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Her grumpy would-be boyfriend, Sheriff Rick Formero, has lectured her and her mah jongg friends every time theyâve delved into a homicide investigation. But with most of Serendipity Springsâ deputies under suspicion just for being in the same room as the victim, Rick finds himself in the unenviable position of asking Kat to help him expose a murderer.
While Katâs pals Sydney, Marianne and Micki conduct a sneaky parallel investigation, Rick is forced to rely on Katâs skills of observation as they sort through dozens of witnesses. With his hands in so many pots, Flower attracted a lot of enemies, but itâs not easy to find a killer in the crowd. The tension threatens to wilt Kat and Rickâs budding relationship before it has a chance to blossom. Will their forced alliance bring them closerâor closer to death?
āļāˇ āˇāˇāļēāˇ āļāļąāˇāļą
āļāļģāˇāļāˇ āļ´āˇāˇ āˇāļļāļŗ
Barbara Barrett started reading mysteries when she was pregnant with her first child to keep her mind off things like her changing body and food cravings. When sheâd devoured as many Agatha Christies as she could find, she branched out to English village cozies and Ellery Queen.
Later, to avoid a midlife crisis, she began writing fiction at night when she wasnât at her day job in human resources for Iowa State Government. After releasing eleven full-length romance novels and two novellas, she returned to the cozy mystery genre, using one of her retirement pastimes, the game of mah jongg, as her inspiration. Not only has it been a great social outlet, it has also helped keep her mind active when not writing.
Flower Power, the fifth book in her âMah Jongg Mysteryâ series, features four friends who play mah jongg together and share otherwise in each otherâs lives. None of the four is based on an actual person. Each is an amalgamation of several mah jongg friends with a lot of Barbaraâs imagination thrown in for good measure. The four will continue to appear in future books in the series. Barbara is a member of Sisters in Crime and Sinc-Iowa.
She is married to the man she met her senior year of college. They have two grown children and eight grandchildren.
Now retired, she is a resident of Florida, although she spends her summers in Iowa, her home state. She earned her B.A. degree in History from the University of Iowa and her Masterâs Degree in History from Drake University.
When not in front of her laptop creating her next story, she plays mah jongg, travels and enjoys lunches with friends.Â
