Fatal Vacancy

Life as a hotel manager is never easy, but add a Hollywood premiere movie party and Maisie Swenson's life is turned upside down. In Fatal Vacancy by CeeCee James, a stunt goes terribly wrong at the party. The worst news is it isn't the stuntman who is dead, it's David Beck, the director of the movie.

Naturally there are plenty of suspects - the stuntman who knew David "when," the leading lady Lulu Montgomery, saver of the rainforest or is it a front? Factor in the handsome leading man Brendan Tucker and the stuntman no one likes. Mix in the rising star rumored to be having an affair with the director and blend in the ex-wife who is thought to be the brains behind the movies and wait for the explosion.

Sure enough on the night of the premiere all eyes are focused on the dark figure on roof of the hotel wearing the mask of the Dragon Rider, the hero of the movie. Using two giant suction cups the figure makes his way down the wall of the building. At first he appears to lose control, dangling by one hand, then he regains control only to plunge silently to the red carpet below.

To the shock of those in attendance, the dead body is identified as the director David Beck, not the stuntman. 

When Maisie's police officer friend Kristi Bentley is accused in the newspapers of being star-struck during the accident, Maisie knows this is untrue and unfair. She plunges into the investigation.

The more she digs the more suspects she finds. Not many people were fans of Director David Beck.

At this time of year when it is freezing and below zero up north, it's always fun to read a book that takes place in some warm climate. Fatal Vacancy provides you with a warm location and a tricky mystery.

For an review of another CeeCee James mystery, click here. 

Pirates, Legends and Rubies

Finding a body in a diaphanous gown with flowing blonde hair and a bouquet of flowers in her hands is not what one expects on her day off. Maisie Swenson is the manager of the Oceanside Hotel in Florida in Cee Cee James' Deadly Reservation.

On her day off Maisie decides to visit a old church mentioned by local tour guides. Her assistant Clarissa tells her the church is haunted. Legend has it a pirate named Tom Bones and his beautiful lady Lucinda Longwood were cursed by her family and we never allowed to be together. That only piques her interest; you see Maisie is a mystery writer in her free time.

As paramedics retrieve the body from the rock near the banks of the lake, one of them shouts, "She is alive." Relieved, Maisie returns to the hotel hoping to hear the rest of the tragic love story. Before she can hear any more of the legend, she receives another emergency call from her staff about an unconscious guest in a hotel room.

Just like the young woman on the rock, he shows no outward signs of what happened or what

caused him to fall into unconsciousness. When a connection is made between the two patients, it is discovered they are star-crossed lovers from two feuding families. William Clarke, Natalie Fairchild and the legendary ruby necklace.

Maisie visits both patients at the hospital, but their conditions have not changed. As she is leaving the hospital, she swears she sees William in the elevator. When she peeks into his room, he is peacefully lying in bed, still unconscious.

Is the legend of Captain Bones causing Maisie's imagination to run wild or is it something else?

The Oceanside Hotel Mystery Series books are fun reads, filled with Maisie's eccentric Pinterest-obsessed mother, the handsome brother of the hotel owner and a hostile front desk clerk, plus the mystery.

For more books by CeeCee James, click here.