Please welcome back author Kris Bock to the blog
today with an excerpt from her new mystery, Something Prowling in Paradise
Park: A Kate Tessler Amateur Sleuth Mystery. This is the seventh book in The
Accidental Detective Mystery Series. Published by Tule Publishing, this
book is scheduled to be released on March 2nd in eBook format.
In The Accidental Detective humorous mystery
series by Kris Bock, a witty
journalist solves mysteries in Arizona and tackles the challenges of turning
fifty. Something Prowling in Paradise Park: A
Kate Tessler Amateur Sleuth Mystery
(Book 7) is out March 2!
Three cases. One body. Zero
chance of staying out of trouble.
Kate Tessler may have
thought her days of chasing danger were over. But the former war
correspondent’s “retirement” in sunny Paradise, Arizona, is anything but quiet.
With her eccentric circle of friends and colleagues, Kate has built a new
life—full of mysteries, mayhem, and the occasional stakeout—as she works
towards earning her PI license.
After wrapping her last case,
Kate wonders what’s next when three cases—all brought by friends—fall into
her lap. Squatters in a snowbird’s house, local pedigree dogs disappearing, and
smash and grab burglaries at local pot shops. Kate juggles the cases with help
from her usual cast of amateur crime solvers, including the teen sons of
Paradise’s mayor. As she digs, Kate suspects at least two cases are
connected.
But things turn deadly when a
late-night stakeout leads Kate and one teen sidekick, interested in
investigative work, straight to a body. Was it a gruesome accident—or something
far more sinister?
With humor and high
stakes, The Accidental Detective mysteries prove that
danger and friendship don’t retire quietly.
Learn
more about The
Accidental Detective humorous mystery series, or go
straight to the order link for Something Prowling in Paradise Park.
Excerpt:
Sleuth
sisters Kate and Jen are investigating squatters who have taken over Bob and
Leslie’s house.
We returned to Bob and Leslie’s neighborhood
and followed the winding streets. As we came around a curve, we got a clear
view of the Standish house.
“Uh-oh.” I leaned forward to see better.
Bob and Leslie stood on the front lawn of
their house. Bob and a bearded guy were yelling at each other, faces close and
body language one step from violence. Another man stood about ten feet away,
watching them, and a woman I didn’t recognize stood in the open doorway of the
Standish house.
Jen pulled the car to the curb. “Do we care
if they see us?”
“Yeah, if we want to surveil them later. You
guys stay here.” I got out. I’d long since learned that most people couldn’t
tell one short, gray-haired woman from another.
Bob and the bearded guy were yelling over
each other. I did catch the word police from Bob, and “Just try it” from
the other guy.
I went up to Leslie. “What on earth
happened?”
She dropped her hand from her mouth. “We
thought we’d go over while they were gone, throw out their stuff, bar the door.
But that woman was inside.” She shot a furious look at the woman watching the
action, wearing a bathrobe and a smug look. “She’s wearing my bathrobe. I tried
to take it off her.”
I winced. “That was probably not the most
useful thing you could do.”
“I was so mad. Bob tried to drag her out of
the house, but she struggled like a cat getting a bath. We’d barely made it to
the front door when the men came back. So much for getting in there and
defending our territory from them.”
“Yeah.” I wanted to point out that they’d
asked for our help but weren’t taking our advice. The least they could do was
give us time to make a plan that used logic and didn’t break any laws—or at
least any laws that we were likely to get caught breaking. They didn’t seem to
realize that even if the squatters were in the wrong, Bob and Leslie couldn’t
legally do violent things to them.
The most we could do now was diffuse the
conflict. And maybe get going on this case quickly before Bob did something
regrettable.
“Okay, we need to get those names and see
what we can learn about them. And you two need to go back to Odelia’s or find
someplace else to stay. Keep your heads down for a day or two while we work
this out.”
Her expression turned mulish. “We shouldn’t
have to.”
“I know. Try to have a little patience. Do
you think you can get Bob back there before someone gets hurt?”
She gave a long-suffering sigh and went to
her husband. She finally got his attention by grabbing his arm.
I strolled over to the door. The woman was
about thirty, with stringy brown hair and a thin face. Probably a thin body as
well, but it was hard to tell with the fluffy bathrobe. It had to be over
ninety degrees outside, hardly fluffy bathrobe weather, but cold air poured out
the open door. Most Arizonans set their thermostats relatively high to control
their utility bills, but of course these people weren’t paying those bills.
“Hi, I’m Kate. You must be new in the
neighborhood. I don’t think we’ve met yet.”
She gave a cautious nod. “Rita.”
“Do you know what all this is about?” I
gestured toward the fighting men.
“Oh, they’re crazy, the old guy and his
wife. We have a rental agreement for this house, but they decided they wanted
to come back to Arizona for the summer, and now they’re trying to kick us out.”
“Really?” I opened my eyes wide. “Wow, that
is unbelievable. But if you have a legal agreement, they can’t boot you out
early, right?”
“They can try. That’s why we have to make
sure one of us is here all the time. They’ve been threatening to change the
locks.” She stared into my eyes, a good sign she was lying, or possibly high.
“That’s what the fight is about. They waited until Jason and Zeb left, and they
came over to, like, throw all our stuff out or something, but I was still
here.”
“So the three of you live here?” I gestured
toward the two younger men.
“My boyfriend”—she nodded toward the younger
guy with the beard—“and his friend.”
Leslie was tugging Bob’s arm without much
success.
“Do you think you could get your boyfriend
to back off before that other man has a heart attack or something? He looks
like he’s about to keel over.” Actually, while Bob’s face was red, he looked
healthy enough. But younger people were often ready to believe anyone with
white hair was a step from death.
She hesitated a moment, giving me a
suspicious look, and called out, “Jason. Hey, Jason.”
He either couldn’t hear her over Bob’s
bellowing or was too caught up in his own comments. Rita stepped away from the
open door but kept a wary eye on me.
Then Bob threw a punch. It was slow and
clumsy. Jason dodged easily, but Rita rushed over there as Leslie started
screaming.
I took that opportunity to slip through the
open door. I didn’t want to get in the middle of a physical fight over who
could access the house, and a physical fight wouldn’t end things anyway if the
squatters stuck to their story and had a forged rental agreement. But since
they’d provided a nice distraction, I wouldn’t pass up the chance for a quick
look around. Maybe I’d find some useful evidence.
Amazon
Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3M89nil
Kris Bock©2026
Kris Bock writes novels of mystery, suspense, and
romance, many with outdoor adventures and Southwestern landscapes. Her Furrever
Friends Sweet Romance series features the employees and customers at a cat
café. Her romantic suspense novels featuring treasure hunting, archaeology, and
intrigue in the Southwest are perfect for fans of Mary Stewart or Barbara
Michaels. Learn more. As Chris Eboch, she
writes for young people, including ghostwriting for popular children’s
mystery series. The Eyes of Pharaoh, a middle grade
mystery set in ancient Egypt, brings the past to life as three friends
investigate a plot against Pharaoh.
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