Hit and Mist (Silicon Valley Mystery #4) by Marc Jedel

Published May 8th 2020 by BGM Press

Genre: Cozy Mystery, Humour

About the Book: 

He’s determined to prove his friend innocent of homicide. He may make things worse….

When Marty’s surfer-dude pal is arrested for murder, he must squeeze his amateur sleuthing into his packed schedule. With his high-tech job busier than ever and his nieces’ antics sidetracking him, Marty’s ready for a Thanksgiving holiday. All he has to do is solve two murders. But if he can’t even convince his sister to bake his favorite chocolate pie, how can he hope to save his friend?

With the help of his girlfriend, some wacky coworkers and Buddy the rambunctious Labrador, Marty sets out to disprove the ironclad evidence. But as the suspect list blossoms out of control, his bumbling efforts might lead him into problems faster than a failing hard drive.

Can he clear his friend’s name before he’s blown to bits?

Hit and Mist is the fourth book in the riotous Silicon Valley cozy mystery series. If you like your murder cases twisty, your suspect lists long, and your detectives clueless, then you’ll love Marc Jedel’s humorous murder adventure.

Buy Hit and Mist to stumble onto the truth today!

4 Stars:

This was another humorous and enjoyable visit with Marty, his girlfriend Meghan, his co-workers Raj and Fernando and his sister Laney and his two nieces. Marty is such a wonderful protagonist. He is a modern day Maxwell Smart, works for a tech company, has social issues and doesn’t always think before speaking, tells the best “dad” jokes and bumbles his way into solving not one, but two murders.

This is a short, quick read, but one that when I start, I read straight through. This time, Marty’s friend Brody has been arrested for murder. As well as that, the first murder was Meghan’s kick-boxing instructor and she and Marty found the body. Of course, he has to get himself involved. With Mace, the detective he has “worked with” previously side-lined due to his relationship with Brody, Marty is on his own. I love how his mind works. When he comes up with his theories through his daydreams and far-out ideas, I just laugh. Even his bad jokes have me chuckling. Marty is working very hard to develop better social skills for Meghan’s sake. He does try to think before he speaks, thing about others and tone down his sarcasm, but he is not always successful. I love that his family and friends love him in spite of this. This book was another winner by Marc Jedel. An extremely humorous cozy mystery with a male protagonist who is a nerd, a bit of a social misfit and a bumbler, who still solves the crime. A wonderful break from everything that is going on in the world right now. I definitely recommend this one. I received a copy of this book through Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours upon request. The rating, ideas and opinions shared are my own.

Purchase Link – Amazon – http://getbook.at/HitMist

Guest Post by Marc Jedel: An Interview with a side character, Mrs. Quarles

My books in the Silicon Valley Mystery series are humorous murder mysteries. Silicon Valley is not your typical, cozy mystery locale and Marty Golden, the hero, doesn’t fit the normal profile of a mystery protagonist. Despite finding himself thrust into challenging situations, Marty isn’t exactly hero material. He brings a combination of wit, irreverent humor and sarcasm mixed in with nerdy insecurities, absent-mindedness, and fumbling but effective amateur sleuthing skills. With an active inner voice and not a lot of advanced planning, he throws himself into solving problems.

To get a better understanding of Marty’s world, here’s a recent interview I did with Mrs. Quarles, school secretary for Marty’s nieces’ school.

Marc [author]: Thank you for your time today, Mrs. Quarles—
Mrs. Quarles: I only have five minutes for you today so let’s get to it.

Marc [author]: Oh, sorry. Do you mind if I call you Irene?
Mrs. Quarles: Yes. You can call me Mrs. Quarles. Only four and half minutes left now so hurry it up young man!

Marc [author]: To start off with the obvious question, how have you been holding up during this pandemic with all the sheltering-in-place time?
Mrs. Quarles: I’ve been busier than ever keeping things going at the school.

Marc [author]: But, aren’t schools all closed? All the kids are at home and everything, right?Mrs. Quarles: Well, of course the kids are at home. That’s the only safe place for them. And the teachers have been busy doing all their remote teaching thing. But I’ve got to keep the office running smoothly.

Marc [author]: Doing what, if you don’t mind my asking? It’s not exactly busy around here.
Mrs. Quarles: Well, that does sound like you’re being rude. Are you trying to be difficult?

Marc [author]: No, ma’am.
Mrs. Quarles: [gives me a hard look before continuing] Well, okay then. You should know we teach our children to be polite to everyone. That’s in our RULES for the school. Everyone has to follow them. Even visitors. But, anyway, I should explain that I’m quite busy organizing all the food distribution for our students and their families who need it. It starts in thirty minutes.

Marc [author]: Wow. I guess I had no idea. Of course I’ve read about how schools are distributing food to students and families in need, but I didn’t think about who was doing it.
Mrs. Quarles: Yes, well, it doesn’t all happen by magic now does it? Hey! [yelling at a woman across the school’s driveway], masks need to cover both nose and mouth! [Turning back to me] Sigh, some people just don’t understand the RULES.

Marc [author]: Let me switch gears and ask you how you feel about all the attention from my latest novel?
Mrs. Quarles: What novel? I really don’t have time to read these days. Keeping this school running in tiptop shape takes all of my attention. I prefer nonfiction anyway. One of my favorites was Best Practices in School Administration. I’m not a big fan of fiction. Too much made-up flim-flam. Your book isn’t full of flim-flam, is it?

Marc [author]: Nope. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever used that word before. But Hit and Mist, my latest novel, is a fun, humorous murder mystery.
Mrs. Quarles: Murder is not funny, young man.

Marc [author]: Yes, ma’am. Well thank you for your time—
Mrs. Quarles:  Your time’s up now. Please move along. We have our parents coming soon to pick up their food for today. Make sure to move your car out of the way. This isn’t a parking lot you know.

 Marc [author]: Hit and Mist, book 4 in the Silicon Valley Mystery series, can also be read standalone. All the books in the series are free for Kindle Unlimited readers. The first three books have also been released as audiobooks by Tantor Audio everywhere audiobooks are sold. Buy the books on Amazon at: amazon.com/gp/product/B07PHNT7XM. For more about me, or free chapters from all the books, please visit www.marcjedel.com.

About the Author: For most of my life, I’ve been inventing stories. Some, especially when I was young, involved my sister as the villain. As my sister’s brother for her entire life, I’m highly qualified to tell the tale of this evolving, quirky sibling relationship.

My writing skills were honed in years of marketing leadership positions in Silicon Valley. While my high tech marketing roles involved crafting plenty of fiction, we called these marketing collateral, emails and ads.

The publication of my first novel, Uncle and Ants, gave me permission to claim “author” as my job. And achieving Amazon Best Seller status gave me even better adjectives to use in front of “author.” This has led to way more interesting discussions than answering “marketing.”

My family would tell you that Marty’s character isn’t much of a stretch of the imagination for me, but I’m comfortable with that situation.

Like Marty, I live in Silicon Valley and can’t believe that otherwise normal people would willingly jump out of an airplane and call it fun. Unlike Marty, I have a wonderful wife and a neurotic but sweet, small dog, who is often the first to weigh in on the humor in my writing.

Author Links: Website – FaceBook – LinkedIn – GoodReads – BookBub