Take the Monkeys and Run: A Barbara Marr Murder Mystery

Film lover Barbara Marr is a typical suburban mom living the typical suburban life in her sleepy little town of Rustic Woods, Virginia. Typical, that is until she sets out to find the missing link between a bizarre monkey sighting in her yard and the bone chilling middle-of-the-night fright fest at the strangely vacant house next door. When Barb talks her two friends into some seemingly innocent Charlie's Angels-like sleuthing, they stumble upon way more than they bargained for and uncover a piece of neighborhood history that certain people would kill to keep on the cutting room floor. Enter sexy PI Colt Baron, Barb's ex-boyfriend who would love to be cast as new leading man, filling the role just vacated by her recently estranged husband, Howard. When Colt flies in from out of town to help Barb, events careen out of control and suddenly this mini-van driving mother of three becomes a major player in a treacherous and potentially deadly FBI undercover operation. It's up to her now. With little time to spare, she and she alone, must summon the inner strength necessary to become a true action heroine and save the lives of those she loves. The question is can she get them out alive before the credits roll?

Karen has been writing plays and short stories for many years, some of which were published in various college literary magazines. More recently, her short story ＂The Recollections of Rosabelle Raines,＂ was published in the mystery anthology Chesapeake Crimes: They Had it Comin’ (Wildside Press, 2010). A few years ago she became inspired to write her first novel, Take the Monkeys and Run, a comedy-mystery, inspired, to some degree by a true monkey sighting in her own neighborhood. Because she loves to laugh as well as make other people laugh, she has the most fun imagineable writing the character Barbara Marr as well as her friends and adversaries. These days, Karen can be found pecking away at her laptop, conjuring a collection of Barbara Marr short stories and a second Barbara Marr novel, Citizen Insane. Otherwise, she’s spending time hanging with her kids before they hit those years where they pretend they don’t know her.