Blind Dates Can Be Murder , livre ebook

Harvest House Publishers, Inc. - Clark Mindy Starns

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187 pages

English

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Description

Blind dates give everyone the shivers...with or without a murder attached to them. Jo Tulip is a sassy single woman full of household hints and handy advice for every situation. Her first romantic outing in months is a blind dateokay, the Hall of Fame of Awful Blind Datesbut things go from bad to worse when the date drops dead and Jo finds herself smack in the middle of a murder investigation. With the help of her best friend, Danny, and faith in God, Jo attempts to solve one exciting mystery while facing another: Why is love always so complicated?

Sujets

Romance

Thriller

Informations

Publié par	Harvest House Publishers, Inc.
Date de parution	15 mars 2006
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780736935586
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0462€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS
EUGENE, OREGON
Scripture quotations are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION . NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Cover by Terry Dugan Design, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Cover photo Rubberball Productions/PictureQuest
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to events or locales, is entirely coincidental.
BLIND DATES CAN BE MURDER
Copyright 2006 by Mindy Starns Clark
Published by Harvest House Publishers
Eugene, Oregon 97402
www.harvesthousepublishers.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Clark, Mindy Starns.
Blind dates can be murder / Mindy Starns Clark.
p. cm.-(A smart chick mystery ; bk. 2)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7369-1486-4 (pbk.)
ISBN-10: 0-7369-1486-2 (pbk.)
1. Dating services-Fiction. 2. Identity theft-Fiction. 3. Women detectives-Fiction. I. Title II. Series:
Clark, Mindy Starns. Smart chick mystery ; bk. 2.
PS3603.L366B58 2006
813 .6-dc22
2005032216
All rights reserved . No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other-except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 / BP-MS / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated to my brother, David Robert Starns. Your talents, wit, and wisdom have rescued me more times than I can count. Thanks for always giving so selflessly and for being such a joy in my life.
And to David s wife, Amy Hanson Starns. Had I searched the world over, I couldn t have found a dearer sister-in-law-or friend.
And to David and Amy s children, Andrew and Sarah, for bringing me love, insight, and an enormous amount of laughter.
I love you all more than you can imagine!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many special thanks to
My precious husband, John Clark, who has gone above and beyond, yet again, to make this book a reality. You are my hero, my helpmate, and my very best friend.
Lissa Halls Johnson, Dan Higgins, and Tom Morrissey, for invaluable information and insight in helping to shape the characters of Lettie and Chuck.
Fran Severn, for giving me Chewie.
Robert M. Starns, M.D., for medical information.
Jackie Starns, for fabulous proofreading.
Russ Bishop, for teaching me about the wide world of professional stock photography.
Kim Moore and all of the amazing folks at Harvest House Publishers.
Pastor Dave Sharpes and the ministerial staff of FVCN.
Technical advisors in a variety of areas: Major Mark Schneider, Leslie Budewitz, Anne Tomlin, Lois Foster Hirt, Joyce Yale, Deborah Raney, and all the members of Murder Must Advertise and DorothyL.
ChiLibris, for unwavering support, ideas, suggestions, information, and brainstorming. Your wisdom and kindness astound me daily.
My sweet daughters, Emily and Lauren Clark, for suggestions, contributions, brainstorming, and infinite patience.
Finally, to Ned and Marie Scannell, whose generosity and hospitality helped to make this book a reality. God bless you both.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Welcome to www.TipsfromTulip.com
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About the Author
Discover The First Smart Chick Mystery

1
J o Tulip didn t know if she was ready for this or not. Still, she pulled open the heavy wooden door of Tenderloin Town and stepped inside, letting it fall into place behind her. She had come early so that she could get settled at the table and collect her thoughts-and still have enough time to make a last-minute escape if she lost her nerve.
She approached the hostess and asked for the reservation for Dentyne, party of two. Sounded like a chewing gum to her, but that was the name Dates Mates had given her: Brock Dentyne. Jo would have canceled the blind date based solely on the name, but she didn t want to seem shallow.
The bouncy blonde checked something off her list, grabbed two brown leather menus, and led Jo through the noisy room to a table for two near the back. Once Jo was seated, the hostess disappeared, only to be replaced by a deeply tanned young man wearing the steakhouse uniform of Western wear complete with hat and bandanna.
Something to drink while you re waiting for your party? he asked, flashing an unnaturally bright smile.
Iced tea, please, Jo replied, resisting the urge to tell him he ought to back off on the tooth whitener-not to mention the self-tanning lotion. With lemon.
You got it.
Jo watched him walk away, wondering where waiters went on dates. Did they go to restaurants? Or was that just too much like going back to work?
Jo opened the menu and scanned the choices, but her mind was too scattered to focus. Absently, she reached up and ran a hand over her flyaway blond hair, wondering what Brock Dentyne was going to think of her. Would he be pleased? Disappointed?
Did it matter?
The one fact she hadn t admitted on her blog was her main motivation for doing this: Her agent wanted her to explore the current dating scene for publicity purposes. Jo s posts online frequently discussed relationships, and her words seemed to resonate with many of her readers. Apparently, there was always a sharp spike of activity on her website when she wrote about her love life (or lack thereof). According to her agent, the dating angle seemed to be such an effective tool that he wanted her to expand upon it greatly.
Of course, that meant Jo needed to start dating again, something she purposely hadn t done for six months-and for good reason. But once her girlfriends started getting worked up about Dates Mates, she reluctantly decided to join them and sign up herself.
Now here she was, surprised at how she was feeling. Up until today, this had been more of a business move than a personal one. So why was she so nervous, like a girl on her first date? She was twenty-seven years old, for goodness sake. She d certainly had her share of dates.
On the other hand, after six months of specifically not dating, Jo wasn t sure if she remembered how to be interesting and engaging. In fact, she wasn t sure if she knew how to converse about anything at all beyond the topics of her dog, her job, and her friends.
Jo took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She couldn t believe she was really doing this. She was out on a date for the first time since last September, when she was jilted at the altar by her groom.

Danny couldn t believe Jo was doing this.
His hands were on a basketball, but his mind was across town, on a blind date with Jo. For months-ever since the groom had taken a powder at Jo s wedding-Danny had listened to his best friend work through her issues about love and romance and men. For months Danny had heard her talk about her temporary moratorium on dating while she attempted to fix what was wrong in her heart that kept leading her to make such stupid choices in men. For months he had loved her in silence, waiting for the moment when she would announce that she was ready to start dating again, so he could tell her that he loved her, that he wanted to spend a lifetime showing her just how much.
He d had big plans, all right: The minute she was ready, he was going to sweep Jo Tulip off her feet, showing her that the only man in the world for her had been the one who was there all along. He had no doubt that she loved him too-she just needed help understanding what was in her heart.
Yo! Earth to Danny! We playing or what?
Danny s head snapped up to see four other guys poised for action, looking at him expectantly.
Sorry, he said, dribbling the ball.
With a vengeance, he made his way down the court, aiming for a layup, his eyes on the rough gray net hanging from the rim. As he went, he pictured himself as he had been last Saturday, when he was working at Dates Mates as a photographer, taking portraits of their clients for their computer profiles. It was a new photography gig for him, just three hours a week, but lucrative. Jo Tulip had strolled into his makeshift photography studio there precisely at 10:30 AM , and Danny had smiled, telling her he couldn t chat for long because he had a 10:30 appointment.
I know you do, silly, she replied. I m your ten thirty appointment.
Dumbfounded, Danny had gone through the motions of a photography sitting, asking her questions as he did so, trying to ascertain when and how she had come to the decision to sign up with the dating service. A dating service! She talked about her agent, Milton, and her website traffic and the group of girlfriends who had been pressuring her to do it anyway, and all he could think was, Don t you know that the only man you ll ever need is already smack-dab in the middle of your life?
Danny knew he needed to tell Jo how he felt about her, but he had been too shocked and tongue-tied to say anything at that moment. In the week since then he still had not found the nerve or opportunity to say the words.
Why hadn t he said the words?
Danny leapt up into the air and slammed the ball through the hoop as hard as he could. When he came down, he realized that the staccato squeaks of rubber soles on the hardwood had stopped-and two of the guys were on the floor.
He hesitated.
Did I do that? he asked, gesturing toward them.
Yeah, his brother-in-law Ray replied in a low voice, pulling him aside. Come on, bro. Lighten up. This is just a pickup game, not NBA tryouts.
Foul, someone yelled.
Personal foul , Danny thought as the other team threw the ball back inbounds. I hope Jo doesn t encounter any personal fouls tonight .
If she