The Underground Authors are a collection of writers from the United States and Canada who banded together to support each other in the publishing process. Just for kicks we decided to do a group project and write a book of short stories.
We had a ball creating Beyond the Sea: Stories from The Underground. Get your copy on Amazon.
WELCOME TO MAGNOLIA BLUFF
DEATH WEARS A CRIMSON HAT
Harry Thurgood is an enigma. Polished, cultured, and relatively new to Magnolia Bluff, Texas, he’s a man with a past, and he keeps his secrets close to his chest. Not only is Harry hiding his sins, but so is a good portion of Magnolia Bluff. The Crimson Hat Society is a group of women in the town who do many charitable works for their community, but beneath the group’s surface bubbles a malignancy of lies and deceit that leads to death.
KELLY GIVES IT 5-STARS!
CW Hawes’ characters are colorful and unforgettable—like the Reverend Ember Cole, preacher at the local Methodist Church. She moves around Magnolia Bluff dressed in ministerial black with a Saturno religious hat perched on her head. Despite her dour dress, Ember’s face is as angelic as her personality, and Harry is willing to go to hell and back to win her love. Someone in the town wants to make sure Harry and Ember never consummate their romance. DEATH WEARS A CRIMSON HAT is a great romp of a read and earns 5 stars.
EULOGY IN BLACK AND WHITE
Town folk in Magnolia Bluff, Texas get scarce on May Twenty-Third every year. Some go on “vacation.” Others go visit their relatives in distant cities. Many people stay home and lock their doors. Why such peculiar behavior? They want to live. Every May Twenty-Third for the last nine years someone has been murdered in Magnolia Bluff. Who’s next? Only the killer knows.
KELLY'S REVIEW
Caleb Pirtle III is an accomplished and prolific writer. I lost count after eighty books. I always come away from reading his books with a deep sense of satisfaction. EULOGY IN BLACK AND WHITE certainly falls in that category. Pirtle has mastered a style of writing I call bulleted prose that hits the reader right between the eyes. Bam! Bam! The mystery moves swiftly, and keeps you engrossed to the end. And speaking of the end, Caleb twisted a tale so neatly, I didn’t see it coming. Well, done, Master. You’ve earned five stars from me. - Kelly Marshall
THE GREAT PEANUT BUTTER CONSPIRACY
She calls herself Bliss for a reason. Her real name is Sambethe Ursula Watkins; and yes, she hates the name. According to legend, her first name Sambethe was once a Persian seer—maybe that explains why she sees dead people who demand that she solve their murders. Bliss breaks down in Magnolia Bluff, Texas when her motorcycle peters out. She’s stuck in town waiting on a cycle part, so why not solve a murder why she waits? Before she knows it, someone wants to make her his next victim. The Great Peanut Butter Conspiracy is amusing, charming, and deadly.
KELLY'S REVIEW
Underground Author Cindy Davis is a masterful writer. She can captivate readers with traditional murder mysteries, (she’s written twenty-two of them). She’s also delved into metaphysical mysteries with fiction drama like Zipacna’s Legacy and two sequels. In her latest adventure, THE GREAT PEANUT BUTTER CONSPIRACY, Davis dives into a whimsical tale about a ghost that haunts her room and demands that she solve his mysterious death. Then there’s the pizza-loving toucan, and clues she finds in her favorite Jimmy Buffett tunes. The tale turns deadly though when Bliss gets too close to discovering the killer, and her own life is in peril. It’s a unique book and a real nail-biter.