Brentwood Women Mysteries Books 1 & 2 Now Available
Brentwood Women Mysteries
Deadly . . .as a Walk in the Park--Order Now
Cameron Mitchell is late for Minuit's daily jog, and she is not happy. He is distracted as he finally shows up at Victoria Brentwood's home to pick up her dog. He barely arrives at Memorial Park, unhooking Minuit from her seat, when a dark SUV barrels across the lot smashing into Cam and barely missing the black greyhound.
Victoria is devastated at the loss of her friend and scared that it might connect to the unsolved killing of her husband Robert twenty years earlier. She gathers her daughter Hildy and granddaughter Grace to once again dig into a mysterious death. Could it be the freakish cult Cam recently added to his will? Or the problems with the Gulf U contract for the opera house, or linked to the questionable audit of Cam's foreign subsidiary. And what is going on at the Golden Voodoo Casino with Cam's son Edwin? The Brentwood's find a myriad of suspects, including a dodgy loan shark from the 80's oil bust. It will take all they have to keep themselves from being the next victims.
Once again the three generations of Brentwood women and their furry friends will squabble and hold tight to each other while solving some deadly happenings in and around Houston.
Minuit barely escapeS the hit-and-run that killed Victoria's friend Cameron.
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Brentwood Women #1
Deliver Us from Evil . . . and the Six O'Clock News
Book 1 in the Brentwood Women Mystery Series
Hildegard “Hildy” Brentwood, a fifty-year-old PR exec at Gulf State University, must discover who killed faculty member Adrienne Harrington and student assistant Bobby Jake before the university and the police shut down the investigation labeling her good friend Adrienne guilty of murder-suicide.
She enlists the help of her CEO mother, Victoria, and her investigative journalist daughter, Grace, to comb through the possible suspects, including an abusive ex, a misogynistic department chair, a slimy reporter, and a philandering politician. Not to mention a myriad of secrets in both Adrienne’s and Bobby’s past, including a twenty-year-old rape, any of which could have been motive for murder.
Hildy is attacked and ordered to drop the investigation. Nonetheless, she and her family look into the highest and lowest realms of Houston to find answers, eventually ending with a race for her life through the tunnels under Gulf State University.
They identify the killer and clear her friend with a little help from their fur-buddies: Hildy's white schnauzer, Shasta; Victoria’s black greyhound, Minuit; and Grace’s Russian blue feline, Catrina, rescued after Adrienne’s death..
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Brentwood Women #2
Deadly . . . as a Walk in the Park
Book 2 in the Brentwood Women Mystery Series
Victoria Brentwood has finally recovered from the murder investigation a few months before that her daughter Hildegard dragged her into, along with her pregnant grand-daughter, Grace. It is good to be back to her routine. Today's announcement that she, as board chair of Houston Charities Foundation, has recruited her friend Cam's daughter Carolee to come back to Houston as Executive Director has her beaming over her coffee.
Cam has become her rescue greyhound Minuit's BFD, best dog friend. He collects her every morning for a brisk walk around Memorial Park.
They are late returning this morning and Victoria is horrified to hear that Cam has become a victim of a hit and run in the park. She worries about Minuit and what might have happened to her.
Cam was retired and now vice chair of the Gulf U Board of Regents. He names Victoria as executor of the will he updated in the past two months outlining nearly $500 million in bequests. Gulf U receives $100 million for an Opera House and scholarships, the Charities Foundation also receives $100 million. His children receive all his properties and personal belongings and other investments worth $100+ million each. However, there is a new bequest of $20 million to be awarded to the Everlasting Journey Ministry, headed by Reverend Thaddeus Light.
Victoria begins to question Cameron’s death and wonders if there is any connection to the hit and run that killed her husband Robert 20 years before.
She realizes the Houston police will never connect Cam’s death to a long cold case, so once again she partners with her daughter, Hildy, and granddaughter, Grace, to determine if Cameron was murdered and how it is connected to Robert’s death. Their investigation looks at the beneficiaries as well as an alleged fraud in a Gulf U contract to build the Opera House, possible money laundering through one of Cam’s subsidieries, his son’s gambling debts, and a long ago loan shark.
They work their way through the suspects with the help of their furry friends, Victoria’s Minuit, along with Hildy’s yappy white schnauzer, Shasta, and Grace’s adopted serene Blue Russian feline, Catrina.
Read First Chapter Below
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Deadly . . . as a Walk in the Park: Chapter 1
Victoria
Minuit stared at the door. Her brown eyes never blinking.
“Stop fretting. You know what they say about a watched pot. He will be here soon. Come sit by me.” I looked at my companion and patted my knee.
Minuit continued her vigil. I knew she was not very good with upset routines, and Cam always rang the bell promptly at 7 a.m., not a minute later. It was already 7:15. Not acceptable.
I was about to pull her away from the door, when the bell sounded. “Well, about time,” I laughed, walking to the door, leash in hand. Minuit was already suited up in her special vest—the one with the reflective tape and her name embroidered on the side in violet silk: Minuit Brentwood. A click on the harness and the jet-black greyhound was ready for her morning speed walk with our neighbor Cameron Mitchell.
The Brentwoods and the Mitchells had been neighbors in the Heights for nearly forty years. My husband died twenty years ago, and until recently, except for a series of rescue greyhounds, I was the sole resident in my Queen Anne manse. I was still adjusting to my grand-daughter Grace now living in the loft over the garage, though I had to admit it was nice to have another human with whom to converse. Not that I was going to stop having conversations with my beloved Minuit.
Cameron lost his wife about two years earlier. My friends and acquaintances no doubt thought that we had moved into the friends with benefits group. I twisted my wedding ring at the thought. No I would never see Cameron in that way. Besides, he was still in he pain of losing his Sara. There was however a benefit…Cam had become Minuit’s defacto dog walker. He swore it motivated him to have a walking partner, and who was I to argue with that.
We were doing him a great service. Win/win. I was never one to work up a sweat in the great outdoors, despite being retired as CEO of an oil field services company. All of my business took place in the air-conditioned offices of my clients, with an occasional trip into the field in an air-conditioned four-wheel drive. And since I retired during the pandemic, my business now was chairing Houston’s major foundation. These days I spent more time on Zoom than in my Lincoln. I had another one set for 10 a.m.
I held tight to Minuit as she opened the door. “Victoria, I am so sorry. I had to take a call from Matthew Sinclair, and the time escaped me.” Cam apologized as he stepped into the foyer and reached for the leash. I smiled and waived him in. “I am not the one needing an apology. Your best dog friend has been anxious for the last fifteen minutes. She no doubt imagined the worst had happened and you had found another BDF—best dog friend.”
As he took hold of the leash, I stopped him for a second. “I know you are as excited as I am that Carolee is coming back to Houston to head up the foundation. We finalize all that this morning.” Cam smiled back at me as he moved toward the door.
My hand still rested on his arm. “Are you sure everything is alright? I do not want to impose, but Matthew is my attorney as well. I cannot imagine that you called him just to chat. You mentioned earlier of your concerns about the audit. Have you solved that problem?”
Cam shook his head. “It looks like we may have a problem in one of the international subsidiaries. We’re still checking it out. Turning the business over to Edwin triggered the outside audit, so hopefully we caught whatever is going on before it becomes a significant problem. Edwin has it under control, I’m sure.”
He gathered Minuit to his side and headed out the door. “Don’t worry. It will all work out. Minuit and I will get a good walk today, despite the heat. We’ll miss the triple digits by finishing this morning,” he said, looking down at the dog. “I’ll have her back in an hour or so.”
I patted his arm as they left. “Wonderful. That will give you time to join us for my special quiche Lorraine. I have it in the oven, and it will be just cooled enough and set when you return.” I nodded again. “Thanks as usual for keeping her in sporting shape. Without you she no doubt would be a couch potato watching an endless stream of reality TV housewives. You have saved us both. Breakfast is the least I can do.” I watched another moment as Cam put the dog into the back seat and strapped the seatbelt into her harness.
I thought, not for the first time, how grateful I was that Cam’s retirement had provided me with a much-needed dog walker. My own retirement had kept me busier than I expected, and right now, I needed to get ready to meet with my board. At least the pandemic had given us new ways to do business. I was ready for my second and last cup of coffee and needed to set up the computer for my upcoming Zoom meeting. Time to hit the shower and get dressed—and not in a business jacket and lounge pants. The apocryphal images of spilling something during a Zoom talk and showing everyone penguin pajamas seemed too real to ignore. A business meeting required business attire, no matter if we stayed at home.
Brentwood Women Mysteries #3
Murder . . . from Time to Time--Coming in 2025
Book #3 in the Brentwood Women Mystery Series
Grace Brentwood-Janson is on modified bed-rest for the last two months of her pregnancy. FBI agent James Brown is sticking around once he is assigned to the Houston office following the three-year undercover job where he met the force of Brentwood women.
Grace’s investigative reporter brain is suffocating at the inaction. She needs something more than her weekly podcast and column for The Dallas Morning News. She definitely needs a diversion more than the purring of her Russian blue feline, Catrina. After all, she and her mother and grandmother had solved two major crimes since she returned home to have her baby.
Her grandmother, Victoria, has the perfect solution—a hundred-year-old cold case involving the unsolved murder of a young investigative reporter in 1928 Houston—Grace’s great-great-grandmother.
Hannah Grace Bailey is a young widow, her husband Eugene dying in the line of duty as a deputy in the Harris County Sheriff's Department. Nearly a year later, her life revolves around her three-year-old daughter, Hope and her job as a reporter for the Houston Press. She dreams of emulating her idol Nellie Bly, the groundbreaking investigative reporter, and has gone undercover as a stenographer-typist in the Houston Land Office. She believes she has uncovered some skullduggery and possible land fraud that will launch her career beyond the women’s news at the Houston Press. Her skill using the new typewriting machines gets her the office job. Her editor is unaware of her plans and believes she is writing obits for the paper from home.
Her investigation uncovers links to a pro-Fascist group of businessmen, a widow who has received bequests of at least four houses and businesses over the past ten years, a possible corrupt land office administrator, and a conglomerate interested in obtaining control of Houston’s first planned community. Before she can finish her investigation, Hannah is found dead in the land office.
Along with the mystery of Hannah’s death, Victoria presents Grace with a battered ledger book. The very one Hannah typed nearly one hundred years earlier. Grace uses her research prowess and internet resources to retrace Hannah’s path. Victoria and Hildegard (Hildy) are there to offer their own skills—Victoria in digging into the elite founding fathers (and mothers) of Houston, and Hildy in tracking the modern-day versions of the 1920s groups and organizations with the help of her university contacts.
What was supposed to be a safe puzzle to keep Grace occupied, turns into a deadly race to circumvent the heirs of the 1920s land windfall and the revived pro-fascist followers from shutting Grace’s investigation down.
Once again the three generations of Brentwood women and their furry friends will squabble and hold tight to each other while solving some deadly happenings in and around Houston both today and in the distant past.
Catrina believes she can solve this new mystery...even if it is set 100 years ago!