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A Justified Bitch - A Las Vegas Mystery
H.G. McKinnis
Publisher: Imbrifex Books
Summary
WELL-CRAFTED MYSTERY: Characters and setting intertwine in a twisted tale of insanity and murder THE OTHER SIDE OF VEGAS: Entrepreneurial survival in the hardscrabble neighborhoods physically near the Strip but light years away in character. THE “STUFF” DISEASE: A fascinating look inside the peculiar psychosis of hoarding and its effects on all the lives it touches. AUTHOR EXPERIENCE: A life-long resident of Las Vegas and a nude dresser for production shows on the Strip, H.G. McKinnis brings naked truth and personal experience to her gritty Las Vegas mystery. Sales Handle Hoarding, insanity, murder, and redemption on the rough side of Vegas Publicity and Promotions • $13,850 marketing and publicity budget, coordinated by Smith Publicity in New York who has been been successfully promoting New York Times bestsellers since 1997 • Key outlets: Publisher's Weeky, Library Journal, Booklist, Foreword Magazine, NPR.org Books, Los Angeles Times, Las Vegas Sun • Will be available on NetGalley, February. 22, 2017 • National radio and TV interviews • Promotion on the author's website AJustifiedBitch.com • Promotion and giveaways on Living-Las-Vegas.com • Promotion and giveaways on RoadTripAmerica.com • Promotion and giveaways on Imbrifex.com • Publicity and promotion in conjunction with the author's speaking engagements • Intensive 6 months media publicity to crime, mystery, psychology and social media outlets. Longer Description, Helen Taylor is a hoarding cat lady who lives in a hardscrabble neighborhood in a depressed section of Las Vegas. She often holds extended conversations with her husband Bobby, who died in a freak hiking accident years ago. Helen is also a well-known entrepreneur around the flea markets of Las Vegas, where she sells junk and acquires more. Ron, a neighbor who lives in a rundown trailer a couple of blocks away, often helps her with “the business.” Helen’s life suddenly turns even crazier when one of her many feline friends delivers a severed finger to her doorstep. The prostitute next door is found murdered, and the police take Helen into custody. The dead neighbor’s two dogs escape in the excitement. Few people know that one of the dogs is actually a wolf. Summoned from Phoenix by the detective on the case, Helen’s sister Pat arrives in Las Vegas with two teen-age boys, her son Jordan and nephew Mark. Mark is Helen’s son, but Helen’s memory of him vanished when she suffered the trauma of losing her husband. Helen thinks Mark is her nephew, and Mark is growing up resigned to the reality of his mother’s insanity. After bailing Helen out of jail, Pat is horrified by the mental deterioration she sees in the older sister she once idolized. Reluctantly, she decides to follow professional advice and commit Helen to a mental hospital. Guilt-ridden because she has been so out of touch, Pat begins the monumental task of cleaning up Helen’s garbage-dump of a house. Jordan helps, but insists on saving Helen’s “merchandise,” the piles of junk she takes to the flea market every week to sell. Meanwhile, Helen responds to medication she receives in the mental hospital. She no longer sees and converses with the long-dead Bobby. Ill at ease with her new mental state and unhappy with incarceration, she manages to escape. Before Pat or the police can track her down, the director of the mental hospital is found dead. The detective, now investigating two murders, becomes convinced that Helen is the killer of both victims. Things are also going from bad to worse for Pat. Mark misbehaves on the Strip and gets hauled into a hotel security office. Then she learns that Jordan has vanished. At least Ron, the neighbor who helps Helen with her flea market business, seems to be taking good care of Helen’s house. When Helen finally returns home, she’s appalled that her house has been cleaned out. Then she notices that Ron has been living there. Upset, she decides to go to his place and chew him out for squatting. Ron isn’t home, but Helen lets herself into his trailer and waits. She has just discovered grisly evidence that Ron is the murderer when he returns. Right behind him is the wolf, which has been roaming the neighborhood since its owner’s death. When Ron assaults Helen with a knife, the wolf attacks and kills him. Both murders now solved, Pat prepares to return home to Phoenix. Still concerned about her sister’s well-being, she is reassured when Helen decides it’s time to give up Bobby. With medication, she is also able to remember that Mark is her son but agrees that Pat is the better mother. The whole family is on the road to recovery. The detective who worked the case even manages to protect the wolf that saved Helen’s life.
Available since: 08/08/2017.
