The HBS Author's Spotlight SHOWCASES Jenna Bennett New Book: Adverse Possession.
Author Jenna Bennett a.k.a. Jennie Bentley is the NYT and USA International bestselling author of Mystery Novels. Jennie writes the Do-It-Yourself Mystery series and Jenna authors the Savannah Martin Mysteries series.
Adverse Possession
Savannah Martin Mysteries Book 11
Author: Jenna Bennett
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Savannah Martin’s real estate career has been an uphill battle. As far as Savannah is concerned, her personal zenith was getting Aislynn Turner and Kylie Mitchell into their dream home, a Victorian cottage in the hip and happening historic district of East Nashville, last January.
That was six months ago, and now the dream has turned sour. Someone is sending Aislynn and Kylie threatening letters, warning them to get out while they can. Aislynn is terrified and Kylie is ready to cut her losses.
But finding a poison pen is only the beginning. When Kylie is attacked and the previous owner of the house is killed, the hunt is on for a murderer, and Savannah is determined to get to the bottom of what’s going on before Aislynn and Kylie have to give up their dream home, and maybe each other, in the process.
Excerpt from Adverse Possession
CHAPTER ONE
“I’m sorry, Savannah,” Kylie said. “Aislynn didn’t even want me to contact you, she’s so embarrassed. But you were so nice when we bought the place…”
“It’s OK.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. It was the ‘didn’t even want me to contact you’ that had caused it. “I understand. People sometimes sell their houses.” Even houses they had just bought. And they didn’t always—didn’t usually—use me to do it. Even if I had helped them buy the house in the first place. “It’s just… you’ve only owned it five or six months. And you seemed so excited when you bought the place…”
“We love the house,” Kylie said. “It isn’t the house.”
“The location?”
The house they’d bought back in December, a lovely Victorian cottage, sat in the middle of historic East Nashville. It was a very nice neighborhood, full of old, renovated houses, hip people, popular restaurants, and health food stores catering to dogs and people. It was hard to imagine that they weren’t enjoying it, especially considering how excited they’d been just last winter.
“We love the location,” Kylie said. “We couldn’t ask for a better place to live.”
“Then…” I glanced over my shoulder and lowered my voice, “the price?”
I was sitting in my office, a converted coat closet off the lobby at LB&A, a real estate company in the heart of historic East Nashville. The only person in sight was Brittany, the receptionist, and she had her nose buried in the most recent issue of Cosmopolitan. She couldn’t care less what I was saying. But it’s unladylike to inquire about someone’s finances, or lack thereof.
Kylie sounded amused. “It isn’t the price.”
I hadn’t thought so. Renovated Victorians in East Nashville come at a premium, but Kylie worked in banking and made good money. Unless she’d suddenly lost her job, she shouldn’t have a problem paying the mortgage.
“I don’t understand,” I said. “If you like the house and the location, and the money isn’t an issue…”
Kylie sighed. “It’s the letters,” she told me.
Letters? “Isn’t the postman delivering your mail?” That was a simple problem to fix. All I’d have to do was talk to the post office that serviced their address, and straighten things out.
“He is. That’s the problem.”
So they were getting mail they didn’t want. “You can opt out of getting junk mail, you know.”
“It isn’t junk mail,” Kylie said. “Or it is, sort of. I think we should just ignore it. But Aislynn is afraid. And I don’t want Aislynn to be afraid.”
I didn’t want Aislynn to be afraid, either. She was a sweet young woman, a waitress I had met last November, while trying to figure out what had happened to my late sister-in-law. Aislynn had fed Sheila her last meal, unbeknownst to either of them. Aislynn and her girlfriend Kylie had wanted to buy a house, and had asked me to help them. They had invited me over a couple of weeks after moving in, to eat dinner and see the place, and they had seemed thrilled to be where they were. It was disconcerting to learn, just a few months later, that something was wrong enough that they wanted to sell.
“What is she afraid of?”
“It’ll be easier if I show you,” Kylie said. “Are you free for dinner tonight?”
For a change, I was. “Rafe is taking some of the rookies out for surveillance and shadowing.”
My husband works for the TBI—the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation—training new recruits in undercover maneuvers, and once a month or so, they go out to sneak around after each other and the occasional unsuspecting civilian. It’s part of the training—how to follow someone, how to pick up a tail—but mostly I think they’re just out there having fun.
Anyway, Rafe wouldn’t be home until nine or ten tonight.
“We got the wedding invitation,” Kylie said. “Sorry we couldn’t make it.”
“It’s OK. I know it was last minute.” Rafe and I had intended to get married at the courthouse the first weekend in June, with just a handful of people in attendance. Instead, we’d ended up tying the knot a week later, at my childhood home in Sweetwater, Tennessee—the Martin Mansion—with almost everyone we knew in attendance, including half of our old hometown. But it had been short notice, so there were a few people who received Mother’s nicely calligraphied invitation who had been unable to make it.
“Can you stop by the house around five-thirty tonight?” Kylie asked. “I should be home by then. Aislynn is doing the cooking.”
I told her that would be fine, and I’d see them both then. Then I hung up, and leaned back in my chair to gnaw the lipstick off my bottom lip.
I’d had my real estate license for a little over a year. In that time, I had sold a few houses to a few people. Not as many as I should have. I kept getting sidetracked by dead bodies, and by people gunning for Rafe. But Aislynn and Kylie were one of my few success-stories, and I wanted them to be happy. If there was anything at all I could do to help figure out whatever was wrong, I’d do it.
Author Genre: Mystery & Thrillers, Romance
Website: Jenna Bennett - Jennie Bentley
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E-Mail: jennie@jenniebentley.com
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Author Description: USA Today bestselling author Jenna Bennett is best known for the Cutthroat Business mysteries, featuring Realtor and recovering Southern Belle Savannah Martin, who stumbles over dead bodies in Nashville, Tennessee.
As Jennie Bentley, she writes the New York Times bestselling Do-It-Yourself Home Renovation mysteries from Penguin/Berkley Prime Crime, about Avery Baker, a textile designer, and Avery's boyfriend Derek Ellis, a handyman, who renovate houses in fictitious Waterfield, Maine.
In addition to other mysteries, she's also the author of the award-winning Soldiers of Fortune series of science fiction romances, along with assorted other romance-type books, about FBI agents, Greek gods, and rich businessmen, among other things.
If you'd like to sign up for Jenna's email newsletter, and be the first to learn about new releases, sales, exclusive newsletter reads, and other exciting things, you can do that here http://eepurl.com/xzlRP or on Jenna's website, www.JennaBennett.com.
Author's Book List
Unfinished Business
- #10 Savannah Martin MysteriesWhen realtor and recovering Southern Belle Savannah Martin wakes up alone on what is supposed to be her wedding day, she isn’t sure what to think. Did her fiancé—bad-boy TBI agent Rafe Collier—decide he couldn’t face being shackled to one woman for the rest of his life... or is something more sinister going on?
Savannah’s mother Margaret Anne, in Nashville for the nuptials, is certain she knows the truth: her future son-in-law has always been an ill-bred cad, and leaving his pregnant girlfriend practically at the altar clinches it. But the people who know Rafe aren’t so sure. Wendell Craig with the TBI and Tamara Grimaldi with the Metro Nashville PD suspect foul play, and set out to prove it.
Shortly, a dead woman turns up in Savannah’s house. Rafe’s son David goes missing from church camp on the Cumberland Plateau. And a shadowy figure from Rafe’s past is stalking them all—a knife-wielding serial killer who likes to hurt women, and who has a score to settle.
Now Savannah must solve the murder, find David, and avoid getting herself killed... Or she can kiss her happy ending—and Rafe—goodbye.
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Fortune's Honor
- Soldiers of Fortune Book 2To save himself, his friends, and his mission, a fugitive must put his fate in the hands of the last women he should trust—the same woman who sent him to prison four months ago.
Last year, galactic translator Holden Sinclair had a great life. He was traveling the nexus with his friends, seeing new worlds, making money, and generally having a good time. The only cloud on his horizon was his unrequited crush on the captain’s girlfriend, but that matter resolved itself when she betrayed them to the Rhenians and they were shipped to the prison camp on the moon Marica-3.
Since then, Holden’s only thoughts regarding Josie have revolved around getting even. Or so he thinks, until he runs into her again, in a brothel in Calvados. She’s disillusioned, contrite, and still as desirable as ever. And all too soon Holden finds himself right back where he started: torn between his loyalty to Quinn and the crew of the Good Fortune, and his feelings for Josie.
But with prices on all their heads, their mechanic scheduled for public execution in the Calvados town square two days hence, and the Rhenian military drawing the net ever tighter around them... can he justify putting his trust in a woman who’s already betrayed them once?
Can he risk the consequences of reintroducing her into their lives?
And above all, can he stop his friends from killing her on sight?
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Finding You
- Sex on the Beach Book 2Sex on the Beach, the do-over.
Cassie Wilder had a simple plan for what to do in Key West the second time around.
Testify at the trial of the rapist she helped catch last year.
Make sure he gets locked away for the rest of his natural life, so he can never, ever hurt another girl.
Wait for her BFFs to get to town, so they can celebrate.
And stay far away from Ty Connor, because three months after breaking up with him, she still doesn’t know whether being with him is worse than being without him.
Spring Break, take two.
All of the above? Out the window.
Turns out testifying is a lot harder than she thought it would be.
Not only is the rapist she helped catch last year not locked away for the rest of his life, he’s on the loose and looking for her.
Oh yeah, and it’s definitely harder being without Ty than being with him, especially when she has to watch him with someone else.
Welcome to Cassie’s world.
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Fortune's Hero
- Soldiers of Fortune Book 1Last year, space smuggler Quinn Conlan was on top of the world. He had everything a man could want: a fast ship, a great crew, a gorgeous girlfriend, lots of money, and adventure and excitement around every corner.
That all changed when he agreed to ferry a shipload of weapons to the beleaguered planet Marica, currently under siege by Rhenian forces. Now he's stuck in a prison camp on the moon Marica-3, subjected to weekly sessions with the camp's "medical team," and praying for a quick death before he breaks under the torture and spills everything he knows about the Marican resistance.
When the opportunity presents itself, Quinn takes a Rhenian med tech hostage and heads into the inhospitable interior of the small moon. There, he has to keep himself and Doctor Elsa Brandeis safe from the deadly flora and fauna, as well as hidden from the prison guards searching for them, all while formulating a plan for getting his crew out of prison, his ship out of impound, and everyone out of orbit.
But when Elsa professes her love, can Quinn take the beautiful doctor at her word, or will trusting her--and his heart--condemn him and his crew to an eternity on Marica-3?
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Ditching David
When Gina Beaufort Kelly’s husband leaves her for a woman young enough to be his daughter, Gina doesn’t get mad... she gets even.
Or at least she tries to, by targeting David’s assets in the divorce. She spent eighteen years of her life with him; it’s only fair that he should compensate her accordingly.
However, David doesn’t agree, and when he ends up dead, on the evening before they were set to go before the judge, the police suspect foul play—and suspect that Gina’s behind it.
Now this jilted wife must figure out who else wanted her soon-to-be-ex-husband dead—and why—before she loses everything in the process, including her freedom.
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Dirty Deeds
- #9 Savannah Martin MysteriesWith hotels in downtown filled to capacity months in advance, real estate agent Savannah Martin decides to pick up some extra money renting out her empty East Nashville apartment. She’s living with her boyfriend, and the place is just sitting there, begging to be put to use.
But when her latest tenant ends up dead—strangled in Savannah’s bed by what might have been a paying customer—the promise of easy money quickly turns sour.
As the hunt for the killer leads to their shared hometown of Sweetwater, Tennessee, Savannah’s boyfriend, TBI agent Rafe Collier, is tapped to help with the investigation. But a familiarity with the town and the people in it isn’t necessarily a benefit when the main suspect in the murder is the man Savannah decided not to marry. The same man who has never forgiven Rafe for stealing her away…
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Past Due
- #8 Savannah Martin MysteriesThe sins of the past are coming due, and someone has to pay the price...
Savannah Martin’s high school reunion is supposed to be a fun weekend of catching up with old friends and parading her boyfriend—Sweetwater bad boy Rafael Collier—in front of everyone who used to sneer at him back in the day. Not even the daily battle she’s waging with morning sickness can douse Savannah’s anticipation.
But when Rafe won’t come to Sweetwater, Savannah has to face her old schoolmates without his support. And her best friend Charlotte isn’t as happy for Savannah’s new relationship as Savannah had hoped. And when a dead body turns up in the Colliers’ old mobile home in the Bog, Savannah is thankful to be on her own. The sheriff is always looking for a reason to shove Rafe back behind bars, and a fresh homicide is just the excuse he needs.
But when another murder takes place at the reunion, even the threat of jail can’t keep Rafe away. Soon old classmates are dropping like bowling pins, and Rafe and Savannah are scrambling to catch up with a killer hell bent on making sure old enemies pay for old sins... all while trying to stay one step ahead of Sheriff Satterfield and the Columbia PD.
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Kickout Clause
- #7 Savannah Martin MysteriesWhen Shelby Ferguson, Savannah’s ex-husband’s new wife, begs Savannah’s help in figuring out what’s going on with Bradley, Savannah can’t in good conscience say no. Shelby has no one else to turn to, no one to whom she can admit that her marriage is on the rocks and that Bradley may be straying.
But helping Shelby turns out to be just the tip of the iceberg. With two different sets of buyers vying to purchase Mrs. Jenkins’s house, and an escaped prisoner targeting Savannah, she has more than enough to deal with. And that’s before TBI rookie Manny Ortega is shot down in cold blood.
With Savannah’s boyfriend Rafe Collier, and their friend, homicide detective Tamara Grimaldi, busy looking for Manny’s murderer, it’s up to Savannah to juggle buyers and agents and vandals and lawyers, and come out on top... without losing her Southern Belle poise or her life in the process.
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Change of Heart
- #6 Savannah Martin MysteriesIt’s late February, just two months after Savannah Martin and Rafael Collier finally worked things out between them, and Rafe is already sneaking out of bed in the wee hours.
Catching fellow realtor Tim Briggs rinsing blood from his hands in the office sink makes for a welcome distraction, and when Tim disappears just as one of his clients is found dead in a nearby park, Savannah throws herself into the investigation with abandon.
But even the murder mystery taking place right under her nose can’t completely distract her from worrying about personal problems. Has Rafe changed his mind about their relationship, or is something else going on? And what are the chances of Savannah coming out of this latest debacle with her life – and her heart – intact?
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A Done Deal
- #5 Savannah Martin MysteriesSilver bells, silver bells...
It's Christmas time in Nashville, and all Savannah wants to unwrap on Christmas morning is Rafe Collier. Unfortunately, things don't look so good. He's back in town, but not alone: on his arm is a stunning brunette, just the kind of woman Savannah always suspected was his type.
When Alexandra Puckett asks her help in figuring out a way to stop Maybelle Driscoll from marrying Alex's father Steven, Savannah jumps on the chance. It'll give her something to think about other than Rafe and the mysterious Carmen, and anyway, she doesn't like Maybelle much herself.
Between investigating Maybelle's past, helping her clients Aislynn and Kylie buy a house, and stalking Carmen and Rafe, Savannah soon has her hands full. And that's before someone starts gunning for her. Suddenly it's not a question of unwrapping anything on Christmas morning anymore; it's a question of whether she'll even survive to see another Christmas.
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Close to Home
- #4 Savannah Martin MysteriesSometimes, trouble hits too close to home.
Savannah's late. The kind of late that comes with midnight feedings and the pitter-patter of little feet. And while it's a circumstance that should make everyone happy - now she can finally settle down and marry Todd Satterfield, the way everyone's been hoping and praying! - it isn't Todd's baby. And Rafe Collier, whose baby it is, didn't sign on for fatherhood.
Add in the murder of Savannah's sister-in-law Sheila, the trial of Sheila's friend Marley, and the disappearance of Rafe's twelve year old son David - the kid he never knew he had - and things get complicated fast. And there is worse to come: When Rafe comes back to Nashville to help look for David, and learns that Savannah's pregnant, things do not work out the way Savannah hopes. In the end, she's left with nothing she wanted and a whole lot of trouble she didn't, and when she gets in over her head, Rafe's not there to save the day.
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Contract Pending
- #3 Savannah Martin MysteriesThey say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, and Savannah is certainly learning the truth of that statement.
It’s been a month and a half since Rafael Collier left town, and although Savannah knows it would be hideously inappropriate—not to mention supremely stupid—to miss him, she wishes he’d come back soon. His grandmother’s ailing, the nurse he hired to take care of her has disappeared, and somebody is watching the house and following Savannah as she goes about the business of bringing her first real estate transaction to a close.
But when Rafe comes back, things only go from bad to worse. Resident nurse Marquita Johnson is found murdered, and Metro Nashville Homicide Detective Tamara Grimaldi is asked to handle the case. It doesn’t take long for her to focus her interest, once again, on Rafe.
Now Savannah has to make the choice between staying safe by accepting her old flame Todd’s proposal of marriage, or taking a chance on losing her heart and her life by trying to help Rafe, as the term ‘contract pending’ takes on a whole new meaning.
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Hot Property
- #2 Savannah Martin MysteriesWhen Savannah Martin’s fellow Realtor and friend Lila Vaughn is robbed during an open house, Savannah rushes to the rescue with tea and sympathy, or at least a really good lunch and a shoulder to cry on. However, Lila seems more peeved than distraught, and her main gripe is that the sexy robber who tied her to a kitchen chair—for her own good—didn’t follow her suggestion to tie her to the bed instead.
Lila’s description of the man fits Savannah’s old school-mate Rafael Collier to a T. Rafe has recently turned up in Savannah’s life again, and he isn’t above doing a little breaking and entering. Metro Nashville Homicide Detective Tamara Grimaldi is of the same opinion, and when Lila turns up dead, tied to her bed and strangled, Rafe becomes a suspect. Now Savannah must get busy finding the real murderer before Detective Grimaldi can arrest the wrong man.
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A Cutthroat Business
- Savannah Martin Mystery 1Everyone has warned new-minted realtor Savannah Martin that real estate is a cutthroat business. But Savannah doesn't think she's supposed to take the warning literally ... until an early morning phone call sends her to an empty house on the 'bad' side of town, where she finds herself standing over the butchered body of a competitor, face to face with the boy her mother always warned her about.
Rafe Collier is six feet three inches of testosterone and trouble; tall, dark, and dangerous, with a murky past and no future--not the kind of guy a perfect Southern Belle should want to tangle with. In any way. But wherever Savannah turns, there he is, and making no bones about what he wants from her.
Now Savannah must figure out who killed real estate queen Brenda Puckett, make a success of her new career, and avoid getting killed--or kissed--by Rafe, all before the money in her savings account runs out and she has to go back to selling make-up at the mall.
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Home For the Homicide
- A Do-It-Yourself Mystery Book 7Avery Baker was a big city textile designer, until she inherited her aunt’s old Maine cottage and found her true calling—home renovation. But she never expected her latest job would come to such a bone-rattling dead end...
For Avery and her husband Derek, renovating the Craftsman Bungalow was like stepping back in time. The quaint old home was just as its original owners had left it—from the beautiful butler’s pantry to the surprisingly exquisite ribbon tile. But it’s the attic that yields the most heart-stopping surprise.
In a discreetly hidden antique crate, Avery finds a clue to a decades-old missing persons case. As Avery works on the house and delves deeper into the sinister story, it becomes clear that someone very crafty wants the Craftsman home’s secrets to stay that way!
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Wall-to-Wall Dead
- A Do-It-Yourself Mystery Book 6Avery Baker never thought she’d leave Manhattan, until she inherited her aunt’s old Maine cottage and found her true calling—home renovation. But when Avery goes to work restoring a condominium, she discovers it’s another condo owner who’s been condemned...
Avery and her partner, Derek, are fixing up a cute little condo in homey Waterfield, Maine, hoping for a quick turnaround and some extra money. It seems like a simple project—and Avery is looking forward to using her big-city experience with small spaces.
But they didn’t expect to have their every move watched by the resident busybody in the condo, Hilda Shaw, who loves snooping on everyone’s comings and goings. When the busybody becomes a dead body, Avery suspects foul play. Soon she’s doing some snooping of her own—and it seems everyone in the complex has a secret. Could one of them be worth killing for? Avery needs to work fast, before someone decides to fix her...for good.
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Flipped Out
- A Do-It-Yourself Mystery Book 5Avery and her hunky handyman boyfriend are renovating a house belonging to a local news anchor who's thrilled to be filmed as part of a home renovation show. But cable television fame proves fleeting when the man is murdered and Avery faces the task of nailing the killer. Fast.
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Mortar and Murder
- A Do-It-Yourself Mystery Book 4Avery Baker was once a New York textile designer, but inheriting her aunt's old Maine cottage has led her down a new career path-home renovation. Finding a property's hidden potential has rewards and challenges-especially when a mystery surfaces from behind the walls of a centuries-old house on an island that has more than its share of deadly secrets.
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Plaster and Poison
- A Do-It-Yourself Mystery Book 3Ex-New York designer Avery Baker left the bustle of the big city to start her own home renovation business in Maine. But as she renovates an old carriage house on behalf of a soon-to-be wed friend, she stumbles across a lifeless body-a person known all too well by the blushing bride. The small town is abuzz with big suspicions, and Avery realizes she must unravel a matrimonial murder.
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Spackled and Spooked
- A Do-It-Yourself Mystery Book 2Avery Baker and her boyfriend, Derek Ellis, are flipping a seriously stigmatized house rumored to have ghosts. Soon they'll have even bigger problems-and this renovation project might haunt them forever.
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Fatal Fixer-Upper
- A Do-It-Yourself Mystery Book 1Avery Baker was once a New York designer, but inheriting her aunt?s old Maine cottage has led her down a new career path?home renovation. Now, with help from hunky handyman Derek Ellis, Avery starts learning the ABCs of DIY. But when the designer-turned-renovator finds clues that lead to a missing professor, she wonders if she can finish the house?without getting finished off in the process.
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