Winterlude, A Sterling Carcieri Christmas Mystery

By Lee Edward McIlmoyle

Jeannie Kinneman is a good Judge's daughter with a good job in the city and good prospects. Her only vices are a fondness for good food, good scotch, good wine, and bad men. One particular bad man, actually: Sterling Carcieri, private investigator. When she invites him over for Christmas dinner, she thinks she has a pretty good idea of what she's getting herself into, but she winds up getting more than even she bargained for when she becomes embroiled in a conspiracy to ruin her father's reputation. When the chips fall, she has only her own native detective skills to fall back on. Will it be enough?

This is a short detective story set in a fictional Bartonville, Ontario, Canada in the winter of 1949, featuring characters from the upcoming Sterling Carcieri series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lee Edward McIlmoyle
• Release date: Dec 22, 2013
• ISBN: 9781310858352

Lee Edward McIlmoyle

Writer/Artist/Musician/Cartoonist/activist.Canadian.Married to NYC book reviewer who won't review my books.Two cats, both insane.Help.

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FOREWORD

Hi, I’m Lee. Thank you for buying this ebook. It’s a short story introduction to the world of Sterling Carcieri Mysteries, a speculative fiction-cum-crime noir adventure series I plan to write, set in a post-war era metropolis inspired by equal parts Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Rex Stout, Michael Curtiz, John Huston, and Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, of course.

In case you’ve forgotten which book this is (eReaders are fun!), I’m the Canadian self-published author who writes stories about thieves and sorcerors, gypsies and spies, detectives and paranormal hunters, and a down-on-his-luck so-and-so named Richard Burley, currently of no fixed address. I ask you to read this story with as open a mind as possible, and, if you enjoy it, to email me at [e-mail] and tell me so, particularly if you’d like me to hurry up and write more.

Again, thank you.

Lee Edward McIlmoyle,

Listening to the latest Spock's Beard, craving coffee, and publishing short stories for Christmas,

Somewhere in Limbo,

Saturday, December 21st, 2013.

Dinner for Two?

Jeannie Kinneman brushed back the unruly lock of hair that had plastered itself over her eyes. She noted that the fluffy flakes of snow were starting to form a thin crust of ice on her hair, and just knew her hairdo would be ruined if she didn't get inside soon. She skipped over the bank of snow piled up along the roadside and made a miraculous landing while still wearing pumps. Fifteen years in an office environment hadn't caught up to her yet, she thought with relief. Let's just see if Mr. Wonderful shows any signs of noticing.

Carefully stamping her feet, she entered Gordon's Grocery Store and headed for the canned goods. Picking through the leftovers of the season rush, she found the last can of cranberries and scooped it up. She passed down the aisle and around to the baked goods, where she was lucky enough to find a nice fresh baked apple pie. She had many talents, but Jeannie never kidded herself that she had the makings of a great baker. Bread was usually a disaster, and she'd never made a pie crust that couldn't be better used as a planter. She generally relied on her resourcefulness and her ability to recognize quality baked goods when spotted on the shelf or window sill. Her mother was a marvel with baked goods, and it was always an embarrassing moment when Jeannie came to dinner with store-bought goods.

Dinner with her parents was always nice, but there had been an awkward air of melancholy attached to holidays at her parents’ home that Jeannie had never quite understood. They were sweet and loving and never gave her grief over not being a mother or a successful professional of some sort. Nevertheless, she’d often felt as if she were somehow a disappointment to both of her parents, but her mother especially, like she wasn’t the daughter her mother had hoped for. Jeannie loved her parents dearly, but she’d always held the deep, quiet conviction that she had long been in competition with a phantom sibling that she could never best, because they had never been there to fail by comparison.

Fortunately, this year would be different. For starters, this year, she would be having dinner at home for Christmas.

As long as that heel didn't stand her up again, at any rate.

Picking up a small bag of sugar and some tea, she made one last pass through the produce section, grabbing a bag of onions, a turnip, some carrots, and a small bag of potatoes. Carrying more than she had