Author of the Week: Nanci Rathbun

Bringing August to a close and welcoming September as Author of the Week is Nanci Rathbun! Her two mysteries are Truth Kills and Cash Kills and both are Angelina Bonaparte mysteries. Click the picture to learn more! 

In Truth Kills: An Angelina Bonaparte Mystery, private investigator Angelina Bonaparte is done with her quiet life as a librarian and instead, ferrets out the cheaters and the lowlifes. Angie, who has had plenty of experience with these kinds of men, tracks down deadbeats and exposes unfaithful spouses. This time, however, she has been asked to prove a cheating man innocent of the murder of his mistress by his pregnant wife. Her heart screams at her to let him rot in prison for being a cheater, but her head convinces her that adultery is not a good enough reason for incarceration. During the investigation, Angie learns a lot of people wanted the victim dead. With the help of Ted Wukowski, a detective still hung up from the death of his former female MPD partner, Angie will have her work cut out for her as she starts to realize her attraction for the detective. They must work together through his fear of loss and her lack of trust.

Here's an excerpt! Click the picture to read more! 

"I’m a professional snoop and I’m good at it. While on the job, I can look like the senior partner of an accountancy firm in my pinstriped navy business suit, or the neighborhood white-haired old-lady gossip. Off the job, I’m a fifty-something hottie: white hair gelled back, dramatic eye make-up, toned body encased in designer duds. Gravity has taken a small toll, but who notices in candlelight?

"As I rubbed potting soil into the cooking oil that I’d already smeared on my Salvation Army second-hand clothes I examined myself in the mirror. A short, plain woman (five foot, three inches) with choppy white hair and no make-up, wearing dirty, baggy clothes, looked back at me. A homeless person. I nodded and headed down the fire stairs to the parking garage, trying to avoid meeting any of my neighbors."

Angela Bonaparte is back in Cash Kills: An Angela Bonaparte Mystery. This time, Angelina is brought a client named Adriana Johnson whose parents were immigrants from the former Yugoslavia and murdered a week prior during the robbery of their small hardware store. Adriana has just discovered that despite their living a working poor lifestyle, her parents were actually quite wealthy. She needs Angie to discover the nature of her deceased parents wealth. When Angie goes to talk to the parents’ attorney, she finds him missing and his secretary lying dead on the office floor with her head blown off. Ted Wukowski, homicide detective and Angie’s boyfriend, advises her to stay away from the murder investigation, but of course she pays little attention to that. Adriana has sound reason to be suspicious of her parents’ fortune and may be in danger herself. While investigating Adriana’s parents’ home, Angie finds connections between them, their attorney, and the Bosnian War of the 1980s. Angie is determined to find out more as others are trying to prevent her. Someone knows about the money in the bank accounts and they don’t intend to let Adriana inherit it. 

Check out this excerpt! To read more, click the picture!

"She’d wound down enough that I felt I could approach her without stifling her story. I stood and walked over to her and took her hand in mine. Hers was icy cold and I could feel the small tremors of her body. Her eyes were slightly unfocused. “Adriana—“ I deliberately pronounced it the way she had on the phone, not the Americanized way that Susan used when she introduced us—“I think you’re in a mild state of shock right now.” I turned to Susan. “Would you brew us some of your fantastic tea? With plenty of sugar.” She nodded and slipped out. “Susan makes the best tea leaves or herbs.” As I soothed her, I led her to the conference room, sat her on an upholstered love seat and covered her legs with a throw. Susan came in with the tea and we watched while Adrianna sipped and seemed to relax. When she set the cup down and leaned back, closing her eyes, I motioned to Susan to follow me from the room."

Nanci Rathbun retired from being an IT project manager at AT&T to pursue her dream of writing. Writing a short romance story, she began her writing career being published in Woman’s World magazine. She then focused her writing on what she loved to read—mysteries. Her Angela Bonaparte series are her first mystery books.

Growing up in Wisconsin, Rathbun recently moved to the San Francisco area to be closer to her kids and granddaughters, but she will always remain a Packers fan.

Nanci Rathbun also loves to hear from her readers! You can reach her by Facebook, Twitter, or check out her website! 

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