Board to Death

Title: BOARD TO DEATH

Authors: Amy Barkman, Debbie Roome, and Tracy Ruckman

Publisher: Write Integrity Press

September 2011

ISBN: 978-0983948506

Genre: Cozy mystery novellas

Playing games has never been so dangerous….

A trio of mysteries in the Dangerous Games series

Victim by Amy Barkman—Polly has moved into a retirement campground (with a number of permanent residents) in order to downsize and simplify her life after her divorce. She is friends with most of the residents there and meets daily to play games in the community center. One of the favorite games is Victim.  But the make-believe version of the game turns too real when the park manager is murdered in his camper. Sheriff Steve is someone Polly has known since childhood, but now a romance kindles as the investigation gets under way. 

Mind Games by Debbie Roome—set in New Zealand, halfway across the world.  Lindsay sells hard-to-find items and antiques. A gamer, Sheridan buys Mind Games from her and invites Lindsay over to play with his game group. However, the owner of the shop next door is murdered—and found with cards from the game in his pocket. The investigation seems to point to other members of the game group—including Lindsay. Will they be cleared and freed to find love?

Sentenced by Tracy Ruckman—Gretchen is running Kettle’s On Campground for a friend. The chef on staff there, Melvin, appears to be the highlight. However, a bunch of campers meet to play Sentenced and a couple members of the group are murdered. Is Melvin’s past catching up with him? Will they find the murderer before someone else dies?

BOARD TO DEATH is a set of cozy mysteries set in different parts of the world. They really have nothing in common except games and murders, but that’s enough. The stories are not about the same characters as I thought they might be at first. But that’s okay. I enjoy reading cozy mysteries, generally, and seeing if I can figure out who-dun-it. I had some guesses in each of the stories, but didn’t figure it out for sure until it was revealed.

If you like cozy mysteries coupled with a light romance, then you’ll probably enjoy BOARD TO DEATH. This isn't for someone who favors more heavy duty suspense. It was an okay read, but I didn’t get very connected to the characters. Some of the stories were better than the others, but I won’t tell you which was my favorite. Some recipes are included at the end of the book. $12.99. 296 pages. 

(Note from author:  we ceased publication of that book at the end of last year. Amazon would not remove it from their pages, but it is not available for purchase except used copies. 

Two of the stories are now published in digital format only. 

You can find them here -

Sentenced 

Mind Games )