Trouble in Alexandria: Alexandria series, #2

By Bob Moats

Tom Walters was an author of best-selling erotica romance novels. But he was unknown under his name, since he wrote as a woman named Daphne Spenser. He finally revealed that he was a man and was now writing crime novels. Tom's love, Mary Breton, had an altercation with a rival, Cicely Winston, at a bar and a threats were made. Two days later, Mary was arrested for the murder of Winston. Will Tom and his father, a retired police detective, find out who actually murdered Winston and was a hitman involved. Will Tom's new book be a best seller? This is book two of the Alexandria series, and is a novella.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bob Moats
• Release date: Sep 8, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386645825

Bob Moats

Detroit area resident, Bob Moats, has been writing short stories and plays for as long as he can remember. He has lost most of his original stories, typed or handwritten, in the numerous moves he has made from his hometown of Fraser, Michigan to Northern Michigan, to Las Vegas and back to Fraser, where he now lives. Moats became one of the causalities of unemployment a year ago, and had time on his hands to finally pursue a life long dream of writing a full blown crime novel. Thus was born the first book, "Classmate Murders".What followed was a series of seven books starting with "The Classmate Murders" which introduces the main character, Jim Richards, who has to admit he has become a senior citizen, reluctantly. Richards, one day, receives an email from a childhood sweetheart asking for his help, but by the time he reaches her, she has been murdered. His life turns around and he is pulled into numerous murders of women from his high school who he hasn't seen in forty years. Along with a friend of his, Buck, a big, mustached biker, they go off to track down the killer before he can get to one former classmate, Penny Wickens, a TV talk show host who Jim has just fallen for while protecting her. The killer is also murdering the women right out from under police protection, driving homicide detective Will Trapper crazy, and he slowly depends on Jim to help. There's humor, suspense, wild chases across suburban Detroit with cops, classic cars and motorcycle clubs; murder, mayhem, a good amount of romance and a twist ending.Jim and his crime fighters, continue in the other books, traveling to Las Vegas twice, back to Detroit and out to New York to solve murders involving dominatrix; mistresses; Bridezillas; magic and strip clubs.Book titles: Classmate Murders; Vegas Showgirl Murders; Dominatrix Murders; Mistress Murders; Bridezilla Murders; Magic Murders; Strip Club Murders and Made-for-TV Murders.

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No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

This is a work of pure fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

For information and address:

Magic 1 Productions

P.O. Box 524, Fraser MI 48026-0524

Website: http://murdernovels.com

Cover design by Bob Moats

Extra special thanks to:

To Susan Haughton, for editing my chapters.

TO THE BETA READERS, Cindy Valstad, Carolyn Linington, Amy Morningstar, and Al Norris for proofing the final copy and hopefully catching all those annoying little errors that slip through.

THANK YOU TO ALL THE people who purchased this book. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it for my faithful readers.

THE BOB MOATS FAMILY of Readers is listed in the back of the book.

Chapter 1

Daphne Spenser was a well-known, best-selling author of erotic romance novels. The only thing wrong was that she was a he, named Tom Walters. No one knew about this except his publisher, his sister Lily, and his father, Hank. Then Mary came into his life, a woman from Tom’s past that he held fond fantasies for, but never did anything about it. So, when Tom was called back from Toledo due to his brother passing away, he returned to Alexandria, Virginia to help bury his brother, he met Mary again.

Love finally bloomed for Tom with Mary’s help and they were taking it slow at first. Mary had lived with a roommate named Cicely, who was another of Tom’s old fantasies, but this woman was on the side of evil. She seduced Tom after he had established a good relationship with Mary, that almost sank the ship with her. Luckily Mary knew about Cicely’s devious ways and forgave Tom. Now she and Tom were back to a happily ever after.

Tom finally came out to the public that he was the real author of Daphne’s books and this didn’t make his publisher happy. Tom wanted to be given credit for his works and now wanted to write crime novels. His publisher relented and offered to take a look at his first crime story entitled Death in a Country Diner. The publisher saw that this was a good book so offered Tom a deal, like the one Tom was offered when he started to write the romance novels. Tom agreed to take the deal but only for two books. After that Tom would decide if he wanted to stay with the publisher or go off to self-publish his works.

I HAVE TO BE HARDENED for all the backlash I’m getting from my female readers, I said to Mary, as we sat at the breakfast table in my sister’s home where we were temporarily living.

Tom, not everyone is going to love you for deceiving them all these years. They had a friend in Daphne and now it comes out that she doesn’t exist. It’s hard on them, as it was on me, when you first told me. Readers not only establish a rapport with the characters in your books, but also with the author. They don’t know you, so it’s hard for them to accept you. Give it time. Besides, the books are selling like crazy now that everyone who hasn’t read them wants to see how you, a man, handle erotic romance.

Yeah, I guess it will pass. Now I have to establish myself as a writer of crime novels. But no mention of Daphne, I want this on my own.

Lily walked into the kitchen and said, Good morning, children. Did everyone sleep well? She went to the cupboard and took out a box of cereal.

Slept well, thanks, Mary said. I hope we didn’t make too much noise.

Tom, any more howling like a wolf and you can sleep in the garage, Lily said, chomping on a dry corn flake.

Sorry, I was feeling good. Mary and I talked about getting our own place to live, hope that won’t be a problem with you.

No, I got used to living alone here after I decided to divorce my idiot husband. Besides, I can bring a few lovers over and we won’t disturb you guys.

Lily, are you going to pursue women now that the ink is dry on your divorce papers and you don’t care what your ex has to say? I asked.

I’ve been thinking about that. Being a lesbian isn’t what I wanted, but I’m sure it’s what I am. After being married to dipweed for almost three years I got used to being with a man. Now I can go either way, I guess.

So, you’re bisexual, then? I asked.

Maybe, I don’t know. I’ll have to find out. I cheated on my ex with a woman, mostly as an experiment, and it wasn’t bad. But now I have to experiment more to see how I really feel.

Well, I wish you luck in your journey to enlightenment. I had a few readers accuse Daphne of being transgendered, a woman with a man inside. I’m not going to enjoy being considered a man, once a woman, I said. I let my publisher talk me into writing as a woman, but I wish I hadn’t done that.

Although, maybe your books wouldn’t have taken off so well as a man but did well since they were written by a woman, Mary said.

True, but we’ll never know. Now with my new crime novel, I’ll see if I can make it as a male writer. I’m more than halfway through writing the book, and my publisher is giving me four more months to finish. He read the first four chapters and liked it so he’s going out on a limb to give the book a chance.

Yes, and that nice advance on your royalties helped, Mary said.

"Now I have to earn that advance. I have the story worked out, so it’s just plug everything together and it will