FATAL FLIP, A Home Renovator Mystery, Book 1 is a BHW pick #cozymystery #cozy #bookboost
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  • N. N. Light
    • Aug 2, 2023
    • 2 min read

FATAL FLIP, A Home Renovator Mystery, Book 1 is a BHW pick #cozymystery #cozy #bookboost



Title: FATAL FLIP, A Home Renovator Mystery, Book 1


Author: M. E. Bakos


Genre: Cozy mystery


Publisher: M. E. Books


Book Blurb:


Flipping houses can be FATAL!


When thirty-five-year-old, widowed Katelyn, is fired from her job, she takes BFF Myra’s advice to follow her passion. She becomes a Home Rehab Specialist in Crocus Heights, Minnesota.


Her ninety-day plan to turn distressed properties into cash and career fulfillment veers towards deadly when she finds a body in her first project. Attractive, muscular, blue-eyed Sheriff Don Williams suspects Katelyn. After all, it’s her house.


Meanwhile, ex-husband, Eddy, (it’s complicated) is back in her life and sleeping on her sofa. One mystery leads to another when Katelyn’s snooty neighbor, Ariel, is discovered dead in the bathtub. Could any of the townhome residents have killed Ariel?


Between keeping her rescue cat, Boots, in kibble, herself in pizza and good coffee, Katelyn works survival jobs as she unravels the puzzle of who leaves bodies in abandoned houses, and why.


Excerpt:


CHAPTER 1


I stood on a rung of the stepladder, looking into a black hole of the attic access in the closet of the house I was rehabbing.


“Dang it! Dang. Dang,” I said, sputtering, my heart racing.


“What?” My best friend, Myra asked, puzzled, as she waited for me. Myra Alexandria Payten was nervous about heights, even six-foot stepladders. She wasn’t a fan of peering into remote areas of homes under renovation and waited while I inspected the attic.


“It’s a body,” I said, gasping. “A body that hasn’t moved for a while.” My legs quivered, and my knees buckled. Gingerly, I stepped down the ladder to face a flabbergasted Myra.


“You have got to be kidding!” she said, each word short and clipped, staring at me openmouthed. Myra always used proper English, even under stressful conditions.

“I kid you not.” Dread settled in the pit of my stomach. “I hate it when that happens.” When faced with panic-inducing situations, I can be understated, stoic.


“We must call the police immediately!” Myra gasped; her hazel eyes wide.


“Yep,” I replied resolutely. “We must.”


I felt badly about the body we’d just found in the attic. The poor soul could have been there a while, but any smell was held at bay in the cool Minnesota spring. The heat was off in the house, and the body was well-preserved—for a dead person.


The dread in the pit of my stomach was terror about my present finances. This was my job now; I was a house renovator. Just a step up from a slumlord.


My name is Katelyn Baxter. I am thirty-five years old. I admit to twenty-eight, because twenty-nine is a cliché. I’ve been married twice. Once divorced, from my high school beau, Eddy. Now widowed, from the love of my life, Jake.


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Author Biography:


M.E. Bakos writes cozy mysteries about a house flipper, turned sleuth, in fictional Crocus Heights, Minnesota. The “delightful” series earns five-star reviews from Readers Favorite. Her mystery short stories receive kudos.


If she isn’t plotting mysteries, she’s planning home improvements. You can find Fatal Flip, Deadly Flip, Lethal Flip, and more at https://mebakos.wixsite.com/author.

Bakos is an alumna of the University of Minnesota, and a member of SINC. She lives with her husband, Joe, and spoiled pooch in Minnesota.


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