A Day in the Life of Cassie Baxter by Cindy Blackburn

Do yourself a favor, never move in with your father. Especially if he’s an early bird. Because your father, if he’s anywhere near as annoying as mine, will wake you up at the crack of dawn. We’re talking every day. Drives. Me. Nuts! Dad keeps insisting we Baxters are morning people. I keep reminding him I’m forty-four and haven’t been a “morning person” since I was twelve. And once we have that daily argument out of the way, what a shocker, I’m awake.

During breakfast, Dad fills me in on Chance Dooley’s latest adventures. My father—Bobby Baxter—is a retired English teacher who’s taken up writing science fiction. The hero of Bobby’s stories is Chance Dooley, owner and operator of Dooley’s Delivery Service: The Delivery Service That Delivers Where No Delivery Service Has Ever Delivered Before. Needless to say, Chance and his trusty Spaceship Destiny get into some truly absurd situations. And given enough coffee, I can usually come up with an equally absurd solution to Chance (and my father’s) problem du jour.

Why I ever agreed to this truly absurd living arrangement with my father is a long story, but Dad and I share a big old Victorian house in Lake Elizabeth, Vermont—population 600, not including dogs, cats, and livestock. My favorite animals are our black lab Charlie, Evert Osgood’s basset hound Miss Rusty, and Oden Poquette’s goats Rose and Ruby. I’m getting to know Miss Rusty and the goats quite well this summer, since they were my only witnesses when I found, and then lost, the dead redhead. Yeah, I know—unbelievable. I was in my pajamas at the time. Yeah, I know—way unbelievable. My story’s even more unbelievable than Chance Dooley’s latest crisis.

Oh, but Dru Ann asked me to tell you about a normal day. I’m a history professor at Crabtree College, so during the school year I spend my days teaching. Crabtree’s not exactly a bastion of academic excellence, but I like it. My best friend Bambi also teaches at the college, and we usually do lunch together. Bambi and I bonded long ago because we both have trouble in the being-taken-seriously department. Me, because I’m teeny-tiny and, as everyone’s been telling me since the day I was born, “cute as a button.” Bambi’s normal-sized, but with a name like Dr. Bambi Lovely-Vixen? You get the picture.

When I’m not on campus, I’m home in Lake Bess, where my father, as mentioned, drives me nuts. But Dad’s not the only one. We have neighbors. Maxine Tibbitts, a reporter for the local newspaper, lives next door, and to say she’s a busy-body snoop is putting it mildly. Maxine thinks my every action is worth reporting in her weekly gossip column. And when I found, and then lost, the dead redhead? Let’s just say Maxine’s report was memorable.

Not to be outdone in the driving-Cassie-Baxter-nuts department is our other neighbor, Josiah Wylie. Joe’s a mad scientist who works at home with his invention, a machine he calls—don’t ask me why—the FN451z. No one but Joe has the foggiest clue as to the FN451z’s purpose. But everyone around the lake has heard the thing, since the FN beeps, burps, and chirps 24/7.

Joe, on the other hand, is annoyingly quiet. The man must have secrets, and considering he gets himself invited to dinner with Dad and me on an almost nightly basis, I intend to learn out what those secrets are. Don’t tell my father the match-maker, but Joe Wylie’s kind of sexy. A sexy mad scientist? Yeah, I know—unbelievable. But I’m here to tell you such a thing actually does exist.

Which brings us back to that dead redhead. She exists, too, and luckily I have the summer off. So, unbelievable or not, I intend to solve the mystery of the missing redhead. I may be undersized, but don’t underestimate me.

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Learn more about Cassie, Joe, and the gang in Unbelievable, the first book in the new “Cassie Baxter” mystery series.

Here’s some info about Unbelievable:

Small sleuth, tiny town, unfailing fun.

Welcome to Lake Elizabeth, Vermont, where the water is blue, the mountains are green, and Cassie Baxter is going nuts. Who wouldn’t go nuts in a town this size? What possessed Cassie to move in with her father? And why do they have to live next door to a mad scientist? A sexy mad scientist. Does such a thing even exist? And speaking of existing, what happened to the dead redhead? You know, the one Cassie found, and then lost? What’s up with that? Cassie Baxter intends to find out. Read Unbelievable and you will, too.

The Cassie Baxter Mysteries: They’re not Cue Balls, but they are screw balls.

GIVEAWAY: Leave a comment by 6 p.m. eastern on December 26 for the chance to win a Kindle copy of UNBELIEVABLE. The giveaway is open to everyone.

Meet the Author
Cindy Blackburn spends her days sitting around in her pajamas thinking up unlikely plot twists and ironing out the quirks and kinks of lovable characters. When she’s not typing on her laptop or feeding her fat cat Betty, Cindy enjoys taking long walks with her cute hubby John. A native Vermonter who hates snow, Cindy divides her time between the south and the north. Most of the year you’ll find her in South Carolina. But come summer she’ll be on the porch of her lakeside shack in Vermont. Yep, it’s a place very similar to Lake Elizabeth. Cindy’s favorite travel destinations are all in Europe, her favorite TV show is The Big Bang Theory, her favorite movie is Moonstruck, and her favorite color is orange. Cindy dislikes vacuuming, traffic, and lima beans.

Learn more about Cindy and her books at www.cbmysteries.com. Cindy can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.