witty  endearing  clever  suspenseful

What Inspired Me to Write This Series

 In short, a parrot.

As a member of a community chorus that performed at retirement communities I experienced many funny moments. In one facility, there was an audience member who always tried to conduct us, his pace slightly off from our director’s. In another a woman enthusiastically and loudly commented on our singing… while we were singing. And in yet another, there was a disgruntled parrot confined to a small cage with a sign that read: I BITE.

I didn’t blame him.

Out of this colorful, quirky smorgasbord,  these novels were born.

The Characters

Josephine is parked at the Brookside Retirement Community against her will by her son. She finds life there as boring as she anticipated until she’s befriended by Lillian, a former teacher, and a certified Graphoanalyst.

Lill, who refers to Brookside as Babbling Brook—an apt descriptor despite the lack of a brook—is a worthy partner as the two begin investigating the dodgy events that come to light.

Along the way Naked Poker games play a key role in unraveling more than one mystery.

The Art

Art’s role in the series starts with Josephine’s Edward Hopper painting, Sea Watchers.

A painting by Edward Hopper was a good choice because his paintings would have been affordable when Josephine purchased it. At the time of the novels’ setting its worth had increased to the millions, making it the perfect magnet for bad actors, including Josephine’s son.

The Heist

One of the most famous art heists in history took place in Boston in 1990. It involved the theft of art now valued at over five hundred million dollars from the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum.

None of the works has ever been recovered, and hints of what might have happened to them have been slim and few. Thus, this theft serves as perfect grist for an author’s mill and is woven through several books in the series.

But What About Murder?

In Book Three, Josephine and Lillian discover a murder committed years earlier after a new resident tells a peculiar Naked Poker story. In Book Five, a young woman Josephine has taken under her wing discovers members of her family were murdered when she was an infant. In Book Seven a possibly murdered man is inadvertently discovered by Josephine and Lillian in the Ohio River. In other books in the series, there’s enough attempted murder along with other forms of mayhem to challenge Josephine and Lillian’s sleuthing powers.

What Readers Are Saying

Thousands of readers have awarded this series five stars.

If Richard Osman (Thursday Murder Club Mysteries) ever comes across this series, he’ll love them and, if you like Richard’s books, you will too. Both series have sparky characters, wit, emotion, heaps of adventures and dastardly baddies. What Richard’s books don’t have is Naked Poker.

Just saying. Kitty Johnson, Author of Five Winters

This series is available in ELECTRONIC, PRINT, LARGE PRINT and AUDIO EDITIONS from Amazon