Chutes and Ladder - A Guest Post & Giveaway

I'm so happy to welcome Marty Golden to Cozy Up With Kathy today. You can find Marty on the pages of the Silicon Valley Mystery series by Marc Jedel. Chutes and Ladder is the second book in the series and was released earlier this month.

Hi, I’m Marty Golden. I have to tell you I almost didn’t make it here today. It’s not the traffic in Silicon Valley, although that’s bad enough. What almost did me in was a week like you wouldn’t believe.

I’m not sure why Marc wanted me to write this. He said something about being busy now that his second book, Chutes and Ladder, came out. I didn’t even know he’d written one book, let alone two. I’ve been so busy between work, my nieces and my visiting cousin — and trying to figure out what happened to my friend — I haven’t been able to catch up with him.

So, about last week. There I was minding my own business, working at Rover, the self-driving car service, that I hope will be the next big thing. [By the way, if you know of a hot company that’s looking for a good engineer and has a lot of stock options to hand out, call me.]

Even though I hate camping, somehow I got conned into chaperoning for my niece’s Girl Scout camping trip. While there, I stumbled across the dead body of my friend in the forest. That was not how I wanted to spend my weekend. And, probably not what Larry wanted either. He was my poker buddy, old friend since college, and newly deceased.

When the cops labeled it an accident, I wasn’t satisfied. Larry just wasn’t the kind of guy to go gallivanting around the woods early on a Saturday morning. I told the cops that, right to their faces. And then, well, let’s say that things got a little heated and I got invited to depart immediately.

My week at work was already crazy busy, but I continued thinking about Larry since his death didn’t make sense as an accident. I kept finding loose ends so I’d leave a voicemail for Mace with each update. Mace is a Sergeant in the San Jose Police. We became sorta unofficial partners last month. Shh! I’m not supposed to make that public. He doesn’t want anyone to know about us working together. His actual words were “Don’t ever say that again.” I’m sure he only said it like that because other cops were nearby.

Here’s a little about me. I’m a software engineer but I don’t talk about it much since I don’t want to bore people with technobabble. My sister moved to town recently so I see her and my nieces a lot more often. It’s nice to have them around even if she is always making fun of my Hawaiian shirts. Like that’s not professional Silicon Valley attire or something?!

I do joke around a lot, especially with my nieces. That’s what uncles do. What didn’t come with the Uncle instruction manual was how to investigate a friend’s death. I am pretty good with details and I did watch a lot of detective shows growing up, so I figured I had it covered. It wasn’t supposed to get dangerous. I only wanted to help the police move faster. I learned they can sure move fast when they want to.

Before I wrap up, Marc wanted me to ask you to please buy a copy of Chutes and Ladder, his latest book in the Silicon Valley Mystery series. Both it and Uncle and Ants are free for Kindle Unlimited readers. He said both were funny cozy mysteries that would stay at a low price during the Great Escapes tour. I suppose I ought to check them out also — if I ever find time.

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