Chutes and Ladder: A Silicon Valley Mystery by Marc Jedel

 

Chutes and Ladder: A Silicon Valley Mystery

Cozy Mystery

2nd in Series

BGM Press (March 12, 2019)

Print Length: 195 pages

ASIN: B07NFDYZX8 

Dead friend. Free fall. Girl Scouts. Can Uncle Marty untangle the mystery before things really get out of control?

Juggling a budding relationship, demanding job, and mischievous nieces, Marty Golden struggled to keep his head above water — even before his friend’s death. Trying his best to be a good boyfriend and fun uncle, Marty had his own ideas for the weekend until his cunning sister tricked him again.

Convinced his friend’s death was no accident, Marty tries to summon superhero powers but merely manages to bumble along as an amateur sleuth. When Marty’s cousin shows up, she wreaks havoc with his plans and pulls him into yet another mystery.

As threats blossom, Marty doubles down now that his family’s involved. Besides, it’s poor manners to let your friend’s death go unsolved.

Can Marty figure out what happened before a killer, or his imagination, gets to him?

Chutes and Ladder is the second novel in a refreshingly modern mystery series set in Silicon Valley. If you like clever humor and wacky side characters, you’ll love this twisty mystery.

 

 

For most of my life, I’ve been inventing stories. Some, especially when I was young, involved my sister as the villain. As my sister’s brother for her entire life, I’m highly qualified to tell the tale of this evolving, quirky sibling relationship.

My writing skills were honed in years of marketing leadership positions in Silicon Valley. While my high tech marketing roles involved crafting plenty of fiction, we called these marketing collateral, emails and ads.

The publication of my first novel, Uncle and Ants, gave me permission to claim “author” as my job. This leads to way more interesting discussions than answering “marketing.”

My family would tell you that Marty’s character isn’t much of a stretch of the imagination for me, but I proudly resemble that remark.

Like Marty, I live in Silicon Valley and can’t believe that otherwise normal people would willingly jump out of an airplane and call it fun. Unlike Marty, I have a wonderful wife and a neurotic but sweet, small dog, who is often the first to weigh in on the humor in my writing.

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Marty Golden, against his better judgment, gets assigned as chaperone for his niece's girl scout camping trip. Marty is not a camper and would much rather spend his time in an office than to have anything to do with the outdoors. The scout leaders aren't pleased that he is there, and to make things worse, it seems that everything he has to do with seems to go awry. Marty has been given the task to find wood for the fire. While he is out gathering wood, he decides to answer the call of nature, and steps off the path for some privacy. Before he does his business, he glances across the clearing and notices a body on the ground.

Marty has helped the local police solve a previous case, and now every time he speaks with the detectives, he assumes that he is working with them - as in privy to all the details and asserts himself into the case as a wannabe detective. Of course, Marty manages to bumble that as well.

The book is fast paced and full of humor. In many ways, I could see this book being played out as a movie, with Jerry Lewis starring as Marty.

The author keeps us guessing as to what has really transpired, and it's not until the very end that the details are revealed.

This is the second book in the series by Marc Jedel, but the first book of his that I have read. I had such a great time reading this, I am now going to read the first book 'Uncle and Ants'.

If you need a good light-hearted read, I would definitely recommend this.

I was provided with a complimentary copy of Chutes and Ladder.