Bridge to Xanadu by Stephanie Parker McKean
From finding a dead body in the dumpster at the sheriff’s office to being straddled by a knife-welding rapist and serial killer, Texas’ Miz Mike is back in her most gripping and humorous mystery-romance-suspense ever, Bridge to Xanadu. Who wouldn’t chase after a porcupine to get a photo for a friend’s newspaper during a slow…
From finding a dead body in the dumpster at the sheriff’s office to being straddled by a knife-welding rapist and serial killer, Texas’ Miz Mike is back in her most gripping and humorous mystery-romance-suspense ever, Bridge to Xanadu.
Who wouldn’t chase after a porcupine to get a photo for a friend’s newspaper during a slow news week? Only when detective writer Michal Allison Rice (Miz Mike to friends) does exactly that, she finds a woman’s body. Worse yet, Mike is convinced that the murderer fled with the victim’s young daughter—but no one believes her.
Life at 40-something with two attractive, desirable men vying for her love should be easy. The only decision Mike should face is whether to marry her longtime cowboy hero Marty Richards, or animal-lover Frank Kophal. Instead, her efforts to find the murderer and rescue the child send her on a collision course with Chief Alan Bitterroot, a Native American herbal specialist and artist who holds all the magical allure of Xanadu for Mike.
The murderer sets fire to Mike’s home; pelts her with rocks; shoves her off a steep cliff, and kidnaps her. Yet the greatest danger Mike faces is that of falling passionately and irrevocably in love with a younger man, Chief Alan Bitterroot.
Before Mike can either flee back to Marty or Frank, or walk through the mystical corridor of love with Alan, she is pinned to the ground at knifepoint by the enraged killer. How will Mix Mike escape and go back to minding her own business, as she always does?
“Amazing story by a wonderful writer, grab the whole series!”
Five Star Review on Amazon By P.S. Winn
Michal Allison, or Miz Mike, as everyone calls this amazing lady is back and in another great adventure. As a mystery writer, Mike can’t seem to separate her own life from the mysteries she writes, in fact her life is more dangerous than her books characters lives. When Mike finds a dead body the mystery has begun, but their is so much more to this story which includes mystery, murder, suspense, romance and a religious background in a delightful way. The author does an incredible job in making the characters so alive in the readers mind and I feel like I know all the occupants of the small town. Mystery lovers this book is great for you and has the right amount of suspense to keep readers hanging on until they turn the last page and at that moment you can only hope Stephanie Parker McKean plans on more books in the Miz Mike series.
About the Author
Stephanie Parker McKean Biography
I’ve survived mauling by an African lion.
I’ve survived being bitten by a water moccasin snake.
I’ve emerged victorious from having been sexually abused as a child. Fleeing that abuse, I lived under a bridge and washed myself and my clothes in the river–even during the coldest months of the year. I painted signs in exchange for money for meals. If I didn’t make enough money, I didn’t eat. Now instead of living under a bridge, I write about them as in Bridge to Nowhere, released by Sunpenny Publishing.
I’ve learned that what doesn’t make you bitter makes you better. As trite as the saying is, you can’t make lemonade without the lemons.
And thank God, I’ve made the transition from atheist to Christian. My two favorite Bible verses are: in everything give thanks, and all things work together to good to them that love the LORD.
The worst day in my life was the day that I lost my job; my mother died and I couldn’t make plans to attend her funeral because my husband had just been sent home from the hospital to die; our sheepdog died, and my truck caught on fire in downtown San Antonio. With flames shooting up from under the hood, I raised my hands to the sky and thanked God. I was safe! Everything bad that could happen to one person in one day had already happened to me. It could only get better. It did.
Thanks to Sunpenny Publishing, Bridge to Nowhere joins my other Christian mystery-romance-suspense books: Heart Shadows, Until the Shadows Flee, and Shadow Chase. I’m now married to wonderful Alan McKean, author of The Scent of Time and The Scent of Home. We live in the lovely Black Isle of Scotland with our rough collie, Angel Joy. But I bet you want to hear more about the lion.
First, I was born in Texas, which was at that time the biggest state in the U.S. I learned at an early age that everything in Texas is bigger and better. When Alaska became a state, I cried. But what about the lion?
Along with an innate pride for Texas, I was born with a love for animals. At age four, my first pet was a large grasshopper that I carried around on a silver spoon. When I accidentally dropped spoon and grasshopper down the radiator in the upstairs apartment building, I sobbed at the tragic loss of my pet. My mother sobbed right along with me. The spoon had been a wedding gift.
History repeated itself years later when my four-year-old son’s pet grasshopper was consumed by a much smaller spider. He sobbed inconsolably. Son Luke Parker is now a U.S. Marine, which would make any parent proud. But I’m most proud of him for walking with God. But back to the lion.
My love for animals led to the snake bite. Because I was an unpopular child, I made pets out of snakes. Other girls were afraid of them. Riding a bicycle with a snake around my neck made boys notice me–they thought I was crazy! The day after I appeared on a local television show explaining how to tell a poisonous snake from a harmless snake, I caught a snake to see which it was. It was poisonous–a water moccasin–and it bit me. Now, finally–the lion!
Ebenezer arrived in the back of a station wagon to join our family’s roadside zoo, a collection of animals that included opossums, raccoons, assorted harmless snakes, a fox, a large boa constrictor, monkeys, a skunk, and a jaguarundi. The 200-pound pet fit right in with our family, until he reached 400 pounds and became a lion.
Sadly, when I became mature enough to quit riding bicycles with snakes in my quixotic attempt to impress boys, I remained immature enough to use a gimmick like an African lion. I invited a fellow college student home to see Eb. Not realizing that Eb had transformed from pet to lion overnight, I boldly walked up to him. Eb grabbed me by the stomach, threw me to the ground, and began mauling me. My terrified college friend jerked me out of the cage–which made Eb bite even harder because he was about to lose his toy. “I hope I did that right,” he panted. “I’ve never had to rescue anyone from a lion before!” I never saw him again.
And now you know about the lion. And when you read Bridge to Nowhere, an adult Christian mystery-romance-suspense set in Three Prongs, Texas, where the misfits fit, you’ll understand a bit more about Texas.
And hopefully, you’ll learn how to make lemonade out of lemons. Because what doesn’t make you bitter makes you better. And with God’s help, all you need to add is a little prayer, a little praise…a little sugar.