Playing Possum by Dane McCaslin Guest Post

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Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Playing Possum (The 2 Sisters Pet Valet Mysteries) by Dane McCaslin. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!

Playing Possum (The 2 Sisters Pet Valet Mysteries)

by Dane McCaslin

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Playing Possum (The 2 Sisters Pet Valet Mysteries)
Cozy Mystery
3rd in Series
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Lyrical Press (October 5, 2021)
Number of Pages: 300 (approx.)

The 2 Sisters Pet Valet Service is purring along, thanks to the entrepreneurial talents of retired schoolteacher Gwen Franklin and her bestie and business partner, Nora Goldstein. But whenthe fur starts to fly, they become partners in crime detecting as well . . .

At Nora’s request, Gwen is happy to accompany her to a meeting with ex-hubby #3’s lawyer. Much to Nora’s surprise—and dismay—she’s been named executor of said ex’s will. The fact that the man has been missing for years and was just declared legally dead only makes an already complicated process more so. And besides, is he really dead? What’s not a surprise is that Nora’s twin ex-stepchildren are pressing for access to their father’s dry cleaning fortune . . .

With Gwen’s assist, it’s time for Nora to do a little digging. It turns out that the twins’ catering business is failing—and that their dad’s business was laundering more than clothing. Soon, Gwen and Nora are infiltrating a long list of dirty deeds, including fraud and illegal gains. And the perpetrators are all too close to home. The police may want Gwen and Nora to stick to their own line of work, but the pair are determined to make sure the truth comes out in the wash—before someone ends up in the discard bin . . .

Guest post: Imagination

There were a few fictional characters that I longed to meet in real life. When I was about ten, Trixie Belden captured my imagination like no other person, real or imagined, did. She had the perfect life and home, as well as a rich best friend. How great was that? Any adventure Trixie could think up, Honey, the loaded pal, had the money to do it.

None of my friends had that kind of dough. One thing we did have, though, was a great imagination. We became explorers, investigators (complete with toy magnifying glasses and notebooks), and popcorn makers.

Really. We’d turned our bikes upside down, throw a handful of grass clippings under the tires, and spin the pedals furiously to make the “popcorn” shoot out. No, we didn’t eat it, but it showed ingenuity, in my opinion.

And we made perfume in our bathroom sinks. Until we got caught.

It went something like this: get the baby powder from our little brothers/sisters rooms, dump a good amount in the sink, and add hot water. The resulting mess smelled wonderfully, and we could “bottle” it in an empty baby food jar, ready to peddle from door to door.

Until we got to Mrs. X’s door. She took one look at what we had on offer, marched over to her phone, and called our mothers.

I’ll leave it there. I’m sure you can imagine what happened next.

The moral of this post, though, is not a bunch of kids wreaking havoc in their neighborhood. It’s the fact that we played. We used our imagination. There wasn’t a soundtrack telling us when to laugh or a joystick guiding an avatar through impossible feats. It was just us,

playing our way through a summer and having the time of our lives.

I wish this on every child out there.

About Dana McCaslin

McCaslin began a life-long love of mysteries at a very young age. She bypassed Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden and went straight for Agatha Christie, thanks to her mother’s library books. Dane is retired from a twenty-plus-year career in teaching high school and college English, and she uses her newfound freedom to read for pleasure, write mysteries, and smell the roses.

Author Links

Website – https://www.danemccaslinbooks.com/

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/dana.esquer.10

Twitter – https://twitter.com/mccaslin_dane

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/danemccaslinbooks/?hl=en

GoodReads – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7835071.Dane_McCaslin

BookBub – https://www.bookbub.com/authors/dane-mccaslin

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