Seeing Red (A Red Herring Mystery) by Dana Dratch

SEEING RED

by Dana Dratch

Seeing Red (A Red Herring Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Kensington (May 28, 2019)
Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
ISBN-10: 1496716582
ISBN-13: 978-1496716583
Digital ASIN: B07H1VFL64

If it wasn’t for art thieves, spies and killers, Alex Vlodnachek’s life would be bliss.

Her freelance career is catching fire. Her relationship with B&B owner Ian Sterling is flirty and fun. She’s even attending a glittering cocktail party at his sprawling Victorian inn.

But, to this ex-reporter, something seems “off.” And it’s not the canapés. When Ian’s father vanishes, the enigmatic innkeeper asks for her discretion. And her assistance.

Meanwhile, Alex is having the opposite problem at her tiny bungalow: People keep piling in uninvited. Including a mysterious intruder found sleeping in her kitchen. Her grandmother, Baba, who shows up “to help”—with Alex’s own mother hot on her heels.

When the intrepid redhead discovers a body in the B&B’s basement and a “reproduction” Renoir in the library, she begins to suspect that Ian is more than just a simple hotel owner.

With editor pal Trip, brother Nick, and rescue-pup Lucy riding shotgun, Alex scrambles to stay one step ahead of disaster—and some very nasty characters.

Can she find the missing man before it’s too late? Or will Alex be the next one to disappear?

Hi, I’m Alex Vlodnachek. I live in a little bungalow in Fordham, Virginia – just outside DC. I used to be a reporter, now I’m a freelance writer. My younger brother, Nick, is staying with me temporarily, along with his puppy, Lucy.

For my money, the real trouble started one morning when I walked into the kitchen and found a baby.

Just after sunrise and still bleary-eyed, I made straight for the stainless-steel coffeepot that lives on the counter near the sink. After Ian’s cocktail party last night—and a little bubbly a deux—I’d returned home and gone from Cinderella-at-the-ball to sweatpants in record time. Then I’d stayed up ’til two finishing a freelance story that was due this morning. In a few hours, I was off to meet another editor about a temporary gig that would (hopefully) pay the bills for the next six weeks. I was drained but happy.

That’s when I saw it. Resting on the kitchen table. Ensconced in one of those plastic car-seat things, like a mollusk in its shell. I flipped on the kitchen light, blinked hard, and looked again.

Still there.

“Holy crap!”

The butcher-block counter was solid. I touched the coffeepot, which was cold. I smelled chocolate and butter—the scent of freshly baked chocolate-chip cookies. And I was surrounded by stainless-steel cooling racks holding dozens of the cookies my younger brother, Nick, had spent most of the night baking for a client. So this wasn’t another weird stress dream.

I grabbed a cookie, then cautiously took a step closer. The downy blue blanket tucked around it— him?—moved rhythmically, rapidly, up and down. Between the blanket and his white knit cap, only the circle of a little pink face was exposed, along with two small, balled-up fists resting near his chin. Like a miniature pugilist. His eyes were closed tight.

I scanned the table. No note. No clues. Nada.

I looked under the table: nothing but Lucy’s water dish.

Nearby, the kitchen door was locked and double bolted. I walked into the living room eating the cookie as I went. The front door was also locked and double-bolted.

I padded to Nick’s door and knocked.

Two minutes later, the three of us—Nick, Lucy, and I—stood in the kitchen eyeing our little intruder.

“So you really didn’t put him there?” I asked quietly.

“Un-uh,” he said, smoothing down a bad case of blond bedhead with his left hand.

“I mean, the cookies are mine, but that’s it.”

Reflexively, I brushed the telltale crumbs off my pink bathrobe. “The doors are all locked and bolted from the inside. I checked.”

“Anybody else have a key?” he asked.

Nick was living with me temporarily. After a sudden career change and relocation from Arizona by way of Vegas. Followed by an even more sudden engagement that had recently crashed and burned.

That was about the same time I’d launched my new freelance career. Which sounded a lot better on LinkedIn than saying I’d been accused of murder and fired.

We Vlodnacheks had kinda had a rough couple of months.

But, hey, we land on our feet. I was already getting steady assignments and making enough to keep the bills paid. Provided I didn’t develop any expensive habits, like cable TV or eating out.

And Nick’s new venture, a bakery he ran from our kitchen, was growing like kudzu. His hours were as bad as mine, but his clients were a lot quicker with the paychecks.

“Man, you are the only person I know so tapped out that crooks are now breaking in to leave stuff,” Nick said.

“Should we call the cops?” I asked.

 “I don’t think he’s got a record. Plus, I’m pretty sure they don’t make handcuffs that small.”

 “Yeah, but he’d have the world’s cutest mug shot,” I said, studying the tiny sleeping stranger, who suddenly puckered his mouth and made suckling motions. “Seriously, somebody’s got to be missing him.”

“Somebody actually thought he’d be better off here,” Nick countered.

That stopped us both cold.

Want to read more? Check out SEEING RED from Kensington Books.

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 Alex Vlodnachek is an investigative reporter. At present she is freelancing but fortunately has friends and resources with two major newspapers.

Alex has a thing for the devilishly handsome Englishman across the road who happens to run a B&B type Inn. At the moment, Alex's own house is feeling more and more like an inn every day.
Her brother has moved in while attempting to start up a bakery business. As the book unravels, any available space to sleep at Alex's house gets taken. One very cute (yet difficult) resident is a young baby, requiring round the clock care. Care neither Alex nor her brother Nick is proficient in supplying. There is a second cute resident in the form of a dog who also has her moments.

With the grand opening of the B&B across the road, and the disappearance of the main employee, who happens to be the owner's father, things begin to get tense. Strange things are happening faster than Alex can blink. As if she doesn't have troubles of her own. A baby discovered on her kitchen table, despite a quality security system, trying to figure out her new assignment as an advice columnist, and family moving in, or trying to, are just the tip of this iceberg. There is much more happening but I don't want to spoil your fun as each complication piles on.

Fast paced and entertaining, with wonderful characters, this book has more mysteries than expected. As one gets solved, another two come into view!

About the Author

Dana Dratch is a personal finance writer and the author of CONFESSIONS OF A RED HERRING and SEEING RED. She’s currently working on the third Alex Vlodnachek mystery adventure, RED HOT. Get updates atConfessionsofaRedHerring.com.

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