Bridge to Nowhere by Stephanie Parker McKean

Loveable Misfits Fit Into Crime-solving Mix

Introducing Bridge to Nowhere, Christian mystery-romance-suspense

By Stephanie Parker McKean

          When son Ron orders his chocolate-loving widowed mother, Michal Allison Rice—better known as “Miz Mike” in Three Prongs, Texas, where misfits fit—to act her age and mind her own business, he doesn’t understand that Miz Mike doesn’t find mysteries—they find her. So does romance and adventure.

          Mike is diligently penning her latest mystery novel when a lovely young girl interrupts, begging Mike to find her sister’s killer. Mike tries to explain that she doesn’t solve crimes, she writes about them. Unable to withstand the young girl’s tears, Mike gears her compassion for action and sets out to solve the murder. When she solves it, no one will believe her and she nearly becomes the next victim.

          Adding to Miz Mike’s heartbreak, she nearly loses her secret love, ex-Hollywood cowboy star Marty Richards, to the murderer—who proves to be a murderess. Collecting unwanted, unloved and unlovely human misfits the way some folks collect stray dogs, Mike further endangers her nascent relationship with Marty when she installs three young, single men on her ranch in an effort to help them. But nothing including the loss of Marty’s affection and the life-threatening events she faces in her ineffectual attempt to mind her own business test Mike’s faith in God more than the kidnapping of her youngest grandson.

          God always gets the last laugh. One of the men in Miz Mike’s collection, Clint Flavors, who some locals disparage for having an elevator that halts between the floors of his mind, helps solve the mystery of the Bridge to Nowhere and recover Miz Mike’s kidnapped grandson.

          Challenges remain even after the mystery is solved. Can the slightly overweight “forties-something” Mike, who nearly always minds her own business, indulge her non-chocolate passion for the delectable Marty? Or will he always remain just out of her reach—sort of like that yellow M&M that rolled beneath the sofa?

          Bridge to Nowhere is published by Sunpenny Publishing in London. It is available in all the usual online locations in both paperback and Kindle editions. And be sure to ask for it at your favorite local bookstore!

         

Purchase: Sunpenny Publishing

Stephanie Parker McKean—bio

          I’ve survived being mauled by an African lion; bitten by a poisonous water moccasin snake; attacked by an insane miniature chimp; and childhood sexual abuse.

          What doesn’t make you bitter makes you better. You really can’t make lemonade without lemons.

          And thank God, I’ve made the transition from atheist to Christian. My two favorite Bible verses are: in everything give thanks, and all things work together to good to them that love the LORD.

          The worst day in my life was the day that I lost my job at the newspaper; my mother died and I couldn’t attend her funeral because my husband had just been sent home from the hospital to die; I had to get our sheepdog put to sleep, and my truck caught on fire in downtown San Antonio. Things could only get better! Thanks to Jesus, they have! I am now married to the marvelous Rev. Alan McKean, a talented author in his own right with The Scent of Time to his credit. We live in the lovely Black Isle of Scotland where we can walk our rough collie, Angel Joy, along the beach. My mystery-romance-suspense, Bridge to Nowhere, has been published by Sunpenny Publishing in England, the first of a series featuring forty-something Texan Miz Mike, whose attempts to mind her own business are foiled by her motto: “never let an adventure pass by unmolested.”

          I seem to have been born with an innate pride for Texas and a love for animals. All animals. When I was four, I caught my first pet and kept it until my parents discovered me playing with it. You can’t blame them—it was a scorpion! When I was older, our family ran a roadside zoo, which explains the chimp attack and having been mauled by an African lion. You can’t blame the lion—he wasn’t being mean, he was just being a lion!