The Real Deal Mortuary Table of Contents
The Mortuary Mysteries, Book One. A new Historical Mystery Series Serial!
Chapter Cheater
(April 25)
(May 9)
(May 16)
(May 23)
(May 30)
(June 13)
(June 20)
(June 27)
(July 11)
(July 18)
(July 25)
(August 8)
(August 15)
(August 22)
(August 29)
(September 12)
(September 19)
(September 26)
(October 10)
(October 17)
(October 24)
(October 31)
(November 14)
(November 21)
(November 28)
(December 5)
(December 12)
(December 19)
(December 26) Mystery, History, or Poppycock?
(Links provided as chapters drop.)
This is a full, novel-sized mystery with approximately 30 chapters of approximately 2500 words (10-12 minute reads) each. They are polished drafts (like any new puppy: exciting and messy and a little “ruff ruff!”) and may be edited and updated without notice. Full copyright laws apply to everything written in Substack.
After the serial completes, the book will be published and made available for sale at your favorite bookshop.
There are seven novels outlined for this series.
“Tea & Talkies” with the Author
January 3: Welcome
February 7: Blurb & Meet the Costume
February 28: Character Reveal (Paid chose names)
April 4: WIP Kick-off “Ask Me Anything” (Paid Only, Not recorded or posted!)
May 2: Meet the Audiobook Narrator, Mimi Bilinski
June 6: Clues for Ultimate Idyllwild Search Party (Paid Only)
July 4: Explosive WIP Ciphers (Paid Only)
August 1: Discussion on the Mrs. Kelly Mysteries
September 5: Cover(s) Reveal and Live Puzzle Event (Paid Only)
October 3: Spooktacular “Day in the Life of the Author” Tour
November 7: Member Appreciation Day, All Levels (Perks for Paid)
December 26: Celebrating “The End” and “The Beginning” (Paid Only)
Blurb
Welcome to 1425 Washington Boulevard, Los Angeles, 1914.
Home of the Real Deal Mortuary.
Where Hattie Deal just found a body in the wall.
And a logbook that shouldn’t exist.
Three weeks into married life with her beloved Louie Deal, Hattie discovers a skeleton behind the walls of the mortuary her husband has just inherited. The dead man? Her husband’s great-uncle, missing for nineteen years. The murder weapon? Still missing. The murderer? Probably the late great-aunt-in-law, a woman with a talent for keeping secrets and disposing of bodies.
But the real mystery isn’t who killed Uncle Hiram.
It’s why the inheritance papers list her husband’s name as Aloysius Pemberton Fortenberry.
When Hattie finds her aunt’s logbook—twenty years of coded death records marking some in red ink, some in black, and thirteen in mysterious gold—she realizes her husband’s family didn’t just run a mortuary. They ran a game. A deadly one full of shady deals. And someone thinks Aloysius is still playing.
The first in a seven-book series where every body tells a story, every code hides a truth, and the greatest mystery is whether Hattie can decide who the man she loves really is—especially when his real name might be the key to everything.
Because the dead keep records. The records keep secrets. And the secrets keep killing.
Thank You
Thank you for considering an upgrade to a Paid Subscription! It gives me back precious time to spend writing instead of chasing dollar bills down dubious marketing rabbit holes. Time to vision the next exciting crime-solving scene and spell it out in lurid detail. Time to sit with you and discuss the pros and cons of including recipes or whether a horse can be considered a pet in 1914.
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I’m saving a seat for you. ☕️ ☕️ Y’all come. 📚