Squirrel & Swan Curious Things: S & S Investigations, #0.5

By M. D. Archer

The Face in the Window and the Noises in the Night

A charming prequel novella to the S & S Investigations series.

 

Best friends Paige and Sophie will soon graduate with PhDs in psychology. But before they start thinking about what the future holds, a break!

They take up an invitation to stay at a beautiful holiday home in the Coromandel, both excited for a week of cocktails, barbecues, walks along the beach, and chilling out. But when they meet the people staying next door—a fading American actress, her devoted husband and her nervous assistant—things get interesting.

 

Faced with a slew of curious events, Paige and Sophie find themselves wondering about their neighbours.

And then things take a sinister turn...

 

Squirrel & Swan Curious Things takes place about six months before book one of the S & S Investigations series but can be enjoyed at any time.

 

S & S Investigations is a light and funny character-based contemporary mystery series following psychology graduates Paige and Sophie (AKA Squirrel & Swan) as they try to make a success of their detective agency in Auckland, New Zealand. Two classic mysteries in every book along with a host of entertaining secondary characters and a whole lot of life complications!

 

Featuring classic tropes such as:

Missing girls (and other precious things)

Long-lost sisters

A murder at a high school reunion

A locked room mystery

Amnesiac clients

Gaslighting relatives

Sudden deaths and mysterious beneficiaries

Will-they-wont-they romantic storyline along with modern-life dating dilemmas

Villains working behind the scenes intent on sabotage!

 

And more!

For lovers of people and puzzles. Nancy Drew meets Agatha Christie.

 

Don't miss out - continue the S & S Journey with Squirrel & Swan Precious Things.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SWARM Publishing
• Release date: Sep 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9780473591274

M. D. Archer

M. D. Archer lives in Auckland, New Zealand, has a PhD in psychology; and when she isn’t writing fiction (or watching TV), works as a researcher. Contact her on twitter @mda_008; or by email [e-mail].

Book preview

Squirrel & Swan Curious Things

S & S Investigations: A Prequel Novella

M. D. ARCHER

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SWARM Publishing

First published September 2021 by SWARM Publishing

Auckland, New Zealand

Copyright © 2021 by M. D. Archer.

All Rights Reserved.

ISBN (kindle): 978-0-473-59128-1

ISBN (epub): 978-0-473-59127-4

Squirrel & Swan Curious Things is a work of fiction. Names, places and incidents, except those clearly in the public domain, are products of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, names, places or incidents is purely coincidental. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Contents

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Dear Reader

Acknowledgements

1

Marigold Mathers, assistant extraordinaire, stood at the luggage carousel of Auckland International Airport and watched the bags trundle past. She sighed. There was nothing extraordinary about running around after a celebrity, especially when that celebrity hadn’t booked a job in over three years and had way too much time on her hands. Her favourite way to spend this time? Sending the poor creature who’d made the mistake of signing an employment contract on meaningless errands or to carry out soul-destroying chores.

Anita Fairway—the entitled celebrity—and Paul, her doting husband, had left her here while they first enjoyed a glass of ‘arrival champagne’, and now stood at the tourist information kiosk picking out pamphlets of the activities they wished to partake during their visit to New Zealand. After a few days in Auckland resting and recovering from the long-haul flight from LAX, they would go directly to the Coromandel, a beachy area of the North Island that was a ‘must-see’ by all accounts.

Marigold’s eyes latched onto the Louis Vuitton case that had appeared: Anita’s. Classic and stylish but looking a little worn these days—how appropriate, Marigold thought with a wry grin as she stepped forward to retrieve it. And she’d known this was what the job would be like, she’d literally signed up for it, but it was still somehow worse than imagined and she was already counting down the days left in her one-year contract. But Marigold had goals and she had to keep her eyes on the prize. Her vision of her future relied heavily on—

Marigold! Anita’s voice, quite incredibly, had pierced the considerable airport din. We’re ready to go.

Waiting for the bags, Marigold called back in reply.

What? Still? Why are you taking so long? Can you hurry it up please?

Marigold waved and turned away so that she could roll her eyes. With many, many international flights under her belt, Anita had to know how little control travellers had over the baggage retrieval process.

Marigold? Anita repeated.

Sure, I’ll climb onto the carousel and retrieve your bags myself, she muttered under her breath.

Pardon? Anita said crisply, suddenly standing right next to her.

Marigold turned to give her a nervous smile. Why don’t you and Paul relax and have another glass of champagne. I’m sure we’ll be out of here in no time. She forced a smile.

The sooner she got her plan on track the better.

2

Paige Garnet and Sophie Swanephol took their glasses of champagne to a sunny spot in the courtyard patio of Portland Bar in Kingsland, a small but bustling city-fringe suburb of Auckland.

Cheers. Paige clinked Sophie’s glass.

We really did it. Sophie beamed and took a sip.

Less than 24-hours ago, they’d both submitted their doctoral theses. Although their PhD journeys were not quite over yet, it was certainly cause for celebration.

Has Richard said anything to you? Sophie asked, bracing herself for the answer. She wasn’t sure how great she’d feel if Paige had already lined up post-doctoral work.

About what? Paige said bitterly. "How awesome he is? How the studies I painstakingly designed were actually his? At the core of it." Paige put on a voice.

Professor Richard Thinton, Paige’s doctoral supervisor, was publicly well-regarded but privately loathed. At least, by Sophie and anyone else who’d been on the receiving end of his attention, whether it be his leering or his bullying.

Didn’t he say something about a Marsden grant and a research position? Sophie asked.

There were murmurings, I guess....

Sophie frowned. Paige was being vague, and for Paige-no filter-Garnet, this was unusual.

Let’s not talk about what’s next, Paige continued. Not yet. I want to enjoy a break from thinking. I want to slob around and chill out and do nothing for a while.

Sophie nodded, aware that the odds of ants-in-her-pants Paige Garnet slobbing around were slim to none. Sophie, on the other hand, was looking forward to wearing pyjamas 24-7 and watching all the TV in the world. For a couple of weeks, at least.

And so, they sipped champagne and caught up on department gossip and what TV shows they planned to watch now they had some free time.

Sophie drained the rest of her glass. "Hey, I’d better go. I want to get there first. I do not want to have to make an entrance."

Sophie’s next social engagement was a date, which in itself was bad enough, without having to walk into a bar and try to immediately identify the person you were meeting. It wasn’t just that it could be hard to spot the not-yet-familiar face of someone you’d met only once—or worse, match blurry profile photos with the real-life and possibly quite different faces in front of you—you had to do this with an audience, most likely. All the other people in the bar enjoying their people watching from the comfort of their already secured seats. Sophie often felt as if she had a neon arrow above her head alerting everyone in the vicinity to the possibility of witnessing an awkward and entertaining first encounter. All of this was something Sophie could do without,