Three short works featuring Florida Homicide Detective James T. Kirkland who has to put up with a Star Trek loving Medical Examiner, an ex-wife, and a cousin who overreacts to just about everything. Sometimes murder happens when and where you least expect it. Red Shirted. "He's dead, Jim." Homicide Detective James T. Kirkland dreads the Star-Trek loving medical examiner's joy in stating the obvious. This time, the victim was wearing a red shirt, and when what looked like a death from natural causes turns into a homicide, Kirkland is called upon to solve the crime, red shirt and all. Red's Heat "There's a body buried in my yard." Detective James T. Kirkland braves the hot, sweltering heat of a Florida summer to debunk his cousin's claim before both of them are set up for ridicule in the Sheriff's Office. But when the body isn't really a body, Kirkland accepts being the butt of department jokes—until things take an unexpected turn. Red Flagged "Call me when you've got a dead body." Favorite words of an over-worked detective trying to get some shut-eye. But when his ex-wife calls and says her friend is missing, all thoughts of sleep evaporate as James T. Kirkland rushes to help solve the mysterious disappearance. Red Flagged first appeared in Deception, a Mystery Anthology published by Highland Press, 2011.
Author
Terry Odell was born in Los Angeles and after living several decades in Florida now makes her home in Colorado. An avid reader (her parents tell everyone they had to move from their first home because she finished the local library), she always wanted to "fix" stories so the characters did what she wanted, in books, television, and the movies. Once she began writing, she found this wasn't always possible, as evidenced when the mystery she intended to write rapidly became a romance. However, her entry into the world of writing can be attributed to a "mistake" when her son mentioned the Highlander television series on a visit home. Being the "good mother" she began watching the show and soon connected with the world of fanfiction, first as a reader, then as a critique giver, and then, one brave weekend, she wrote her first short story. Things snowballed (if one can use that analogy in central Florida!) and soon she was writing her first original novel. Much later, she mentioned something about a recent Highlander episode to her son, and he said, "Oh, I've never actually watched the show, I just thought the concept was cool." Little did he know what he'd started. "
