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    Watchin' the Detective: A Mystery Dinner Romance
    Watchin' the Detective: A Mystery Dinner Romance
    Watchin' the Detective: A Mystery Dinner Romance
    Ebook156 pages2 hours

    Watchin' the Detective: A Mystery Dinner Romance

    By Louise Hathaway

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    About this ebook

    Have you ever wanted to go to a mystery dinner theater where the audience has to figure out whodunit? That is where two lovers meet in this humorous and sexy romance novel. Isabella, a librarian in her early thirties, goes with her friends to a performance where an actual murder takes place. She falls in love with the handsome investigating detective, and gets herself mixed up with some dangerous people when she goes undercover—in spite of his warnings—to help him solve the crime.

    Here's what readers said in 2 Five Star-Rated reviews:

    "What a wonderful little book! A great idea to take the dinner into an actual murder and then on top of it add some romance too. Great idea. This is a very easy read and hard to put down. I would reccommend this to anyone who had been to a murder mystery dinner and hoped for more than just so-so food. You'll not regret it!"

    "Walk through Orange County with Isabella as she helps Detective Don "Draper" Sterling solve a murder mystery. Light and fun murder mystery to read at the beach! Take Isabella with you..."

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLouise Hathaway
    Release dateJun 29, 2014
    ISBN9781311056894
    Watchin' the Detective: A Mystery Dinner Romance
    Author

    Louise Hathaway

    Louise Hathaway is a pen name of a husband and wife writing team. They write in several different genres including murder/ mystery; romance, travel, time travel, and literary criticism.

    Read more from Louise Hathaway

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      Book preview

      Watchin' the Detective - Louise Hathaway

      Books by Louise Hathaway:

      Fighting Demons: A New Orleans Mystery

      Deadly Promises: A New Orleans Mystery

      50 Shades of Dead: A New Orleans Mystery

      The Tustin Chronicles: A Detective Santy Mystery

      The Murder at the Abbey: A Detective Santy Mystery

      Honeymoon in Savannah: A Detective Santy Mystery

      The Body on Ortega Highway: A Detective Santy Mystery

      The Buried Treasure on Route 66: A Nancy Keene Mystery

      The Stolen Mask: A Nancy Keene Mystery

      The Stolen Masterpiece: A Nancy Keene Mystery

      The Ghost in the Plantation: A Nancy Keene Mystery

      The Missing Bachelor Farmer: A Nancy Keene Mystery

      The Ghost Ship: A Nancy Keene Mystery

      Watchin’ the Detective: A Mystery Dinner Romance

      The Salacious Scribes Mystery

      Death Among the Stacks: The Body in the Law Library

      Murder Aboard the Coast Starlight

      Travelers in Time Aboard the California Zephyr

      Travelers in Time A Search for the Missing

      Tripping Back to the Sixties

      Our First Year Raising a Jack Russell Terrier Puppy (And Then Some)

      The Forgotten Sister: A Sequel to Pride and Prejudice

      England in the Footsteps of its Literary Giants

      Chasing My Roots: New World Finally Meets Old World

      Destination Europe: The Summer the World Changed

      Honeymoon in New Orleans

      Our Bluebird Family

      Planning a Vacation? Why Not Chicago? (free)

      These titles are literary essays:

      Marriage in Pride and Prejudice

      The Oedipus Complex in D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers

      Nags, Sluts, and a Deep-breasted Soulmate from the Shining City:

      The Women in Thomas Wolfe’s The Web and the Rock

      Watchin’ the Detective:

      A Mystery Dinner Romance

      By Louise Hathaway

      Copyright Louise Hathaway 2014

      Revised March 2020

      Smashwords Edition

      Author’s Note for the 2nd Edition

      When I first wrote this cozy mystery back in June of 2014, I tried to include all my favorite locales in Orange County, California, where I’ve lived for 65 years. To read of these places again now in March of 2020, during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, is bittersweet. With a heavy heart, I’ve discovered that I cannot visit my favorite places mentioned in my story. The entire county is on lockdown and the restaurants, malls, and theaters I love are all closed.

      With fondness, I look back at the time when I attended a mystery dinner show with my husband, sister, and brother-in-law that took place in the dining room of a Newport Beach golf course which is now closed. The show we saw was supposed to be set in the French Rivera at a wedding reception and the audience was encouraged to dress as if it were the early 60s, the time frame in which the mystery took place. Most of the dialogue from the show I’ve tried to recreate in my story. The only difference is that someone wasn’t murdered in the one I attended, as happened in the pages of this cozy mystery and romantic comedy.

      So, come along with my alter-ego, librarian Isabella, who attended the mystery dinner show and fell head-over-heels in love with the detective who came to investigate the murder.

      Does the detective return her affections? Will she help him solve the mystery? You will have to read Watchin’ the Detective: A Mystery Dinner Romance to find out.

      Chapter One

      It would be so fun to go to one of those mystery dinner shows, Isabella Forshey told herself on her morning walk to work. She had read about one while eating breakfast and drinking her first cup of coffee. It was a beautiful spring day in downtown Santa Ana, the heart and soul (according to some people) of Orange County, California. The jacaranda trees were in blooming and lavender petals drifted down, blanketing the streets and sidewalks. Isabella lived in the Washington Square District of Santa Ana, an oasis of beautiful homes, many built in the 1940s, which were often showcased on home and garden tours. She was a pleasingly plump 35-year-old librarian at the Santa Ana Public Library.

      As she walked, she felt her thigh-high black nylons—the ones she just bought at Victoria’s Secret—slipping down her legs. These are supposed to stay up on their own without having to use a garter belt, she told herself in frustration, as she awkwardly tried to hike them up while walking. When she got to the intersection of Flower and Civic Center and waited for the traffic light to change, unhappy and confused jurors reporting to the courthouse for their first day of jury service complained. I don’t know what their problem is, Isabella thought. I loved serving on a jury. It was interesting and fun.

      One of the jurors saw the id badge that Isabella wore on a lanyard around her neck and asked, Do you work around here?

      Yes, I do.

      How far is it to the courthouse?

      You are almost there. It’s only one more block.

      Is my car going to be safe in that parking garage?

      I hope so, she responded, wanting to say, how should I know?

      Someone else waiting for the traffic light to change asked her, Where’s building 22?

      She answered, I’m not really sure. She felt like asking, what am I? A guided tour director here?

      But I need to get there by 8:00. I have an appointment. It’s important.

      I hope you make it.

      Why don’t you know where the building is? I thought you worked around here.

      For heaven’s sake, she thought and didn’t respond to the rude remark. The traffic light finally changed, and she and the crowd made their way across the street. The line going into the courthouse stretched out for almost a block. Some of the potential jurors walking with Isabella let out a collective groan when they saw the line. One of them asked her, Is that the line for the jurors?

      Afraid so.

      Why is it so long?

      You all have to go through the metal detector.

      One of the ladies complained, I don’t like doing that. It’s too much radiation.

      Isabella answered, It’s for your own safety. You don’t want a crazy man to come in with a gun and start shooting people, do you?

      The lady looked frightened. Is it dangerous around here?

      Isabella asked herself when are these people going to leave me alone?

      Not in the daytime, she answered and then said, Bye, to the crowd. She tried to keep in her happy zone and noticed how pretty the Lilies of the Nile were in front of the courthouse. She walked by a man hawking newspapers the old-fashioned-Norman-Rockwell way, yelling out, Update on Ebola Preparedness. Read all about it.

      There was a coffee cart called Legal Grounds parked in front of the courthouse and Isabella stopped to order one of their delicious Café Lattes.

      The barista was an attractive blonde in his mid-twenties who had sparkling blue eyes that his suntan accentuated. He liked to surf when he wasn’t working or going to classes at the community college.

      He had a crush on Isabella and warmly greeted her. Hello, sweetie. Do you want your usual?

      Yes, Joshua. But you’d better make it a small. I’ve already had a lot of coffee at home.

      Got it, he answered and started brewing. You’re looking very beautiful today, Isabella.

      Oh, thanks. I just kind of threw this outfit together.

      It looks good on you.

      Well, I’ve put on a few pounds lately, she answered, adjusting her skirt.

      You look great the way you are. I like your curves.

      Thanks, she answered, feeling a little embarrassed.

      I like that you’ve finally let your hair down. You usually have it tied up in that bun like you’re ashamed of it or something.

      Always the charmer. Aren’t you, Joshua?

      Oh, Isabella, he complained. You are breaking my heart. When will you finally agree to go out with me?

      Joshua, you know I’m about ten years older than you are. I’m thirty-five, for heaven’s sake. We have nothing in common.

      Let me take you out. Anywhere you want. You name it. Where could we go on a fun date together?

      She thought, I’m dying to go to that mystery dinner show, but I couldn’t use him like that. Or could I? Hmm…

      A man was standing in line behind her waiting to place his coffee order. He complained, Would you two hurry it up? There’s a whole line of people waiting back here, you know.

      Isabella turned around and answered, Oh. I’m sorry. I had no idea.

      Just tell him you’ll go out with him, already; and stop dancing around.

      How embarrassing she told herself and looked at Joshua. Okay. Yes. Let’s go out.

      Awesome!! he answered. You won’t regret it!! I promise!!

      The man behind her said, Finally.

      Feeling really self-conscious, Isabella grabbed her latte and headed out towards the library, ready to begin her work week, and hoping her thigh-highs wouldn’t fall down to her ankles while Joshua watched her walk away.

      Chapter Two

      There was a line of people in front of the library, waiting until the doors opened at 9:00. Isabella walked up toward the entrance and could see her coworker and best friend Nicole unlocking the front door, letting everyone inside. The crowd surged forward, trying to get first dibs on the computers. Isabella practically got knocked down in their mad rush.

      Welcome to the Happiest Place on Earth, Nicole told her. The guys at the library referred to Nicole as the smokin’ hot one and she was wearing a short leather skirt that they would definitely be noticing. She was a twenty-five-year-old daughter of a Korean couple who immigrated to the United States in the 1960s. Isabella joined her at the reference desk and set down her purse. The two friends watched as the homeless people started coming inside, making themselves at home, and ready to camp out there until the library closed at 10:00 PM.

      Isabella whispered to her friend, Don’t libraries have any ‘regular people’ coming in anymore? The two librarians would love it if a patron came up and asked them if they have any books on Renaissance painters or global warming. You know, the good old-fashioned reference questions, like the ones Merriam the Librarian was asked in It’s A Wonderful Life. Instead, the comments they usually got were, The copier ate my quarter. I want my money back. Or That homeless guy stinks. Kick him out of here!

      The two librarians began catching up on their email.

      Isabella told her friend about the mystery dinner theatre article she read in the paper. Wouldn’t it be fun to go? I read that it’s supposed to take in the early 1960s on the French Riviera during a wedding reception. Somebody gets murdered in the show, and the audience has to try to figure out whodunit.

      Nicole, ever the fashionista, answered, "Ooh, I love the 60s fashions. We

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