The Fog Ladies by @SMcCormickBooks is a Cozy Mystery Event pick #cozymystery #giveaway #wrpbks
top of page
  • N. N. Light
    • Oct 13, 2020
    • 3 min read

The Fog Ladies by @SMcCormickBooks is a Cozy Mystery Event pick #cozymystery #giveaway #wrpbks



Title: The Fog Ladies

Author: Susan McCormick

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Book Blurb:

Spunky, suspicious older women and one overworked, overtired, overstressed young medical intern live in an elegant apartment building in San Francisco where old ladies start to die.

Excerpt:

Mrs. Bridge did not like bugs. Perched high up on the stool, she peered distastefully into the kitchen light. Living in an apartment building in San Francisco, she usually had no problem with bugs. But the light collected the creatures, motionless black blobs above her head.

If Tommy were anything like old Mr. Lemon, the handyman he replaced, there would be no bugs. Mr. Lemon had come by every few weeks to see if she needed something fixed. He did it with all the tenants, right from the time she moved in forty years ago when she was twenty-five. Old Mr. Lemon wasn’t above cleaning out bugs. Old Mr. Lemon wasn’t above anything. Not like Tommy.

When she’d first suggested to Tommy that he should clean out the bugs, he actually laughed. What impudence! The few times he had come, he’d shown up a week later, long after she’d done the task herself. What did she pay her rent for?

The whole building had gone downhill since Mr. Lemon died. It was a beautiful building in Pacific Heights, built in 1925, elegant and solid, with a slate floor in the lobby and etched glass windows. Mr. Lemon had washed those windows every week, just like he polished the brass and oiled the mahogany hall table. Tommy thought his job entailed keeping the elevator running and changing the light bulbs in the back staircase. He didn’t understand about a fine building. And he certainly showed no interest in helping with her bugs.

So Mrs. Bridge climbed up there herself. It wasn’t easy. The ceilings were high. She used a stool she found in the garage by the dumpster. It was meant to be a barstool, but its height was perfect for reaching the light fixture. She wore yellow Playtex gloves and used wads of paper towels. Even though they were expensive. The whole process left her winded and she only did it every few months.

Stepping from her kitchen chair onto the barstool was the trickiest part, though she had done it many times before and could balance pretty well once she touched the ceiling.

She always felt nervous at this point, hand over head, feet tight together on the small stool. Today, though, she felt an inexplicable dread.

If anything happened, she would blame Tommy. She found it ridiculous and humiliating that a sixty-five-year-old woman should have to clean bugs out of a light. She had seen Tommy that very day up on a sturdy new ladder probably purchased with her rent proceeds. Why couldn’t he do this for her? Or at least offer her the ladder. No respect for his elders, that’s why.

“Insolent youth.” Mrs. Bridge said. “Damn that Tommy.”

The stool jerked from under her. Mrs. Bridge felt herself fall. It seemed like slow motion, like she was falling from the roof deck and not from a stool in the kitchen. Falling, falling, long enough for her to see the figure standing nearby. Long enough for her to see his detached expression.

She landed hard. She heard the crack. She knew she was going to die. She studied the bugs in the light far over her head. The figure started to turn away.

She managed to speak and was surprised at how strong her voice sounded. “Sarah,” she blurted. He whirled around.

Mrs. Bridge was satisfied to see the shock on his face as she stared up and said, “Sarah saw you.”

Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):


Why is your featured book a must-read?

The first book in a cozy series with spunky senior sleuths and all the baggage they bring, plus a beautiful, foggy city setting, cats and dogs, and an overtired, undersuspicious young medical intern, this introduction to the Fog Ladies will make you part of their lives forever.

Giveaway –

Enter to win an e-book bundle of all 42 books featured in the Cozy Mystery Bookish Event: https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/92db775081

Open Internationally. Runs October 13 – 19, 2020. Winner will be drawn on October 23, 2020.


Author Biography:

Susan McCormick is an author and doctor in Seattle. In addition to the Fog Ladies cozy mystery series, she also wrote Granny Can’t Remember Me, a children’s picture book about Alzheimer’s disease. She graduated from Smith College and George Washington University School of Medicine, with additional medical training in Washington, DC and San Francisco, where she lived in an elegant apartment building much like the one in the book. She is married and has two boys, plus a giant Newfoundland dog, Albert.

Social Media Links:

Tags:

bottom of page