The Ranger’s Dog Tags, a mystery romance from P.J. MacLayne

Please help us give P.J. MacLayne a great big warm welcome to the blog this week. P.J. is here to share her newest mystery with romance release The Ranger’s Dog Tags with us. Welcome P.J.! We are all excited to hear more about The Ranger’s Dog Tags and the Harmony Duprie Mysteries Series.

Thanks to Mandy for hosting me on her blog today and letting me share my new release, The Ranger’s Dog Tags with you. It’s a female sleuth story with a touch of romance and the last book in the Harmony Duprie Mysteries, but can be read as a standalone. In it, Harmony Duprie faces the greatest challenge of her life.

She’s a small-town ex-librarian with the knack of attracting trouble. Although Harmony is logical at her core, how she applies logic is often questionable. As the chief of police of her hometown, Oak Grove, says, “It’s not that she breaks the rules. It’s more like they dissolve when she’s around.”

As much as I love Harmony, it was time to give her a break. So, with this being the last book in the series, what do I have coming up? I’m working on two projects. One is the prequel story of Jake Hennessey, Harmony’s ex-lover who was responsible for teaching her how to really drive, but also for getting her arrested for drug trafficking. I’m not sure what genre it fits under, so I don’t know what I’m going to do with it! The other project is a historical mystery (early 1980s) set in Pittsburgh, featuring a female private detective by the name of C.T. McGregor. It’ll be darker and rougher than the Harmony stories, but I anticipate it also having a touch of romance.

About The Ranger’s Dog Tag’s:

It isn’t the first time Eli Hennessey has disappeared. Is it the last?

Eli Hennessey has vanished.

His house in Oak Grove is in flames, his cell phone is out of commission, and friends in Florida can’t find him. It’s up to Harmony Duprie to track down her missing lover before her life shatters and his ends.

Harmony’s first discovery: Eli tricked her into signing paperwork putting her in charge of his company. Had he planned his disappearance?

The answers won’t be found in Oak Grove. Harmony hightails it to Florida in search of Eli and the truth.

In Florida, Harmony is forced to deal with an alphabet-soup assortment of law-enforcement agencies, and they aren’t always on her side. Plus, she’s trying to keep her head above water while making sure Eli’s company stays afloat in his absence. At least she has Dolores, her salsa-red Jaguar, to depend on. Here’s an excerpt with Dolores as the star.

You can find The Ranger’s Dog Tags at these e-book retailers:

Excerpt from The Ranger’s Dog Tag’s:

The miles flew by, and I switched the station to one that played soundtracks from movies. Not my normal choice, but it filled the void in the conversation. I could out-silence Vanessa any day of the week. She should be glad I didn’t torture her by singing along.

As we approached the Deltona exit, about twenty-five miles before Daytona, I decided the fun was over. If we turned around now, I’d still have plenty of time to spend with Eli. The drive had done me good, and I’d almost been able to forget my worries.

I slowed, took the exit, turned under the interstate, and headed up the onramp on the other side. Vanessa didn’t question what I was doing, still giving me the silent treatment. It would get uncomfortable if we didn’t break the stalemate before we got home.

I’d reached cruising speed when I spotted them. Vanessa saw them, too. On the opposite side of the road. Two black sedans.

“Shit,” she said.

“Who are they?”

She bit her bottom lip.

“So, who am I going to piss off when I remove their tracker?” I asked.

“You won’t find a bug.” Her mouth quirked. “No matter how hard you look.”

The mile markers showed our progress, but my mind was going nowhere. The GPS wasn’t attached to Dolores, or on me. I’d been extra careful with my purse and checking my clothes each morning. Unless Vanessa sneaked into my room when I wasn’t paying attention?

Or…

“It’s you, isn’t it? You’re wired. You’ve been pretending to protect me when what you’re doing is trying to find evidence against me.” A sudden rage engulfed me. “I’ll move out tonight. Unless you plan to arrest me on some bogus charge first. You can keep the rent.”

I adjusted the rearview mirror to get a better long-range view of the cars behind us. She’d betrayed me when I thought we’d had a chance of being real friends. And she’d done it when I needed a friend the most. “Who are you answering to, Special Agent Salters?”

With a push on the gas pedal, I let Dolores fly. The sooner I retrieved my clothes from her house, the better. There were plenty of hotels to stay at until I found a new place to live.

Vanessa sucked in a breath as we blew past a string of cars in the right lane. “Slow down. I’m not wired. There’s a tracker app on my phone. That’s all.”

I didn’t ease off the pedal. “Who has access to it?”

“My boss.”

“And?”

“Richon.”

“And?” I glanced at her. Under her Florida tan, her face had paled. I pushed Dolores to go faster. “And?”

“Putnam and his agency. Will you slow the fuck down?”

I did better. It was a gift from the heavens. A spot with no traffic. And a paved strip between the two sides of the interstate for law enforcement use only.

I slammed on the brakes—

Feathered the clutch—

Shifted down—

Cranked the steering wheel—

I ended up facing the opposite direction. The perfect bootlegger’s 180. My favorite maneuver.

I didn’t have time to check Vanessa’s reaction. She didn’t scream. I gave her points for that. But the soft string of curse words that emanated from her side of the car was the satisfaction I craved. I fed Dolores enough gas to get to the pull-through and watched in my mirror as the black sedans screamed by.

……….Don’t worry, there is a a romantic subplot to book. I won’t give you much more of a hint than that, because I don’t want to ruin the mystery!

About the Author: 

Born and raised among the rolling hills of western Pennsylvania, P.J. MacLayne still finds inspiration for her books in that landscape. She is a computer geek by day and a writer by night who currently lives in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains. When she’s not in front of a computer screen, she might be found exploring the back roads of the nearby national forests and parks. She writes the Harmony Duprie Mysteries (not-quite-cozy) and the Free Wolves Adventures. (urban fantasy/paranormal)

 

P.J. MacLayne can be reached at: 

 

Other books in the Harmony Duprie Mysteries:

  • The Marquesa’s Necklace
  • Her Ladyship’s Ring
  • The Baron’s Cufflinks
  • The Contessa’s Brooch
  • The Samurai’s Inro

 

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