Elevator Speech
The Murder Mixer – And Other Detective Case Files, an engaging teen and young adult mystery novel, features four case files. The primary sleuth in each, is a former Police Detective Lieutenant, Philip “Dancer” Mamba. The stories take place in the mid-1980s -1990s.
Mamba’s cases carry the reader through sunny California and Europe. Dancer uses only his senses and experience to dig up evidence to support his theories for solutions to his cases. Teen and young adult readers will enjoy the interactive aspects of the book. It's Late at the Estate, gives readers a “you solve it” case complete with evidence—including fingerprints—to test their detective skills.
The Murder Mixer is Volume 1 in the Mamba Mystery series of private eye mysteries.
Background
Mamba’s cases carry the reader through sunny California and Europe. Dancer uses only his senses and experience to dig up evidence to support his theories for solutions to his cases. Teen and young adult readers will enjoy the interactive aspects of the book. It's Late at the Estate, gives readers a “you solve it” case complete with evidence—including fingerprints—to test their detective skills.
The Murder Mixer is Volume 1 in the Mamba Mystery series of private eye mysteries.
Background
Mamba was introduced to readers in Traveler’s HOT L – The Time Traveler’s Resort and reprised in Traveler’s HOT L Volume 2 –New Tales from the Time Traveler’s Resort. In this book, he’s given the floor all to himself—and he takes his readers with him.
The first detective story I ever wrote was The Mixer Murder, the title story in this short anthology. My detective is Phil Mamba. Here's some background on the man.
The is the last stop in this book tour. I hope you enjoyed the ride. If you missed a book or two (or more!) on the tour, follow this link to a list of all URLs in the series by book title.The first detective story I ever wrote was The Mixer Murder, the title story in this short anthology. My detective is Phil Mamba. Here's some background on the man.
Philip Richmond Mamba was born to military parents in the midst of the post-WWII baby boom.
In the first ten years of his life, Phil, his two sisters, one older, the other one younger than he, lived in three different cities. Sergeant Major Mamba, Phil’s father, retired after twenty-two years of service, and the family remained in his last deployment destination.
The Mamba’s were “good people.” The family ate dinner at 5:00 PM every day—a tribute to Sgt. Mamba’s military routine. While they ate, they listened to “Lowell Thomas and The News” on the radio. Traveling long distances meant learning “the rest of the story” from Paul Harvey. And it was common to head to bed and dream of some news item after watching Walter Cronkite assure them “that’s the way it is.”
Phil played on Little League baseball teams, which Sgt. Mamba coached when he wasn’t umpiring. Mom and Dad Mamba were scout troop and pack leaders. Mrs. Mamba was a longtime “PTA Mom,” receiving a lifetime membership for all her volunteer work.
Church was a big part of the Mamba family routine. Sunday mornings were spent in Sunday School and “Church” (2 songs, a prayer, announcements and the offering, a special song, the sermon, closing prayer).
Sunday evenings saw the family involved in Sunday night service, and/or singspirations. Friends and visitors to the church gathered after the evening service in the Mamba home. There they ate, played games, or watched Bonanza since the Mambas had a color television.
An above average student and athlete, Phil was popular in and out of school. After high school graduation, he earned his Associate’s Degree in Criminology and enrolled in the police academy. The good fortune of a very high Draft Lottery Number kept him out of Vietnam and kept his police career uninterrupted.
Phil was blessed with the ability to maintain focus on a specific situation without excluding simultaneous events that distracted others from their primary task. Phil embodied that trait while moving steadily upward in rank. His problem-solving skills, dedication to detail, and a mind that inherently found solutions in puzzling arrays of evidence and testimony brought him near-legendary status. By his eleventh year on the force, those skills, and a propensity to skirt a direct answer to a question when it served his purpose helped to earn him the nickname, Dancer.
However, although his meteoric path delivered him to the position of Detective Lieutenant, a law-enforcement career that ended with a party, a gold watch, and monthly retirement checks was not to be.
* * *
The chronological time in these mysteries is the mid-1980s-early 1990s.
· No cell phones.
· No Internet.
· No digital media of any kind. (Okay, there is microfilm and microfiche.)
· Computers in their infancy.
This is a time when crimes are solved by following leads and good detective work, not by forensic specialists and scientific testing.
Here is the TOC. I'm hoping the story and chapter titles will pique your interest enough to get your own copy of the bog and see if you can out-detective Mamba as you both work on the solution to It's Late at the Estate.
PM-01.001
|
The Mixer Murder
|
5
|
Let the Game Begin
|
5
| |
Meet the Cast
|
11
| |
Hope Tanner’s Two Cents
|
27
| |
Mamba Makes a Move
|
35
| |
Cooking Can Be Fatal
|
45
| |
One Door Closes
|
57
| |
Another Door Opens
|
69
| |
PM-01.012
|
Once An Agent
|
73
|
A Tragic Reunion
|
73
| |
A Plea for Help
|
81
| |
Espionage 101
|
91
| |
The Game’s Afoot
|
101
| |
Jim Braxton, FIA Agent
|
107
| |
Pointed Revenge
|
117
| |
Misfire
|
131
| |
Braxton’s Revenge
|
155
| |
Roses Don’t Always Smell Sweet
|
169
| |
Epilog
|
179
| |
PM-02.013
|
The Sunshine’s Bright
|
181
|
Jolly Old England
|
181
| |
Disaster
|
193
| |
Sleuthing in London
|
209
| |
Unexpected Events
|
223
| |
Letter from Phil Mamba
|
227
| |
PM-07.028
|
It’s Late at the Estate
|
229
|
The Crime
|
231
| |
Motives
|
257
| |
Alibis/Evidence
|
261
| |
Corroboration/Evidence
|
275
| |
Tying Up Loose Ends
|
283
| |
The End of the Story… Except for the Solution
|
299
| |
Documents from Detective Mamba
|
301
| |
Police Reports
|
303
| |
Solution to the Crime – Phil Mamba’s Version
|
311
| |
Epilog
|
317
|
To further intrigue you, below is the link to A Capitol Crime. It's another U-Solve-It story. This is designed for middle and high school students who know a bit about DNA.
If you need to brush up on your DNA knowledge, here's a link to part of a textbook I wrote. The book is the fourth in a series of four textbooks, each designed for one semester of integrated science.
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My website is: www.crdowning.com
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Nice shhare
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