Dead to Begin With

Vicky Simmons is ready for the simple life. She’s ready to trade in London for a slower pace by opening a British Country Gift Shop in her old hometown on the coast of Maine. Little does she know a few old faces are back in Glen Cove, including unrequited teenage crush, Michael Danning, having taken over the local Gazette and looking better than ever.

All is looking rosy until Vicky finds herself face-to-face with a dead body and Michael is the prime suspect. When the sheriff links the motive for murder to the unsolved disappearance of a teenage girl twenty years ago, Vicky must turn amateur sleuth. She’ll stop at nothing to save Michael…and unmask the real killer!

Available from Vivian Conroy

ACountry Gift Shop Mystery series

Dead to Begin with

Coming soon:

Grand Prize: Murder!

A Lady Alkmene Callender Mystery series

A Proposal to Die For

Diamonds of Death

Deadly Treasures

Dead to Begin with

Vivian Conroy

ONE PLACE. MANY STORIES

VIVIAN CONROY

discovered Agatha Christie at thirteen and quickly devoured all the Poirot and Miss Marple stories. Over time Lord Peter Wimsey and Brother Cadfael joined her favorite sleuths. Even more fun than reading was thinking up her own missing heirs and priceless artifacts. Discover the glamour and secrets of the roaring twenties in Vivian's Lady Alkmene Callender Mysteries and open up shop, with murder in the mix, in the contemporary Country Gift Shop Mysteries. For news on the latest releases, with a dash of dogs and chocolate, follow Vivian on Twitter via @VivWrites

Cover

Blurb

Book List

Title Page

Author Bio

Acknowledgements

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Extract

Copyright

Thanks to all editors, agents and authors who share insights into the writing and publishing process.

A special thanks to my fantastic editor Victoria Oundjian and her team for embracing fictional Glen Cove with all its human and canine inhabitants, and to the design team for the evocative cover with the coastal feel.

Vicky Simmons tiptoed to the archway leading into the living room area and listened to her mother’s voice coming from the den. “You don’t say. When did you see that?”

Vicky grinned to herself. As the call had ended the big welcome-home breakfast prematurely, she had already suspected it came from one of her mother’s informers.

‘Informer’ was the right word as Glen Cove’s jungle drum was more reliable than any other network could ever be. But Claire Simmons would never admit to the insatiable curiosity of her circle of friends. Her favorite defense was: “I’m not nosy; I just like to know things.”

What Claire wanted to know most right now was what her daughter would be doing with her time now that she was back in town and had to make a living outside of her established foreign correspondent career. The welcome-home breakfast had been set up solely to quiz Vicky about this topic, but knowing every peep she said would travel far and wide, Vicky had dodged all her mother’s questions.

She did want to share her big plans with her mother of course, but only after she had made sure it would work out. She had to see the property she had cast her eye on in person. The real estate agent had sung its praises over the phone, but then that was his job. When viewed in real life, the property might turn out to be too big for a gift shop, or in need of substantial changes to make it suitable for the classic feel Vicky had in mind. She did have some savings left from all those years in London, but she didn’t intend to spend them right away on repairs and adjustments.

Grabbing a pen from the basket on the sink, she scribbled on a scrap: Gone to get some groceries. V. She stuck the note to her mother’s fridge with a Welcome to Glen Cove magnet. Of course the magnet had waves and gulls and a lighthouse. Everything in Glen Cove was sea-orientated: seafood restaurants, boat rentals, souvenir shops brimming with shell-decorated photo frames and postcards of the harbor with all the fishing boats. Vicky’s gift shop wouldn’t sell any of that. It would focus on bringing a British touch to life, be it through exclusive home decoration articles, china, clothing, books or tea. It would fill a niche.

At least that was what Vicky had told herself when she had thought up the idea in the comfort of her London pad. She had made sketches of what her store would look like, inside and out, had written long lists of the products she might sell, had visited websites of potential suppliers. She had even already ordered a set of china with rosebud décor, because she had been so certain she could sell it either way.

Every step had fed the fire inside, even the little setbacks of estimating costs and hearing from suppliers they were reluctant to deliver to someone whose name was not established. That only made it a challenge, and challenges were fun. She had missed them as she had settled into the routine of writing her successful travel columns. Ten years had about exhausted every wedding venue and secret hideaway anyway.