A Stand-Alone Novel
A DARK BOOK CLUB is Alice Zogg’s seventh stand-alone mystery novel.
Suzanne Morlett heads up a book club at the local library where she works. The members love a good mystery. Little did they know a dead body would turn up after Suzanne invites famous mystery writer Katherine Scherrer to speak to the group. Ms. Scherrer regales them with facts about mystery writing and then drops a bomb. She hints that she knows a secret one of them is hiding. This strikes home with several of the group members.
A week later the writer is found dead in her bathtub. Authorities treat it as accidental, but Suzanne doesn't believe in coincidences, and she launches an amateur investigation that nearly gets her killed.
A Dark Book Club is available in paperback, hardcover, and e-book format at
www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com and other online vendors.
Purchase Information
Publisher: Aventine Press (August 2022)
Hardcover ISBN number: 978-1-955162-14-2
Paperback ISBN number: 978-1-955162-15-9
eBook ISBN number: 13-978-1-45663-956-3
List Price – Hardcover US$ 25.50
List Price – Paperback US$ 12.50
eBook Price – US$ 3.99
Excerpt from Chapter 1
On a sunny Monday at the beginning of December, Katherine Scherrer was taking her five-year-old granddaughter, Caitlin, to a country zoo in Southern California. She was impressed with the girl's stamina. They had seen the large elephant exhibit, walked around the east part of the zoo, from the wild cats to the bird aviary, all the way up to view the bears. They had stopped for lunch at one of the eateries, then continued on to the monkey and chimpanzee habitats.
Now they were watching the zebras. Apparently, it was mating season.
"Grandma!" Caitlin exclaimed. "Are they fighting?"
"Uh... they're just playing," Katherine replied.
"One is giving the other a piggyback ride. How fun!"
Suzanne Morlett, volunteering as a docent at the zoo, had finished her tour guide duties for the day and was on her way to the main exit. She heard the little girl's comment and, amused, stopped her stride and lingered for a moment, making eye contact with the child.
Then she did a doubletake and stared at the adult, excited, and called out, "You're Katherine Scherrer, right?"
Katherine nodded.
"What an extraordinary coincidence. The members of our book club voted to read your latest mystery for January, and we'll discuss it the second Wednesday of February."
"I'm flattered."
Suzanne summoned up her courage and asked, "Would you consider joining us for the discussion?"
Katherine's impulse was to decline the invitation, and as she was trying to think of an easy way to refuse without hurting the other's feelings, she was relieved to feel the tug at her arm as her grandchild pleaded, "I need to go to the bathroom."
"We'd better hurry and find one, then," she said to the child. And to the docent, "Happy reading."
"I can see you're in a rush but here's my card. Please give me a call," Suzanne said, handing it over.
On that December evening, full of eagerness, Suzanne told Brian, her husband, all about the encounter.
And she added, "I recognized her right away. She looked exactly like the photo on the back cover of her book. I was surprised, though, how tiny she is. Must be about five foot two inches and probably weighs less than 100 pounds. My guess is she's in her late fifties. The little girl with her was most likely her grandkid. What a stroke of luck to have run into her. I can't wait to tell the rest of the book club members that the Katherine Scherrer may join us in February!"
"Don't get carried away," Brian warned. "She may not be interested and might have tossed your business card already."