A DEAD RED CADILLAC [Kindle Edition]

RP Dahlke (Author)

Book Description

"I've been married so many times, they should revoke my license," says NY model, and reluctant pilot Lalla Bains.

Running her dad's Crop-Dusting business in Modesto, California she's hoping to dodge the inevitable fortieth birthday party. But when her trophy red '58 Cadillac is found tail-fins up in a nearby lake, the police ask why a widowed piano teacher, who couldn't possibly see beyond the hood ornament, was found strapped in the driver's seat.

Reeling from an interrogation with local homicide, Lalla is determined to extricate herself as a suspect in this strange murder case. Unfortunately, drug running pilots, a cross-dressing convict, a crazy Chihuahua, and the dead woman's hunky nephew throw enough road blocks to keep Lalla neck deep in an investigation that links her family to a twenty-year old murder only she can solve.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"... Lalla Bains, pilots us through a murder investigation with more twists and turns than the coast highway and with an ending more satisfying than the purr of a perfectly tuned '58 Cadillac."
--Lesley Diehl, Author of A Deadly Draught

"... With its engaging sleuth, R.P. Dahlke's promising debut, A DEAD RED CADILLAC, will keep you turning those pages... right up to its surprising conclusion."
 
--Kris Neri,award winning author of Revenge for Old Time's Sake

"Fast paced and fun with an outwardly tough but inwardly vulnerable lady-pilot, drug smuggling and plenty of eccentric characters."
--Rhys Bowen, award-winning author of the Royal Spyness Mysteries.

From the Author

I got to thinking why I so very much like reading and writing about strong women. To be honest with you, I think it's because I've spent most of my life as a wimp, doing as I was told, minding my manners, saying all the right, and expected, things,  until one day I realized being miss-goody-two-shoes was getting me exactly nowhere. Since then, I've been called disrespectful, annoyingly forward, and my favorite--uppity.  To make up for lost time, I now suit up as Lalla Bains, born again bachelorette, ex-NY Model, crop-duster, sometime amateur sleuth.   I might as well let her tell it... she's crowding me for the spotlight anyway. 

 Lalla Bains here, and I seldom do as I'm told especially after my lyin', cheatin' whoring  second ex-husband took up with yet another too-tasty-to-resist side-dish. 
 So what if I took a baseball bat to his recently restored vintage Caddy? It was worth it just to watch him  try to yodel  his way out of this latest lie... like I didn't catch him and his secretary fogging up the windows of his pimp-mobile.
I smashed in the headlights, the driver's side window, and just for good measure, slashed the tires. That way, he had to get a tow.  I skinned him of the Caddy in the divorce and, just for spite, painted it candy apple red.
That's me, hell raiser--well, sort of. Flying and partying don't mix during the long hard days of summer.  Even if I had the energy  I get too damn little sleep as it is and now that I'm fu-fuuu-fu-forty.--'kay, that's--that's just--rude to laugh. You try my life for a day--up at three a.m., chasing after lazy pilots and the smart mouthed ground crew I inherited when my dad when he went  in for a triple by-pass.
"Would you mind coming home and taking over the crop-dusting business?" he says, coughing lightly into the phone. "I might not be around much longer." 
Miraculously recovered, my tight-wad father is now too busy to take back his desk, what with rediscovering  a whole new wardrobe from the back of his closet.  He's in leisure suits, squiring local widows to funerals and scarfing up free meals at the wakes while I try to shake off the ankle biting Chihuahua we inherited from the last murder case.
On the bright side, my love life is finally out of the dumps since I have a wonderful relationship with Sheriff Caleb Stone. Well, that is, it would be, if only I could do as I'm told and stay away from solving crimes. It's not my fault that people die at my feet, or they're found six feet under a local lake strapped into the front seat of my trophy red caddy.
But, If I did as I was told and stayed out of trouble,  I never would have solved those cases.  Besides, it helps keep my mind off turning fu-fuu-forty.  So, now you understand why well behaved women seldom make history is now my motto.
Note to self: tattoo the above quote somewhere I can clearly see it when I'm in another jam.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 505 KB
• Print Length: 289 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0615457045
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Dead Bear Publishing (March 3, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004QOAZO2
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #845 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #14 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Humor
  • #15 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Humor
  • #28 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Mystery > Women Sleuths

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars fast, fun, lightweight, but needs a line editor January 16, 2012

By G. Cox

Format:Kindle Edition

For some reason I kept imagining Cybill Shepherd playing the lead role. It would fit her previously played characters: smart sometimes, dumb sometimes, impulsive, loud, confrontational. It wasn't a heavy mystery, but it was fun. However, the author really, really needs a volunteer line-editor to find grammatical typos, repeated words, and what appear to be places where an edit left in the old text, too.

45 of 51 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A fast and fun read April 10, 2011

By J. M. Orenduff

Format:Kindle Edition

"I looked out the window at the same view I've seen for the last ten years and counting. I was bored with Modesto, bored with being Noah Bains' loser daughter, two loser marriages, loser modeling career and anything else I might try my hand at--but what else could a loser like me do? I was about to turn forty, right foot in a walking cast, cane on the left, a non-existent love life, living with a mono-syllabic father who had enough of his own hang-ups to put mine to shame."

Lalla Bains's situation get even worse when the police see the fins of her prized Cadillac sticking out of a lake and discover a body behind the wheel. As she sets about to figure out what happened, she proves her self-appraisal to be too harsh. She has spunk, intelligence, and common sense. The physical injuries - sustained when she crashed her crop-duster - will heal, but what about the emotional ones?

Dead Red Cadillac is a fast read with a likable hometown cast of characters we meet at Roxanne's Truck Café in Modesto. The mystery is well constructed and the dialog witty.

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Dead Red Cadillac April 3, 2011

By Margie p

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Lalla Bains is a little rough around the edges, but it is for show only. An ex-model turning 40, with two bad marriages behind her. She is back home in Modesto, CA running the family crop dusting company, feeling down on herself. But when a murder of a woman happens she jumps into action to prove who is and who is not guilty. A cozy that is a fast read and will keep you turning pages to the end. I will certainly read the others in this series.

More About the Author

Biography:
I sort of fell into the job of running a crop-dusting business when my dad decided he'd rather go on a cruise than take another season of lazy pilots, missing flaggers, testy farmers and horrific hours. After two years at the helm, I handed him back the keys and fled to a city without any of the above. And no, I was never a crop-duster.

My Lalla Bains series is about a tall, blond and beautiful ex-model turned crop-duster who, to quote Lalla Bains, has "been married so many times they oughta revoke my license." Lalla is no Danielle Steele character & she's not afraid of chipping her manicure. Scratch that, the girl doesn't have time for a manicure what with herding a bunch of recalcitrant pilots and juggling work orders just to keep her father's flagging business alive.

My romantic suspense, A Dangerous Harbor, is now up on Kindle and if you liked my Lalla Bains series, I know you'll love this book: More romance, more suspense, an exotic location with nastier bad guys and a bald parrot!
Then Hurricane Hole, treasure hunt with Gabe Alexander & TV star Leila Standiford

NEXT UP:
A DEAD RED OLEANDER, 2012
Here's an excerpt from Chapter One:

The world is flat. I know it is, because for the last five hours, the view has been exactly the same. Only the sun has done any traveling, working long shadows through the straight lines of recently harvested cotton plants with nothing to break the monotony but a few crows shopping the furrowed rows for worms, weevils and grasshoppers.
One hops over to inspect the truck I'm lying under, cocks a beady black eye at me; probably attracted to the shiny metal police-issued hand-cuffs, the hand dangling from wrist to arm, and me, Lalla Bains, Aero Ag pilot, sometime busy-body, meddling where I shouldn't--again. I'm dirt smeared and sweaty thinking if I get out of this alive, if the killer doesn't return to finish me off, I'll foreswear all future sleuthing. My dad, Caleb, Roxanne and half of Stanislaus County will be pleased to hear that promise come true. I will, this time. Really I will.
I waggle my grubby, unpainted and unadorned fingers at the crow. Too bad I didn't have on my engagement ring, maybe get him to peck at the lock mechanism and open it. Yeah, right, and while I'm hallucinating, maybe get him to bring me a nice cold Pepsi.

And in 2012,a whole NEW humorous/romantic mystery series starting with:
#1Wishbone, Arizona

Memberships:
Sisters in Crime, National and Desert Sleuths
1st chapter Pres.Cochise County, AZ chapter of Sisters in Crime 2003-2005.
Arizona Mystery Writers
Society of Southwestern Authors, Tucson, AZ.

Websites:
www.rpdahlke.com
www.Facebook/RP DAHLKE.com
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www.allmysterynewsletter.com
Twitter: RPDahlke

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#92 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Mystery

#92 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Mystery