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Release Day for A Weekend Getaway Murder!

Title: A Weekend Getaway Murder

Series: Grave Sisters Mysteries: Book 3

Author: Tam May

Genres: Historical Cozy Mystery

Release Date: July 25, 2026

“A fabulous addition to the series!” — early Goodreads reviewer

No one is more surprised than District Attorney Daniel Frazer when Walt, his old college roommate, shows up in a cabin along the river with a group of friends for a New Year’s Eve getaway.

But all horn blowing and champagne drinking cease when Walt’s murdered body is found lying in the woods. This is Daniel’s first murder case since being appointed D.A., and he turns to District Attorney Oliver Clarke in neighboring Gyver County for help.

Oliver is wrapped up in his own case, so he suggests Daniel seek the aid of the Grave Sisters. But the sisters’ expertise lies in their familiarity with Gyver, California, and its inhabitants. In Moody, Nevada, they are in the dark.

Can the Grave sisters help Daniel sort out the likely suspects among friends and enemies to solve this twisted tale of lies and deceit? Will a fancy cigarette holder, a plain cigarette case, and a figure running “like lightning” through the forest give them insights into who killed Daniel’s friend?

You can get your copy of the book at a special promotional price at the following online retailers.

Excerpt

“Except that Caruso wanted Barbeiri out of the mob,” said Daniel. “That’s unofficial, of course, but the word is Barbeiri was getting a little too above himself for Caruso’s taste, so he wanted him out, and he was willing to pay.”

“I thought when mobsters want someone out, they just —” Eve swallowed, “— kill them.”

Daniel grimaced. “That’s what the moving pictures and the detective novels would have you believe. Mobsters are more cautious than that, and the smart ones, like Caruso, use guns as a last resort. And not on a small fry like Barbeiri.”

“So if Caruso wanted Barbeiri out of the gang, he wouldn’t have been too upset when he was convicted,” Eve reasoned.

He rubbed his hands, glancing around the room. “It’s a little more complicated than that.”

“What do you mean?” Eve sat down on the stool in front of the vanity.

“Rob said the general consensus is Caruso didn’t want to leave anything to chance,” he said. “He wanted to make sure Barbeiri was convicted.”

“You mean he manufactured evidence to convict him?” Eve stared.

Daniel grunted. “More like he hired a smart lawyer to make sure Barbeiri would get jail time.”

Eve was silent for a moment. “You mean he bribed Walt to lose the case.”

“I don’t know if I would say that,” Daniel said quickly. “But let’s just say a lawyer like Walt can act like he’s doing his best when he really isn’t.”

“You implied it was just a rumor.” Eve looked at him hard. “Do you think it’s true?”

Deep lines appeared on his face. “Rob thinks Caruso made it worth Walt’s while. And you see the results.” He glanced around the expensively furnished room.

“He might have been threatened into it,” Eve suggested.

“I don’t think he needed to be,” Daniel said softly. “I never claimed Walt was a saint, Eve. Money was important to him as a lawyer. He never hid that fact.”

Eve let out a breath. “Whether Walt did or didn’t do his best to defend Barbeiri, he lost the case just like Caruso wanted him to. So Caruso wouldn’t have any reason to go after Walt, would he?”

“Which is why Walt wasn’t concerned when Mary told him about the black car,” Daniel said. “It all makes sense now, doesn’t it?” He looked at her anxiously. “Eve, don’t tell Mary about this. I mean, about Walt losing the case deliberately.”

“No, of course not,” Eve said. “Dan, remember what you said on the train?”

“You mean about letting Sheriff Quinn and Helena’s views on the case guide me if the Caruso henchmen theory didn’t turn out?” He eyed her. “I haven’t forgotten, Eve. But I’m not ready to ask Sheriff Quinn to swear out a warrant for anyone’s arrest.”

“But it doesn’t look good for the people who stayed with him in the cabin that weekend, does it?” Eve asked. “Especially Addie.”

“No, I suppose it doesn’t.” He sighed.

About the Author

Writing has been Tam May’s voice since the age of fourteen. She writes stories set in the past featuring sassy but sensitive women characters. Tam is the author of the Adele Gossling Mysteries, which takes place in the early 20th century and features suffragist and epistolary expert Adele Gossling whose talent for solving crimes doesn’t sit well with her town’s conventional ideas about women. She also has a new series, the Grave Sisters Mysteries, about three sisters who own a funeral home and help the county D.A. solve crimes in a 1920s small California town, set to release in 2025. In addition, she has written historical fiction about women breaking loose from the social and psychological expectations of their era. Although Tam left her heart in San Francisco, she lives in the Midwest because it’s cheaper. When she’s not writing, she’s devouring everything classic (books, films, art, music), concocting yummy plant-based dishes, and exploring her riverside town.

Social Media Links

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A Safe and Sane 4th of July

Today is Independence Day in America, also known as the Fourth of July. Americans have always been enthusiastic about their freedom, especially when you consider it’s an integral part of the American philosophy of life.

The Gilded Age and Progressive Era were no exceptions. America was coming into its own during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Spanish-American War of 1898 brought America to the world stage for the first time. The nation was prosperous, and social reforms were making it even better. Things were pretty good.

But sometimes Americans carried their enthusiasm a little too far. Today the Fourth of July is largely a social holiday with parades, family BBQs, and fireworks. I’ll never forget my first San Francisco Fourth celebration in 1995. I went to Crissy Field to see them shoot fireworks over the bay. It was an amazing spectacle of national spirit and dedication.

Photo Credit: Drawing of a skeleton dressed up for the 4th of July celebrations, 1899, lithograph, created by L. Crusius, Welcome Collection: Look and Learn/CC BY 4.0

Ironically, during the Progressive Era, however, many politicians and reformers were pushing for a “quiet” Fourth of July celebration, encouraging Americans to stay home instead of going out into the street. They had good reason. The enthusiasm for the Fourth had, by that time, gotten out of hand. Children were going around shooting off toy guns, and sometimes their aim wasn’t so careful. Fireworks, as you might imagine, weren’t exactly sophisticated in those days, so safety wasn’t a priority. Added to that were cannons, firecrackers, and other explosives that caused many injuries and even death. And we’re talking serious numbers here. In 1903, more than 400 people died, and 4,000 were injured during the nation’s Fourth of July celebrations. Many of these fatalities came from shrapnel wounds acquired by dangerous explosives or careless toy guns that resulted in tetanus.

The reformers of what was dubbed the Safe and Sane movement weren’t exactly welcomed with open arms. Many Americans made fun of the reform movements taking place in the early 20th century, and they resented these reformers who wanted to take away their holiday fun. But they could do little about it when cities began to implement ordinances to curtail these dangerous practices. In San Francisco (where part of my Adele Gossling Mysteries series takes place), women’s clubs worked hard to get toy guns banned from kids under seventeen. Sadly, they did not succeed, but they did succeed in restricting dangerous explosives, cannons, and firecrackers from these celebrations.

By the 1920s (when my Grave Sisters Mysteries series takes place), Fourth of July celebrations were an entirely different animal. The transformation from chaos and danger to community was complete. You were more likely to see people running in a three-legged race or participating in a pie tasting contest than shooting off cannons or toy guns. Other events besides fireworks included sports and picnics. These practices gave Americans a chance to celebrate the holiday in a social environment that was, well, safe and sane!

Feel free to check out my Adele Gossling Mysteries and my Grave Sisters Mysteries to learn a lot more history from the early 20th century (and engage in some fun mysteries too!)

If you love fun, engaging mysteries set in the past, you’ll enjoy The Missing Ruby Necklace! It’s available exclusively to newsletter subscribers here. By signing up, you’ll also get news about upcoming releases, fun facts about women’s history, classic true-crime tidbits, and more!

Lending a Helping Hand: The Early FBI

I’m a big classic movie fan. I prefer the earlier classics from between the 1920s and the 1950s rather than the later ones from the 1960s onward. But one film from the 1970s that has always fascinated me is the film Paper Moon. It’s a black comedy set during the Great Depression in the Midwest, where Americans were having the toughest time and would do anything to get by. The film follows a charming and handsome con man named Moze (played by Ryan O’Neal) who gets stuck with an eight-year-old orphan, Addie (played by his real-life daughter, Tatum O’Neal), who becomes a better con artist than he is. Clearly, this is not the kind of film that would go over well today, but in the 1970s, when standards were different and the concept of “political correctness” wasn’t as prevalent, this kind of film embedded a lot of social and political views that many Americans, especially younger ones, shared.

There’s a scene in the film where Moze and Addie succeed in beating a bootlegger at his own game when they find his stash of illegal whiskey, steal some of it, and sell it back to the man. They get caught by the local police but manage to escape. The escape scene is pretty standard 1970s action stuff (you can watch it here). Their goal is to get out of Kansas (their current location) and drive across the state line to Missouri, where the police can’t touch them.

Why was this so crucial? Because up until just after the Great Depression ended, state police had no authority to apprehend criminals who had not committed crimes in their state. So Kansas police couldn’t track Moze and Addie down if they crossed over to Missouri.

Criminals weren’t, however, completely free. In 1908, Theodor Roosevelt approved a new national law enforcement agency that could function in any state and help apprehend criminals who had crossed the state line. At that time, it was named the U.S. Bureau of Investigation, but in 1935, it was renamed to what we know now as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or the F.B.I.

Photo Credit: Newspaper story of the ambush (initiated by the U.S. Bureau of Investigation) that killed Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, 23 May 1934: Bradford Timeline/Flickr/CC BY NC 2.0

This agency helped crack some of the most notorious cases, including:

– The Lindbergh baby case (1932): The infamous case of the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh’s infant son prompted Hoover (head of the Bureau at the time) to send out agents to look for marked bills of the ransom money to try and track down the perpetrator.

– Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow (1934): Bureau agents in nine states collaborated to eventually track the killing couple down in Louisiana and create an ambush that led to their deaths.

– Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (1950s): This is sort of a forgotten case, but it was huge at the time (and if you’ve read poet Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar, you’ll know it). At the height of the Cold War scare, a spy ring was discovered to be transferring secrets from the atomic development center in New Mexico to the Russians. The FBI traced these messages to a scientist named Julius Rosenberg, and he and his wife, along with several others, were arrested in 1951. Both refused to confess and were executed in 1953.

Book 3 of my Grave Sisters Mysteries doesn’t involve Oliver Clarke, the Gyver district attorney, because the sisters focus on helping Daniel Frazer, the Moody County D.A., with his case. But Oliver has his own case, which is helping the Bureau capture criminals who kidnapped a child and left her for dead (yes, the case in the book is inspired by the Lindbergh baby kidnapping).

A Weekend Getaway Murder is available now for preorder, as it comes out this summer, so grab your copy here.

If you love fun, engaging mysteries set in the past, you’ll enjoy The Missing Ruby Necklace! It’s available exclusively to newsletter subscribers here. By signing up, you’ll also get news about upcoming releases, fun facts about women’s history, classic true-crime tidbits, and more!

School of Hard Knocks: What School Was Like in the Early 20th Century

I’m a teacher as well as a writer. I got into teaching pretty much by surprise. I was always very shy and introverted, the kid who slouched down in her seat in the back so the teacher wouldn’t call on her. When my parents suggested I do a teaching certificate when I was in college, mostly because they couldn’t see any practical profession for me as an English major, I shuddered. I didn’t end up getting that teaching certificate, as I had no interest in teaching children. But when I got into a master’s program and was offered a part-time instructorship teaching freshmen English composition courses as a way to pay part of my tuition, I grabbed it. Shockingly, I found I loved teaching adults (if you can consider college-aged students adults). In 2004, I transitioned from teaching college English classes to teaching ESL to business professionals. I still do that today, and I still love it.

Maybe that’s why teachers figure prominently in several of my books. But my teachers are victims not only of murder but of the rather unpolished and sometimes brutal school system in America in the early 20th century.

A typical schoolhouse in a small town or rural area in the early 20th century. Note the one-room structure and the mix of students (younger and older) posing in front of it.

Photo Credit: A one-room schoolhouse with the teacher and students, north of Kearny, Nebraska, 1910, Solomon D. Butcher (photographer), Library of Congress: LOC’s Public Domain Archive/Public Domain

Compared to schools today, the American school system, especially in small towns and rural areas (where many of my books take place) was pretty harsh. Parents complain today of crowded classrooms, but in the early 20th century, school was a one-room affair that packed in kids from the first to the eighth grade. The younger kids learned the basics while the older ones did more self-study. Older children were expected to help younger ones with their lessons. As you might expect, the separate spheres dictated some differences in what boys and girls were taught. Although both were taught the basics (reading, writing, and math), girls were taught subjects considered more appropriate for their future station in life (like sewing and mending) while boys were allowed to tackle subjects like science and biology.

Perhaps one of the most surprising things about American schools at the turn of the 20th century is that corporal punishment was legal and widely used in many schools. It wasn’t unheard of for a child to get a sharp rap on the knuckles or on the palm of his or her hand with the teacher’s ruler if they misbehaved. For example, the murder of a schoolteacher in 1915 by one of her former students was partly provoked by her and the school principal’s liberal use of this kind of punishment (you can read more about that case here).

Teachers didn’t have it easy in the early 20th century. Surprisingly, most teachers were men up until that time. Things changed during the Progressive Era when more women went to work. Teaching was one of the few respectable professions for a young woman (some as young as seventeen), and school districts could get away with paying women much less than they paid the men.

But, as those who have read the first book of my Grave Sisters Mysteries know, the teaching profession bound these young ladies to rigid and restrictive rules. They had to dress a certain way and were forbidden to do certain things, like take in some of the outside leisure activities that were becoming popular at the time (think: vaudeville, moving pictures, and even drug store soda fountains). They were forbidden to go out with men and couldn’t even be seen with any man who wasn’t family. They were expected to save most of their paltry earnings for retirement so they wouldn’t be a burden on the community in their old age. That left them with barely enough to support themselves.

Another one of my books that features the death of a teacher is A Wordless Death. That book is on sale now for a great price, and you can find out more about it here.

The (Not so) Roaring Presidents of the Roaring Twenties

President’s Day is on February 16 in America. In spite of how people feel about the current president, presidents have had a major influence on the nation throughout the years, and each president, in many ways, reflects the era in which he serves.

Some decades have had more presidents than others. The 1840s and the 1880s tie for the most presidents in America, as people saw five during each of those decades (that’s a lot of presidents!) But the 1920s, when my Grave Sisters Mysteries is set, saw its share of presidents too. The decade had no less than three presidents who occupied the Oval Office at one time or another.

In many ways, these three presidents (Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover) represented the ethos of the 1920s. Since the Republicans dominated politics at the time, the men favored business and incorporated things like low taxes for large corporations, high important tarrifs, and a hands-off approach to business regulations that sharply contrasted the pre-war anti-trust politics. Not surprisingly, they embraced a free market, which was partly responsible for the economic boom of the Roaring Twenties. They also shied away from the global market, focusing more on domestic issues (though not focusing on them enough, as we’ll see with the Hoover administration).

Photo Credit: Warren Harding and a group of men outside the White House, Washington D.C., 1923, Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress: Public Domain Media/Public Domain

However, each of the presidents faced very different challenges. Harding, who took office in the first third of the decade, was dealing with a nation devastated by the effects of World War I. His campaign promise was a “return to normalcy”. Consequently, his approach to politics was so laid back that many people thought him lazy and incompetent. It may be that this laid-back attitude was the reason why his administration was riddled with scandal. Of special note was the Teapot Dome Scandal, where the Secretary of the Interior accepted bribes from private oil companies to whom he had leased reserves in Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and in California. In addition, the head of the Veterans Bureau (established in 1921 and which is featured in Book 2 of the Grave Sisters Mysteries) ran off with nearly $250 million, though he did return and was tried and convicted after Harding’s death in 1923.

Photo Credit: Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover walking outside the White House, 1928, Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress: Picryl/No known restrictions

Succeeding Harding was Coolidge. If Harding was thought incompetent, Coolidge was thought ineffectual. In fact, he really didn’t do much for the country other than clean up the mess left behind by the Harding administration. He was known for his silence, and his involvement in politics was quite minimal by today’s (and even 1920s’) standards. Nevertheless, this uber laid-back attitude was popular with voters, and he lasted until 1929. In fact, one of the reasons why he wasn’t re-elected was because he chose not to run with no reason other than “I choose not to run.” How’s that for a man of few words?

You would think, with two Republican presidencies marred with scandal, incompetence, and inefficiency, the Democrats would win the election at the end of the 1920s, but such was not the case. This was mainly because the Democratic candidate, Alfred E. Smith, had several strikes against him that made him unpopular with many voters. He was Irish and Catholic, for one. It seems incredible now that Americans would be so prejudiced as to consider these aspects a drawback, but it would take another 30-odd years until they voted an Irish Catholic into the White House (that would be John F. Kennedy, of course). Smith was also anti-Prohibition and had big-city manners, which didn’t go over well with the small-town voters of the time. So Hoover got the presidency. However, the Republican laid-back politics and free market favor proved to be exactly what the country did not need at the time. Less than eight months after he was inaugurated, the stock market crashed, and the years Hoover served were the most difficult of the Great Depression. He was defeated when he ran again in 1933 for a president who could take the country by the hand and create interventions that would pull America out of the biggest economic disaster in history (that president, by the way, was Franklin D. Roosevelt

My Grave Sisters Mysteries begins at the start of Harding’s administration, and you can expect the series to run well into Hoover’s and beyond. You can get the first book of the Grave Sisters Mysteries, The Case of the Washed-Up Corpse, here.