Death Comes to Santa Fe by Amanda Allen
Former New York darling turned amateur sleuth Madeline Vaughn-Alwin is once again thrown into a colourful yet deadly web of secrets, lies and soirees to die for!
It's the week of Fiesta in Santa Fe and Maddie is looking forward to enjoying the celebrations. But as 'Old Man Gloom' Zozobra goes up in flames, so too do Maddie's hopes for a carefree life . . . Human remains are found in the dying embers of Zozobra, and then Maddie and her dashing beau Dr David Cole find a body washed up in the arroyo at the edge of town.
Soon identified as Ricardo Montoya, a wealthy businessman and head of one of the most affluent families in Santa Fe . . . the plot starts to thicken. While his beautiful wife Catalina and her complicated children seem less than heartbroken at his untimely demise, and with many disgruntled locals crawling out of the woodwork, Maddie is surrounded by suspects.
With the celebrations of Fiesta continuing around them, Maddie and her 'Detection Posse' get busy infiltrating the best parties and hobnobbing with old and new faces - but can they bring the murderer to justice before they strike again?
About the author
Amanda wrote her first romance at the age of sixteen--a vast historical epic starring all her friends as the characters, written secretly during algebra class (and her parents wondered why math was not her strongest subject...)
She's never since used algebra, but her books have been nominated for many awards, including the RITA Award, the Romantic Times BOOKReviews Reviewers' Choice Award, the Booksellers Best, the National Readers Choice Award, and the Holt Medallion. She lives in Santa Fe with two rescue dogs, a wonderful husband, and a very and far too many books and royal memorabilia collections.
When not writing or reading, she loves taking dance classes, collecting cheesy travel souvenirs, and watching the Food Network--even though she doesn't cook.
Social Media Links –
https://ammandamccabe.kmcb.site/index.htm
Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amandamccabeauthor/ )
As part of the blog tour I have the pleasure of sharing an extract with you!
Maddie blinked open her eyes as the rose-gold light of morning pierced her sleep. She groaned and rolled over, finding not her own fluffy bed with its bright quilts and soft sheets, but the thin cushions of the old iron chaise on Will’s portal. She laughed to realize she must have fallen asleep there after dancing for hours, and rubbed at her mussed, bobbed hair.
The day smelled of the freshness of morning, the flowers growing wild in the garden, the tinge of smoke from Zozobra’s death throes. She stretched and sat up as she studied the people around her, slumped on pillows on the portal, sleeping in hammocks. Will was poking through the ashes, a frown creasing his lean face behind his spectacles.
“Will?” she called, finding her shoes before she stepped down off the portal. “Is something wrong?”
He glanced up, his eyes wide. He gestured to the metal backbone of Zozobra, the pitted dais, which was all that remained of the demon. “I think Zozo got more than he bargained for last night, Maddie.”
He poked his rake at the smoking ashes again. The slips of paper they all wrote their glooms on were gone, but something else gleamed there, smoke-stained but intact. Something she hadn’t seen when they sewed Zozo closed the day before.
A set of false teeth, pale ivory still attached to fake gums. A pocket watch, the silver marred by the dark gray ashes. The mangled gold frames of a pair of spectacles.
Maddie swallowed hard. “Those weren’t there before.”
“No. Neither was this.” Will used a small spade to hold up something else. A human finger bone.
“Nertz,” Maddie cursed. It looked like her idyllic year was ending.
