Having been demoted to writing obits for the Austin
Sentinel after having an affair with her last boss, Cauley
MacKinnon (nicknamed the Obituary Babe) is working hard to
prove she's a legitimate reporter and advance her career
using her journalist skills. When Cauley's childhood friend
Scott (Scooter) Barnes, exotic pet store owner and ex-
Dallas Cowboy, calls her wanting to talk, she arrives at
his folk's ranch to find him holed up in the shed,
threatening suicide (again!) and the cops already on the
scene. Scooter's known as a "serial suicide" since this
scenario has been played out several times before.
Cauley manipulates a diversion, sneaks into the shed with
Scooter, then has the conversation that will eventually
lead to the scoop of her career. She just doesn't realize
it at the time. Even though Cauley is able to talk Scooter
out of suicide in the shed, he's later found dead in his
office -- an apparent suicide. Cauley doesn't buy it for a
minute, especially when there are so many people -- a sexy
customs agent, a really hot FBI agent, a weird one-eared
maniacal hit man and the Argentinean mafia -- anxious to
know what he told her during their final conversation.
When her life is threatened and her house ransacked, Cauley
finds herself more determined than ever to uncover the
truth. But who can she trust, besides the mysterious stray
dog she's taken in that won't leave her side? Knee-deep in
murder and mayhem, Cauley is relentless in her search for a
killer, and the story behind it all.
This debut mystery for Kit Frazier is a winner from
beginning to end. Cauley is witty, self-deprecating and
funny, yet also serious, hard-nosed and intelligent -- my
kind of gal. I can't wait for the next Cauley MacKinnon
mystery, DEAD COPY, coming in May 2007.
Cauley MacKinnon is starting over after a truly bad
marriage and armed with a freshly minted journalism degree,
Cauley is disappointed to find that the only job she can
get in her hometown of Austin is as an obituary writer —
something that only happens to interns who’ve been very
good, or reporters who’ve been very bad. Somehow, Cauley’s
managed to do both. And of course, being the "Obituary
Babe" wreaks havoc on her already disastrous social life.
While on the hunt for a story that will get her off the
Death Page, Cauley’s life takes a turn for the worse when
hapless childhood friend, Scott Barnes, threatens suicide
and barricades himself in a dilapidated old shed where he
phones Cauley for help. Cauley manages to talk her friend
out of the shotgun and the shed. But Cauley is soon
devastated when she discovers Barnes dead at his computer
with an empty bottle of bourbon and a computer-generated
suicide note.
Soon, Cauley is up to her eyelashes in dead bodies and
everyone wants to know what Barnes said in the shed — the
last time anyone saw him alive...
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