Loose Screw

by Barbara Barrett

Overview

All Rowena Summerfield wants to do is finish her latest home renovation with her daughter, Valerie. And it seems like all building inspector Mortimer Fonseca wants to do is get in her way. His refusal to help Ro's Nailed It company meet his impossible expectations has her fuming, and she's not the only one — as she learns when Fonseca turns up dead, run over in a parking lot in the middle of the night.

His colleagues say he was a loose screw, even if he was wound too tight. But Ro and her former colleague on the police force, Detective Hercules Morgan, soon discover he was a lot more than that. And a lot of people might have wanted to wrench the life out of him, from disgruntled builders to his sneaky co-workers to a relative who stands to inherit everything.

The more Ro, Val and Herc interview suspects and other persons of interest, the less they are able to hammer down a motive. But as the case takes an unexpected turn and becomes doubly complex, can a voice from beyond the grave be just what they need to nail down the guilty party?

All Rowena Summerfield is seeking is a sense of accomplishment as she and her thirty-five-year old daughter, Valerie, build their fledgling home reno business. However, circumstances and her former partner keep pulling her back to investigating homicides. But as she approaches her sixth decade, she discovers she's no longer the physically fit young woman she once was, especially after a near fatal auto accident injured her back, prompting her to seek early retirement. Chasing murderers proves not only challenging mentally, but it also takes its toll on her relationship with Val and the new love in her life. Can she continue to juggle the new with the old and maintain her balance? Join Ro in this new cozy series as she struggles to nail down the challenges of both worlds.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940160939438
Publisher:	Barbara Barrett
Publication date:	02/03/2022
Series:	Nailed It Home Reno Mysteries , #2
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	129,820
File size:	946 KB

About the Author

Barbara Barrett started reading mysteries when she was pregnant with her first child to keep her mind off things like her changing body and food cravings. When she’d devoured as many Agatha Christies as she could find, she branched out to English village cozies and Ellery Queen.
Later, to avoid a midlife crisis, she began writing fiction at night when she wasn’t at her day job in human resources for Iowa State Government. After releasing eleven full-length romance novels and two novellas, she returned to the cozy mystery genre, using one of her retirement pastimes, the game of mah jongg, as her inspiration. Not only has it been a great social outlet, it has also helped keep her mind active when not writing.

Loose Screw is the second book in the Nailed It Home Reno Mysteries Series. It features Rowena Summerfield, a retired homicide investigator who teams up with her daughter, Valerie Kowalski, to start their own home renovation business. After struggling to keep afloat the first few years, they are now building a solid reputation. That is, until Ro’s former partner, Herc Morgan, comes calling and begging her to help him solve his latest murder case, the building inspector who only recently turned down Nailed It's permit application.