A geologist with an unwanted psychic gift, a man on the run, a dead body and a friend accused of…murder?
Geologist Petra Cloch can touch an object and sense the
emotions of the people who’ve held it before. Although
her paranormal powers are a burden, they’ve helped her solve several crimes and
make friends in her new southwestern small town. She’s enjoying settling into her new job when
her landlord, Shelley introduces an “old friend.” Wayne seems cagey. He wants
to keep his visit a secret and has recently adopted an energetic dog “for
protection.”
When Petra stumbles over Wayne’s dead body, suspicions
quickly turn to murder, with Shelley the prime suspect. Petra and her
friends investigate and quickly uncover a slew of suspects,
scams and motives. Petra’s psychic abilities alone aren’t enough to
reveal the true killer. To clear Shelley, Petra will need all of her
cleverness, the help of her found family, some luck, and the dog that
seems to have adopted her.
Fans of cozy
mysteries with supernatural twists will fall in love with this
humorous and heartwarming psychic sleuth.
Snippet:
I was trying to convince myself to get ready for bed when I heard voices outside. Back in Seattle, where I lived in an apartment building among other apartment buildings, low-voiced conversations wouldn’t have caught my attention. Even shouting would have merely caused me to pause to determine whether it was a normal argument or an alert the police argument. Apparently in the six months I’d been in Bonneville, I’d gotten used to any late-night conversations here coming from either my own house or the coyotes.
Shelley should be inside by that time. Even
if she was on the porch, I rarely heard anything unless she laughed loudly. She
might do that with her company. But this conversation sounded closer to my own
house.
The voices rose. I caught the phrase what
you promised me almost at a shout. A couple using the dead-end street as an
unsuccessful lovers’ lane?
I shook myself out of my daze, shifted Amber
to the back of the couch, and stood. This was probably more of not my
business, but if someone believed they’d been promised sex and the
other person was resisting . . . Well, maybe a light going on nearby would
disrupt the situation. If not, I had the sheriff’s number.
Another voice responded in a rumble too low
to catch any words. The first voice was in that middle range that might be a
male or a low-voiced female, but this one sounded male. Not that the genders
made a difference if one was threatening or pressuring the other.
I flipped on the porch light.
The voices stopped. I rustled the curtains
to let them know someone was there. I didn’t particularly want to see who was
out there, but I ought to make sure the situation was under control.
Someone spoke again, the tone urgent but the
words too low for me to hear.
I looked out. The porch light shone in a
circle that didn’t quite reach the edge of my yard. No one stood within it,
which was both a relief and a bit unnerving, since I didn’t know where they
were.
A car door slammed, making me jump. A car
backed out from the other side of my van. Without streetlights, I could only
tell that it was a light shade and an average car shape, maybe on the sporty
end of the scale.
Well, whoever had been arguing out there,
they were gone now. I turned off the light but stood at the window for another
minute, fatigue washing over me. Jet chittered and wound around my ankles.
My eyes slowly adjusted to the absence of
the porch light, which hadn’t been that bright to begin with. There was some
moonlight, but nothing close to a full moon.
The shadows shifted near my van. A figure stepped out from the trees there. I couldn’t see more than a dark shape, but I got the strong feeling the person was staring in my direction.
Praise for the Reluctantly Psychic Mystery series:
In the Reluctantly Psychic Mystery series, a quirky loner who can read the history of any object with her touch gets drawn into mysteries at the museum of oddities where she works.Readers say:
“A Stone Cold
Murder is one of the most vivid books I’ve ever read. Kris Bock doesn’t just
tell a story—she immerses you in it.”
“A Stone Cold
Murder is exactly the kind of book I crave—tightly plotted, emotionally rich,
and impossible to put down. Kris Bock blends murder, mystery, and psychic
suspense seamlessly, and I’m obsessed.”
“…what truly
resonated with me was Petra’s emotional journey. Her anxiety about being
discovered, her cautious approach to forming friendships, and her affection for
her pets (the cats! the ferrets! my heart!) made her character incredibly
relatable. I found myself laughing, gasping, and perhaps shedding a tear or
two.”
“Kris Bock has
crafted a story that’s equal parts murder mystery, psychological deep-dive, and
small-town gothic horror (in the best way).”
In the Accidental Detective humorous mystery series, a witty journalist solves mysteries in Arizona and tackles the challenges of turning fifty.
The Furrever Friends Sweet Romance series stars the employees and customers at a cat café. Watch as they fall in love with each other and shelter cats.
Kris also writes a series with her brother, scriptwriter Douglas J Eboch, who wrote the original screenplay for the movie Sweet Home Alabama. The Felony Melanie series follows the crazy antics of Melanie, Jake, and their friends a decade before the events of the movie.
Sign up for the Kris Bock newsletter and get short stories from the Reluctantly Psychic and Accidental Detective series plus other freebies. Then every two weeks, you’ll get fun content about pets, announcements of new books, sales, and more.
GoodReads Author Page
BookBub
Amazon US page or Amazon UK page