Tombs of Endearment (Pepper Martin Mysteries, No. 3)

Tombs of Endearment (Pepper Martin Mysteries, No. 3)

Cemetery tour guide Pepper Martin never imagined she'd get to meet rock legend Damon Curtis, the bad boy poet who made millions of teenage girls scream. After all, he kicked the bucket years before she was born. But thanks to her newfound ability to chat up the dead, Pepper's got a front row seat perfect for swooning over the still-sexy Damon's latest lyrics. He's convinced that his former bandmate Vinnie Pallucci murdered him back in ‘71, and he's promised Pepper she won't get any rest or peace until she helps him prove it. But when Pepper goes behind the music, she finds Vinnie with a knife in his heart and the rest of the band members running for their lives. And if Pepper doesn't snare the killer soon, Damon's next hit from the great beyond might be her swan song. “There’s no savoring the Pepper Martin series -- you’ll devour each book and still be hungry for more!” - --Kathryn Smith, author of BE MINE TONIGHT Cemetery tour guide Pepper Martin never imagined she'd get to meet rock legend Damon Curtis, the bad boy poet who made millions of teenage girls scream. After all, he kicked the bucket years before she was born. But thanks to her newfound ability to chat up the dead, Pepper's got a front row seat perfect for swooning over the still-sexy Damon's latest lyrics. He's convinced that his former bandmate Vinnie Pallucci murdered him back in ‘71, and he's promised Pepper she won't get any rest or peace until she helps him prove it. But when Pepper goes behind the music, she finds Vinnie with a knife in his heart and the rest of the band members running for their lives. And if Pepper doesn't snare the killer soon, Damon's next hit from the great beyond might be her swan song. Casey Daniels once applied for a job as a tour guide in a cemetery. She didn't get the job, but she did get the idea for the Pepper Martin mystery series. Casey learned to love mysteries early thanks to her father, a Cleveland Police detective who enjoyed Sherlock Holmes stories and spent his days off searching for stolen cars—with Casey along for the ride. Later, she read her way through every mystery on the library shelves. Casey has a degree in English and a background in journalism and teaching. She is the author of two previous Pepper Martin mysteries, Don of the Dead and The Chick and the Dead , and lives in Northeast Ohio. Tombs of Endearment By Casey Daniels HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Copyright © 2007 Casey Daniels All right reserved. ISBN: 9780060821500 Chapter One "That's one of the really wonderful things about working in a cemetery. You get to do things that are not only interesting and educational, but fun. Imagine, spending an entire day researching the immigration records at the County Archives! Could anything be more exciting than that?" Needless to say, I am not the one who spoke these words. They came from Ella Silverman, the community relations manager at Garden View Cemetery and—not incidentally—my boss. Nobody but Ella could possibly get so hopped up about the prospect of spending the day poking through dusty old books full of equally dry information. When I didn't respond with the enthusiasm Ella expected, she tried to manufacture some. She beamed a smile at me across my desk and patted the notepad she'd brought with her into my office. It contained a list—a long list—of the Garden View residents (Ella's word for the folks buried there) whose files she wanted to beef up with a little more information. "Well, Pepper, really! You should be excited. Think of all you'll learn!" I was thinking about it. And it practically put me to sleep. But hey, if the months I'd worked as Garden View's only tour guide had taught me anything, it was to prevaricate like a pro. Then again, in addition to my gig at the cemetery, I was also the world's one and only private investigator to the dead, and—at least as far as I knew—the only person around unlucky enough to not only see dead people, but talk to them, too. They always wanted something from me, those dead folks, and whatever it was (and take my word for it when I say it usually involved getting threatened, beaten up, and/or shot at), it always conflicted with what I was supposed to be doing in my real life. Was it any wonder I could tell a lie with a smile on my lips and a song in my heart? "Of course I'm excited." To prove my statement to Ella and maybe convince myself, too, I sat up straight in an eager-beaver sort of way. "But are you sure you can spare me for the whole day? I mean, you said it yourself in the staff meeting yesterday. With the holidays right around the corner—" Ella nodded sagely. "You mean because of the ghost hunters. The ones who show up every year at this time, right before Halloween." Halloween wasn't the holiday I'd been referring to. It wasn't even something I wanted to think about. Believe me, when it came to things that went bump in the night, I'd had my fill. As far as I was concerned, the dearly departed could stay