The Board Game Murders

By Linda Rae Blair

A teeny, tiny, little book of mystery. How many people can be murdered in just 75 pages? And just how many board games can be used in the process?

Easily-bored and mega-wealthy Charles Moneymaker and his friend and author, James Reading (of the railroad Readings, of course) are amateur sleuths.

A 1936 holiday invitation from Moneymaker's old friend, Marvin Cosgrove, to spend the Christmas holidays at his estate, The Gardens, cannot be passed up.

Little do they know that. by inviting a group of guests with little or nothing in common, Moneymaker's old friend, Coz, has set off a string of deadly events as his guests begin to die!

Can Moneymaker and James figure how who the killer is or, by Christmas, will the killer be the last one left alive?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Linda Rae Blair
• Release date: Sep 18, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465996176

Linda Rae Blair

Raleigh artist, Linda Rae Blair was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. She has used her knowledge gained during extensive travel throughout the United States and her passion for art, history, mysteries, and scenery to create compact novels with rich characters so real you'll miss them when they're gone and places you'll swear you've been. She has lived in Seattle, WA, Monterey Bay, CA, Cincinnati, OH, and retired five years ago in the Raleigh, NC area.Her love of history is well-earned. She is a direct descendant of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins of Mayflower fame. She is also descended from a strong line of Scots-Irish immigrants to America in the 1700s. She even had a great uncle who was robbed by the infamous outlaw Belle Starr.Her Scottish love story, “Elusive”, spans 200 years of Scottish history and intrigue via setting in 1700s Scotland and early 1900s Paris and Scotland.An avid reader who inhales novels by Nora Roberts, Sandra Brown and others in the romance/mystery genres, her imagination takes you to a variety of places and times all in the same story.Her travels to the beautiful southwestern states inspired her more modern historic romance combined with mystery, “100 Years of Brotherly Love”.Her mystery series, The Preston Andrews Mysteries now has 12 published entries, beginning with “Hard Press’d” which now claims over 50,000 downloads and, most recently, the softcover print version of the series in compilation form.Ms. Blair has spent many happy hours in Virginia Beach during off-season, when the winds blow cold and hard and the salty air whips at the weather-protected palms. This is the locale chosen for her Preston Andrews series. Locals and visitors alike find many familiar frames of reference in this series.Her homage to her love for Poirot is via her teeny tiny mystery, “The Board Game Murders”.Her newest series is aimed at a slightly younger and more female audience from that of The Preston Andrews series but begins in the backstory in “Pressing Reunion”.The Samantha Hartley, PI series is lighter and features a very young and not terribly experienced private investigator just beginning her career—with a slight assist from the Director of the FBI.One thing is for certain, she combines her passions into stories interesting to history buffs, travelers, and lovers of romance and mystery.

Book preview

THE BOARD GAME MURDERS

Linda Rae Blair

Franklinton, NC US

The characters, names, and events as well as all places, incidents, organizations, and dialog in this novel either are the products of the writer’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

The Board Game Murders

Copyright 2011 BY Linda Rae Blair

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4659-9617-6

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to fellow author, Don Singletary, who sent me the e-mail that inspired this novel. He’s always a good source of information as well as inspiration.

To Parker Brothers, Hasbro, and the other board-game-makers out there, thank you, thank you, thank you!

To All Those Who Love To Play board Games

1

Christmas Eve, 1936

Who was it that coldly and maliciously murdered Miss Winters in the foyer with the candlestick or Mr. Hudgins in the drawing room with the pointy-end of the racing trophy?

No one would be certain until Moneymaker did a very thorough investigation.

So far, no one had a clue as to who had done the deeds.

2

Two Weeks Earlier

Charles Moneymaker and his friend and associate, James Reading, were comfortable in front of the fire. The cold, blustery weather outside of their Philadelphia location was nothing more than an occasional slam of evergreen against a tightly-closed window shutter.

Moneymaker had bought the creaking, old mansion twenty years ago, just before his beloved wife, Valentina, died.

James Reading, of the railroad Readings of Pennsylvania, had lived in the east wing of the mansion for the last three years. As a lawyer, he had represented Moneymaker for over ten years.

Since they also shared a love of mystery, he had often assisted Moneymaker in solving crimes that stumped the most-accredited detectives on even major U.S. and foreign police forces.

In his spare time, such as it was, James wrote murder novels—not so much from his own imagination but from the cases they worked together.

Moneymaker was wealthy with a capital W and bored easily. Detective work was a game that he enjoyed. Then there was the ineptness of many a police force, a great disappointment and yet a never-ending source of disappointment—and, at times, amusement—to him.

As Moneymaker busied himself reading the Saturday newspaper, James jolted when the housekeeper entered the room. She had done this so quietly that neither man had heard her approach.

James disliked the boney creature, but it was Moneymaker’s home and James knew he would have to adjust, or at least pretend to do so. Agnes