FINAL COVER FOR TAXED TO THE MAX

I'm very excited since I just got the final cover for TAXED TO THE MAX coming out in late December from Five Star/Cengage. Since it's a hardback, the cover's kind of wide. I'm hoping I can get it all in here!

Here's what it's about in case you can't read the blurb:

Auto tag clerk Corrie Caters hates the tax office. The customers are irate and her co-worker Delores is grouchy. If Corrie ever gets through college, she's waving bye-bye.

When rumored arsonist and delinquent taxpayer Billy Lee Woodhallen attacks the tax commissioner, Corrie decides to call it quits. Too late. The next morning she and Delores find their boss murdered.  Billy Lee must have done it to keep his property from being sold.

County officials want to appoint Corrie tax commissioner, but she's not that stupid. Then the man who jilted her at the altar in front of two hundred people—most of them local—shows up.  A Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent, Bodie Fairhust thinks Billy Lee will strike again and tells her to refuse the job.

Like any self-respecting north Georgia woman, Corrie won't listen to a sneaky snake-in-the-grass. She takes the job to spite Bodie. But the snake was right. Billy Lee comes up with an alibi and is free to go after the new tax commissioner. Her.

Now obtuse deputies guard her 24/7, a state auditor breathes down her neck, and a pothead IT guy is doing heaven knows what to the tax digest she's responsible for. Not to mention Delores snubbing her and the weird tax office customers trying to do all kinds of illegal things. If Billy Lee doesn't do her in, the stress will.

A light mystery, TAXED TO THE MAX shows what really happens in property tax and tag offices.

ARC for TAXED TO THE MAX

Excited last week to open one (of two) boxes and find they contained the Advance Reading Copies for my light mystery TAXED TO THE MAX coming out in December from Five Star. This will be a hardback, but I still didn't expect such nice Advance Copies. They're like trade paperbacks.

Now I have to figure out places to send them out to for review. Five Star has already done the main ones so I must dig around and find smaller places. Can't remember if the Atlanta Journal Constitution still does book reviews or not.

Oh well. Guess I'll soon find out.

FIVE STAR PRESS

I got the executed contract today so I feel safe in announcing that Five Star Press has offered for my light mystery, TAXED TO THE MAX. It's due to come out in December of 2012 in hardback since Five Star, I understand, sells mostly to libraries and educational facilities.

TAXED TO THE MAX is a light murder mystery. It isn't R rated, maybe not even PG-13 rated. No heavy thinking is involved to enjoy it. In case like most people, you've been dying of curiosity about what really goes on in a property tax collections/tag office, this is your chance to find out.

As for what it's about, well...

When a tax commissioner is murdered, a young tag clerk is asked to replace him. Ha! She's not crazy enough to take on the thankless job.

But then her ex-fiance who jilted her at the altar in front of two hundred people - most of them local - tells her to turn it down, that whoever killed the tax commissioner will be gunning for her. Naturally, she can't let the snake-in-the-grass talk her out of a job he probably wants one of his buddies to have. She becomes tax commissioner to spite him.

But the snake was right. Now the murderer's after her.

So obtuse deputies guard her 24/7, tag buyers try to do all kinds of illegal stuff, and the property tax digest she's responsible for, is in the hands of the pothead IT guy.

With this much stress, what's a gal to do?

I hope all tax office people out there enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it!