I love many of my characters, including the so-called bad ones, too much to have them appear in only one book in my Isabel Long Mystery Series.

There are, of course, those close to Isabel Long, the series’ protagonist, like her 93-year-old mother, Maria, her advisor and confidante, and her family. Then there is her love interest Jack, owner of the Rooster, where Isabel works part-time as a bartender. 

They could be a reliable source, say, the Old Farts, those gossipy men who meet in the backroom of the general store and know everybody’s business in town — or at least they think they do. Actually, one of them is directly involved in a case.

Then there are those characters who have a certain role in one book but that changes in subsequent books. Take Annette Waters, one tough local who runs a junkyard and garage. In Redneck’s Revenge, she asks Isabel to investigate the death of her SOB of a father, who was supposedly too drunk to get out of his burning house. (She pays Isabel with free mechanical service for life.)  Annette, who Isabel secretly calls the Tough Cookie, becomes a confidante and an unlikely friend. She is also a great source of amusement via her band the Junkyard Dogs that play frequently at the Rooster. 

Then there are the Beaumont brothers, feral drug dealers who were once suspects. One of them hires Isabel to investigate a case. The other has saves Isabel from dangerous situations.

Lin Pierce, who hired Isabel for his P.I. firm, pays her to investigate a kidnapping in Following the Lead after he closes his business.

Cyrus Nilsson, a noted poet, is a suspect in the third book, Checking the Traps. (Snarky Isabel gave him the nickname Big Shot Poet.) In the seventh, Missing the Deadline, he pays her to probe the shooting of his first literary agent.

So, now I have just published Finding the Source, no. eight. It begins when Isabel and her mother have been invited to a luncheon at Luella’s a swanky restaurant, likely the only one, in the town of Mayfield. Their host is Anna Robbins, the subject of the seventh case in Following the Lead. When she was a baby, she was stolen from her carriage in her family’s front yard after her brother, Lin, was lured away. (The Bald Old Fart is her father.) Anyway, a grateful and wealthy Anna wants to personally thank Isabel.

And because Anna has lured Isabel to Mayfield, a city she rarely visits, it sets her next case in motion when she and her mother have a chance encounter with a homeless man, who has a crime worth solving — he was 12 when he discovered his mother’s body and the murder was never solved. But how could a homeless man hire Isabel?

Here’s a bit from that scene at Luella’s.

“So, Isabel, I imagine you are wondering why I invited you to lunch,” Anna says. “Lin told me what a curious person you are, how that makes you a great private investigator.”

I feel myself smile.

“Yes, I inherited the curiosity gene from my mother,” I say. “But you’re correct. Is there something more I can do for you?”

Anna shakes her head.

“I wanted to give you a gift,” she says, as she reaches inside her Luis Vuitton purse on the seat beside her. “I know how much Lin paid you. I don’t believe it was enough, so I wanted to make my own contribution.” She holds an envelope for me to take, which I do. “Please accept this gift. Go ahead. Open it.”

I lift the envelope’s flap and peek inside. I read the amount on the check twice. Wow, it is five times the amount Lin paid me, and he was very generous.

“Uh, Anna, this is too much.”

“No, it isn’t.” She puts those distinctive eyes on me. “I can easily afford it. I am a very wealthy woman, thanks to family money. My other family.”

“I appreciate the offer….”

“This is not an offer, but a gift I want you to have,” she says. “Lin told me you are a person of high moral standards. We don’t have enough people like that these days. Spend the money anyway you see fit. Go on a trip. Buy something. Or perhaps, help somebody else.” She smiles. “Please.”

I nod. 

“Thank you. I will put the money to good use.”

“I bet you will,” Anna says.

And I bet you can guess what Isabel will do with some of that money. 

Here’s the link to Finding the Source for Kindle and paperback. And if you enjoy it, please leave a rating or even a review on Amazon. Thank you if you do.