Rocky Start / Rocky Start (ePub)

Rose Malone's landlord and employer, Ozzie Oswald, just died and now she has no idea if she has a job or if she and her daughter, Poppy, have a place to live, and that's on top of the arrest warrant that's been out for her for nineteen years. Then a stranger shows up claiming to be Ozzie's son and tries to throw her out, so she swings a reproduction of the Maltese Falcon at him, and just as she's about to finish him off in a rage, somebody grabs him and throws him into the street.

Max Reddy just wants his boots. He's walking the Appalachian trail with his dog Maggs and stopping for them in Rocky Start, when he sees a feisty middle-aged woman swinging a Maltese Falcon at a guy who backhands her. Max throws the guy into the street and continues on his way, determined to get his boots and get out of town, even if Feisty is pretty cute. He's been alone on the Trail a long time. Some trees are looking good to him.

All Rose wants to know is what's going on, so she follows Max to the post office, no ulterior motive, honest. Except to pick his pocket to find out who he is, then he can go. But by nightfall, she's invited him under her roof for her own protection since they're dealing with a town full of retired spies, including a sly-eyed moocher, a suspicious sheriff, a knife-wielding bakery owner, a strange woman who looks like a vampire, a conniving teenager, and a dog who's decided she's done with the Appalachian Trail. And Max is starting to think his dog is right.

Rocky Start: This could be the start of something dangerous.