This story was a great little quirky murder mystery with a bit of romance thrown in. Divorced but still bitter, Carrie takes a mad drive to her old house and spies on the new woman.

When the bimbo is found dead, Carrie is the number one suspect - well in her own mind anyway.

A trail of betrayals, real and imagined, takes Carrie on a journey to discover the real killer. There are plenty of suspects, and some of them end up victims too.

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in a twisty tale of murder, revenge, and spite. ( )

Forty-year-old Carrie Burnham Carlin was a biofeedback specialist. Her husband Rich walked out on her and their two pre-teen children, Matt and Allie, to take up with beautiful, surgically enhanced, twenty-eight year old Erica. With both Carrie and Rich’s divorce and Erica and Rich’s wedding coming up very soon, Carrie decided to drive by her former house on the way home from her office. She got out of the car, walked around to the back through the neighbor’s yard (hidden in bushes) and saw Erica wearing one of Carrie’s necklaces. She and Rich were discussing the wedding plans. After hearing Erica refer to her as the “dragon lady,” she decides to leave, only to be stopped by Detective Sergeant Ted Brodsky for speeding.
The next day she heard over the radio that Erica had been murdered. Her body was found in the same location and dressed the same as she had been when Carrie saw her. The police officer remembered Carrie from the day before and she quickly became a suspect.
With the help of her friend, Meg, a former photographer and current café owner, Carrie tried to identify the killer. Her search took her meetings with several people connected with Rich including his secretary, Dot, and a former employee, Herb. A day later, one of them disappeared as did Rich. From another person she learned how much she did not know about Rich’s behavior.
Some of Carrie’s patients play important roles in the story in addition to interfering with her schedule because of requested emergency or cancelled appointments. Ruth-Ann, an orthodox Jew, is working on overcoming a rape. Carrie tells her, “You can’t change other people. Only how you react to them.” Vickie’s father emotionally abused her and she was looking for a father through promiscuity.
There are times when Tesler engages in some witty and clever wordplay. In one place, Carrie and Meg are seated in a car getting ready to speak to Herb. Meg warns her about the dangers she was facing. Carrie thought: “We set there in silence, the tension like a wall between us. She smoked and I fumed.”
Also part of her household are three cats, named for the three tenors, and a dog, Horty. After feeling betrayed by someone she had trusted, she went into the house and was greeted by Horty. Carrie thought, “Goddess did it right when She created dogs. If they love you, they love you for life. No trying to dig through lies and deceptions to figure out whether or not you deserve it. If you forget to feed them, they still love you. If you’re mad at the world and take it out on them, they forgive you. We could learn a lot from the canine species.”
The book had a satisfactory ending which I didn’t anticipate but was mostly logical. It was a quick read with some character development and good observations. It is the first in a series of five and I will consider reading others.
It provides a lot of information about what biofeedback is and how it works.
This book was a free Amazon download. ( )