angels-like sleuthing, they stumble upon way more than they bargained for and uncover a piece of neighborhood history that certain people would kill to keep on the cutting room floor.

 

Enter sexy PI Colt Baron, Barb’s ex-boyfriend who would love to be cast as new leading man, filling the role just vacated by her recently estranged husband, Howard.  When Colt flies in from out of town to help Barb, events careen out of control and suddenly this mini-van driving mother of three becomes a major player in a treacherous and potentially deadly FBI undercover operation.  It’s up to her now.  With little time to spare, she and she alone, must summon the inner strength necessary to become a true action heroine and save the lives of those she loves.  The question is can she get them out alive before the credits roll?

From Publishers Weekly
This fun if light novel’s quippy, hilarious narrator, Barbara Marr, has so much warmth and genuine gumption, you’d certainly want her on your criminal investigative team. The spunky Virginia housewife and mother of three is almost at the end of her rope — her hunky husband, Howard, has left her; it’s her 45th birthday; and she’s just discovered three monkeys living in the trees in front of her house. “Life was pretty sucky” as she puts it. But while investigating the curious case of these monkeys, a bit of unexpected adventure shakes things up just the right amount. In a warm-hearted, deftly observed comic-farce-meets-mobster mystery, Barbara and her friends from her quiet suburban neighborhood, Peggy and Roz, stick their noses into the business of a deserted house down the street and find themselves caught up in some off-the-wall FBI business that hits way closer to home than they could have imagined. Perhaps a bit goofy at times, this is nevertheless an outright treat: diverting, funny and fast-moving.

This text refers to the manuscript reviewed as a part of the 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest.