Excerpt
of Chutes
and Ladder: A Silicon Valley Mystery by Marc Jedel
Marty
Golden, protagonist in the Silicon Valley
Mystery series, is known for his outstanding attention to detail, but
sometimes his powers of self-delusion overwhelm even him.
Here’s an excerpt
from Chutes
and Ladder. Readers can also get the first chapter free for any of my
novels by signing up for my mailing list at www.marcjedel.com.
…
After a few minutes, I felt
someone staring at me but noticed no one nearby looking at me. I’ve never
understood how you could feel a stare. Was that some remnant of powers from
long-ago human evolution that had faded? What other superpowers had we lost?
Were we ever able to fly? I got excited about this possibility and almost
mentioned it to Meghan until I felt the stare again.
Wary, I glanced to the side. A
person painted all in gold was staring at me while he stood like a statue
outside a store named Southern Treasures. I stared back, careful not to blink.
Performers like him entertain the crowds by freezing long enough for a new fool
to walk by before scaring them with a sudden movement. I was not going to be
that fool. Not today, at least.
I couldn’t hold it any longer. I
blinked. This guy was good. He hadn’t moved or blinked in over a minute, unless
he timed his blink for right when I did.
“Why are you staring at that
mannequin?” Meghan leaned over me to get a better look.
Startled, I double-checked that
she was looking at the same thing. “Are you sure that’s a mannequin? It looks
like a real person painted in gold.”
Meghan
scoffed. “It’s missing ears.”
Dead friend. Free fall. Girl Scouts. Can Uncle Marty untangle the mystery before things really get out of control?
Juggling a budding relationship, demanding job, and mischievous nieces, Marty Golden struggled to keep his head above water — even before his friend’s death. Trying his best to be a good boyfriend and fun uncle, Marty had his own ideas for the weekend until his cunning sister tricked him again.
Convinced his friend’s death was no accident, Marty tries to summon superhero powers but merely manages to bumble along as an amateur sleuth. When Marty’s cousin shows up, she wreaks havoc with his plans and pulls him into yet another mystery.
As threats blossom, Marty doubles down now that his family’s involved. Besides, it’s poor manners to let your friend’s death go unsolved.
Can Marty figure out what happened before a killer, or his imagination, gets to him?
Chutes and Ladder is the second novel in a refreshingly modern mystery series set in Silicon Valley. If you like clever humor and wacky side characters, you’ll love this twisty mystery.
For most of my life, I’ve been inventing stories. Some, especially when I was young, involved my sister as the villain. As my sister’s brother for her entire life, I’m highly qualified to tell the tale of this evolving, quirky sibling relationship.
My writing skills were honed in years of marketing leadership positions in Silicon Valley. While my high tech marketing roles involved crafting plenty of fiction, we called these marketing collateral, emails and ads.
The publication of my first novel, Uncle and Ants, gave me permission to claim “author” as my job. This leads to way more interesting discussions than answering “marketing.”
My family would tell you that Marty’s character isn’t much of a stretch of the imagination for me, but I proudly resemble that remark.
Like Marty, I live in Silicon Valley and can’t believe that otherwise normal people would willingly jump out of an airplane and call it fun. Unlike Marty, I have a wonderful wife and a neurotic but sweet, small dog, who is often the first to weigh in on the humor in my writing.
Author Links
- Email: marc@marcjedel.com
- Website: www.marcjedel.com
- FaceBook: www.facebook.com/MarcJedel.Author
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mjedel/
- GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/18403497.Marc_Jedel
- BookBub: www.bookbub.com/profile/marc-jedel
Thanks so much for hosting me today. I hope your readers will enjoy reading CHUTES AND LADDER as much as I did writing it. At www.marcjedel.com, people can get the first chapter FREE for UNCLE AND ANTS (book 1) or CHUTES AND LADDER (book 2) simply by signing up for my newsletter. Book 3, SERF AND TURF, is underway, so now's a great time to enjoy Uncle Marty's adventures as he bumbles through his investigations.
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