Undercover Babymoon (Unde(a)Feated Detective) by Karina Bartow

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Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Undercover Babymoon (Unde(a)Feated Detective) by Karina Bartow. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!

Undercover Babymoon (Unde(a)Feated Detective)
Cozy Mystery
4th in Series
Setting – Orlando FL/Caribbean Cruise
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wild Rose Press (September 11, 2024)
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 246 pages

Most mothers-to-be spend their pregnancy leafing through baby names and shopping for nursery furniture. Minka Avery spends hers trying to hunt down a murderer on the open seas.

Minka’s promotion to Orlando PD’s homicide department has some bumps at first, including her growing baby bump. Just as she and her partner begin to hit their stride, Logan Baris’s suspicious death baffles them. The investigation leads the detectives to believe he had a hand in a shady operation, but the cruise ship worker’s troubles seem to voyage into the ocean blues with him.

After they meet up with some dead ends on land, Minka convinces her partner and his wife to join her and her husband to embark on a covert investigation on the ship. Will they be able to uncover whatever scheme is underway on the vessel? Or will the choppy waves of personal drama make it run ashore?

Character Guest Post

Minka Avery: Multitasker Extraordinaire

By Karina Bartow

Multitasking is like a second language for me, like it is for every woman. As a matter of fact, it’s a third language in my case, behind English and American Sign Language. Regardless, I don’t remember a time when I had the luxury of devoting myself to one pursuit at a time. Even in school, I balanced my academic efforts with being in debate club, holding down a part-time job, and helping out with chores at home.

Having been born deaf, I’ve always had another to-do in the back of my mind: proving my worth and ability to achieve my dreams. I had to work extra hard in the police academy to show my instructors that I had what it takes to succeed in fighting crime. Those efforts didn’t end with my graduation, either, with it being even more difficult to convince a commanding officer that my skills weren’t hindered by my hearing impairment. My first CO didn’t care about the fact that I had a cochlear implant or that I’d graduated at the top of my class. During my short time at his precinct, though, I learned his prejudice was one of his more minor character flaws.

But I digress.

I won’t complain about the learning experience I’ve had in caring for several different duties at once. Being a detective, I could never expect to be assigned to one case at a time, with the demand we have. Of course, it also prepared me for managing a household, especially considering everything my active husband likes us to be involved in so that he doesn’t get bored! In fact, we would all be in trouble if we didn’t keep our family preoccupied!

No training is adequate for the demands of being a working mom. With my first daughter, I enjoyed the privilege of staying home with her and giving her and my husband my all. Last year, I returned to my career with the Orlando Police Department when a position for a detective opened up. My little girl was in kindergarten, so I had a bit more freedom without the pressures of lining up child care. Still, it’s a balancing act to attend to my duties at work and home, especially when I can be called at any moment to a crime scene. Funny how little regard bad guys have for disrupting dinner or homework time.

Naturally, my primary concern has always been to give every part of my life the attention they deserve. Not having a true nine-to-five job, I find it all too easy to let my work bleed into my time with my family. I’ve pledged that no case is more important than they are, but at the same time, it’s a challenge to completely redirect my brain away from investigations when lives are in danger. My personal life has intersected with my career so often, the toughest occasion being when a bomb threat was made to my daughter’s school. Just the same, I work with my husband to manage my priorities and make adjustments when needed.

Just when we thought we had our routine figured out and established, life handed us two big changes—in tandem yet again. My partner and I were promoted to the homicide department, and no sooner did I learn I was pregnant. While I couldn’t be happier to expand our family, the already faint line between work and home pretty much diminished altogether. As it was, I had a strong sense of smell and never aspired to be a homicide detective because of that. Add in morning sickness, and it spells disaster—or should I say it smells disaster? To my gratitude, the department’s medical examiner has a baby on the way, too, so together, we’ve navigated trying to determine how one life ended as we nourish the new ones within us.

At last, my two worlds collided in synch instead of opposition. My partner, who is also my husband’s brother, and I were investigating the suspicious death of a cruise ship worker. The deeper we dove into it, the more convinced we became that something underway on the ship led to his demise. As law enforcers, we can’t board the ship in an official capacity, given that whatever took place on it is out of our jurisdiction.

As a mom-to-be who’s none the wiser to any unscrupulous schemes afoot, however, I can traverse the vessel under the guise of a typical babymooner. And if I happen to witness something that would endanger my family and fellow passengers, shouldn’t I act for all of our sakes?

Throughout the Unde(a)feteated Detective Series, I’ve juggled pursuing the mob while losing my husband to the witness protection program, trying to clear my brother’s name while raising a toddler, and so much more. For a change, this seems like a refreshing type of multitasking—rest, relaxation, and righting the scales of justice.

This should be a breeze…a Caribbean breeze!

About Karina Bartow

Karina Bartow grew up and still lives in Northern Ohio. Though born with Cerebral Palsy, she’s never allowed her disability to define her. Rather, she’s used her experiences to breathe life into characters who have physical limitations, but like her, are determined not to let them stand in the way of the life they want. Her works include Husband in Hiding, Forgetting My Way Back to You, Brother of Interest, Wrong Line, Right Connection, and Accidental Allies. She may only be able to type with one hand, but she writes with her whole heart!

Author Links

Website https://www.karinabartow.com/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/karinabartowauthor

Blog https://www.karinabartow.com/behind-the-pages-blog/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/karina.bartow/

Twitter/X https://www.twitter.com/KarinaBartow

GoodReads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15045283.Karina_Bartow

Purchase Links – Amazon