Blurb Blitz & Giveaway: Jury Duty is Murder by Kate Damon

JURY DUTY IS MURDER

by

Kate Damon

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Cozy Mystery

Publisher: The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

Publication Date: January 8, 2025

Page count: 275 pages

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SYNOPSIS:

The verdict is in; a famed athlete is headed for prison. The jurors have done their job and are free to go back to their lives.

 

But after being sequestered for four months, life as some knew it no longer exists.

Harold Ashman’s house is almost destroyed by a careless driver. Exotic dancer, CeeCee Laine, discovers that her boyfriend is two-timing her, and she no longer has a job. Actor Alex Manning learns his career is down the tubes, and 72-year-old, Helen Ryder, discovers her family is plotting to put her in an old folks' home.

Then things take a turn for the worse. When former jurors start dropping like flies, CeeCee, Helen, Harold, and Alex are convinced there’s a killer on the loose. Now the feuding foursome must find him before he kills them—or before they save him the trouble by killing each other.

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ENJOY AN EXCERPT:

The ringing telephone woke me up. Without opening my eyes, I felt around until I touched the nightstand and finally, my phone. “Hello.”
 
“Wake up.”
 
I groaned. “Alex, what do you want?”
 
“I need you to wake up.”
 
I forced myself to sit up. The clock on the radio said it was after ten. “This better be important.”
 
“Something is terribly wrong,” Alex said. “It’s the thirtieth and nobody’s dead.”
 
“Hallelujah.” I hung up and dived back into my pillow. The phone rang again, and I groaned. Only Alex would think that no dead bodies meant something was wrong.
 
I rolled over and grabbed the phone. “Now what?”
 
“No one’s dead.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

When Kate Damon is not writing, she and her husband enjoy RVing, spending time with family and friends, raising Monarch butterflies, and playing a wicked game of bridge.

 

Writing as Margaret Brownley, she has published more than 40 novels and is a New York Times bestselling author. Known for her memorable characters and humor, she is a two-time Romance Writers of America Rita finalist.

 

Not counting the book she wrote in sixth grade, and the puzzle of the missing socks, this is her first mystery.

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REVIEW:

5 stars!

Oh, heck yeah! 

Engaging characters, clever plot, and a compelling and thrilling mystery! 

Jury Duty Is Murder is an excellent and entertaining new mystery by Kate Damon featuring a unique group of unexpected amateur sleuths cast straight from "The Island of Misfit Toys." After passing their guilty verdict, the jurors in a high-profile criminal case begin to die off one by one, all under "accidental" circumstances. The deaths do not go unnoticed by the surviving members of the jury, four of whom band together to find a serial killer when their request for help from the police is disregarded. Part "Thursday Murder Club" vibe, part "And Then There Were None," I was glued to this story from start to finish! 

While the main characters couldn't be less compatible or more different from each other, they'd all undergone a major shared life experience: 120 days sequestered from their lives and loved ones while performing their civic duty as jurors for a big, highly contested trial involving a famous sports figure. They'd argued and gotten on each other's nerves for four months but also forged a deep bond. Each came away changed from how they went in. 

The plot moves quickly and is told from the alternating perspectives of the four main characters: CeeCee, Harold, Helen, and Alex. Each is struggling with where they are in life, and the temporary interruption of the trial magnified those issues, giving them grief. I was rooting for each one of them immediately. The situations they get themselves into had me laughing but there are some poignant, real-life moments as well. 

Their investigation is enjoyable, and tension builds as they scramble to stop the killer before they can strike again. I couldn't help but compare this quartet to the more gifted and copacetic members of "The Thursday Murder Club," a similarly mismatched group, and I like them all the same for their squabbling and gradual evolution into ride-or-die friends. Here we are on the last day of 2024, and this may be my absolute favorite book of the year.

I recommend JURY DUTY IS MURDER to readers of mysteries and thrillers.

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