Is It Really Worth It?

My latest Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery, No Bells, (sort of a cozy police procedural) has been out since February and I’ve been promoting it like crazy. In fact, half of my time has been taken up with promotion of it and the next book coming in my Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series.

This one features Officer Gordon Butler. Poor guy, nothing seems to go right for him. He’s the butt of jokes. In No Bells he finally falls in love with the “girl of his dreams” but she turns out to be the prime suspect in a murder case. He is willing to risk his job and his life to prove her innocent.

Gordon has many fans. When he was looking for a room to rent, one of the fans of this series for a moment considered offering him her extra bedroom.

I promoted the heck out of this book, arranged a fun month-long blog tour, received glowing reviews, promoted on Facebook and Twitter and of course my own blog, attended conference and had in-person events but when my publisher posted the best selling books for the quarter, No Bells wasn’t on the list.

This series has been published by two other publishers. Oak Tree Press is now the publisher and she has republished all the previous books in the series. I know there are some readers out there who like to start at the beginning of a series–so I’m hoping this is a good thing.

This is the order of the series:


Final Respects
When I wrote this I didn’t plan to continue the series, but I fell in love with the characters and wondered what would happen to them next.
Bad Tidings
This offering focuses on Lt. Gilbreath and the bad news he has to deliver to families of victims and some bad news of his own.
Fringe Benefits
The story of a very bad cop and how he nearly gets away with murder.
Smell of Death
Officer Stacey Wilbur and Detective Milligan work together on three murder cases and this is where their romance begins.
No Sanctuary
A tale of two churches, two ministers, two wives and one murder–and the romance continues.
An Axe to Grind
A decapitation of a stalker leads to Detective Milligan’s disappearance. Though the subject is grim, one reader said despite that, it was humorous.
Angel Lost
Stacey plans her wedding, captures a pervert–and disappears on her wedding day. An angel appears in a downtown window.
No Bells (description is above.)


Though this is an on going series, each book is written as a stand-alone. They do not need to be read in order, though most of the characters continue on.

My intention all along has been to show how the job affects the family and what goes on in the family affects the job. Years ago I lived in a neighborhood filled with police officers and their families, I had lots of coffee and conversations with the wives, and as couples we partied together. Later my son-in-law became a cop and told me his stories after his shift. The tradition has continued and I have a grandson who is a police officer and a grandson-in-law who is a deputy sheriff.

Rocky Bluff, where the stories take place, is a fictional beach town in California between Ventura and Santa Barbara.

These books are written under the name F. M. Meredith and are available in all the usual places as trade paperback and ebooks.

Now I’m working on the next one in the series–untitled as yet.

Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith