1st Two Chapters
Impossible Bliss
Second edition published with the "Star" imprint in November, 2004 by iUniverse. Originally published in July, 2001. A mystery comedy set in Carmel, CA and featuring an "impossible" crime. Here is the back cover text from the original edition:
The deputy laughed. “Let me get this straight. Not only does the murder victim vanish from the scene of the crime, and wind up someplace he really can’t be. But somewhere along the way he changed his socks?”
A golfer disappearing into thin air from a sand trap promises to be more than brand new police chief Dan Shepard bargained for when he left the big city for the supposedly quiet resort town of Carmel, California.
And if this peculiar problem weren’t enough, Shepard also has to contend with the constant interference of an irascible amateur sleuth in the person of Herman de Portola Bliss, an artist with no talent for painting, but an unerring eye for clues, and an even greater talent for winding up in jail.
As the case twists and turns its way along the shores of scenic Monterey Bay the mismatched pair find themselves drawn into an edgy partnership confronted with more than one dead body, a shady land deal, self-serving politicians, environmental protesters, a major golf tournament, the mob, multiple burglars, car chases, a particularly unique form of infidelity, and significant seagull droppings.