Her new hearing aids pick up the dead. The dead need to speak up.

Welcome to Sabal Grove, Florida, where the golf carts have right-of-way, happy hour starts early, and the dead have plenty to complain about.

Dot Kowalski is seventy-four, a retired police dispatcher, and perfectly happy spending her golden years playing bingo, keeping an eye on the neighbors, and avoiding the nine-foot alligator in the retention pond.

Then she gets hearing aids.

Suddenly, Dot can hear things nobody else can. Specifically, dead people. And the dearly departed have some unfinished business.

Unfortunately, ghosts make terrible witnesses. They forget names, talk over each other, and come through her hearing aids like a bad cell phone connection. Half the time Dot can't tell whether somebody's been murdered or needs another bingo card.

Good thing she's got backup.

Arlene Fusco is a retired hairdresser with a leopard-print wardrobe, a talent for collecting gossip, and a golf cart called The Mob Wife. Joyce Whitcomb is a former church secretary who believes every problem can be solved with a clipboard, a list, and enough determination.

Together, these three sassy seniors are about to discover that retirement can be murder.

Between suspicious deaths, meddling neighbors, questionable disguises, and the occasional high-speed golf-cart chase, Dot and her friends have their hands full. And Dot's daughter would really appreciate it if she'd stop investigating murders and start looking at assisted-living brochures.

Fat chance.

Welcome to Speak Up, I'm Dead, a laugh-out-loud paranormal cozy mystery series featuring three unforgettable senior sleuths, a retirement community full of secrets, mischievous ghosts, and friendships that prove you're never too old to get into trouble.

The mysteries are clean, the friendships are fierce, and the dead don't know when to shut up.

Coming April 2027

At seventy-four, Dot Kowalski finally got hearing aids. Now she wishes the dead would stop yelling.

After thirty-one years as a police dispatcher in Buffalo, Dot Kowalski has earned a peaceful retirement. She's got a little house in Sabal Grove, Florida, two best friends who know everybody's business, and a volunteer job with the community's golf-cart patrol.

Her biggest problem is her hearing. Last week, she accidentally dispatched two volunteers armed with a pool skimmer to rescue a neighbor from an alligator.

It turned out to be a stuck stair lift.

There was an alligator, though. Dot would like that on the record.

When she finally gets hearing aids, the world sounds wonderful again. Birds chirp. Neighbors gossip. And dead people start talking.

Her first supernatural caller is Gordy Pickett, Sabal Grove's loudest resident, who's just been found dead in the clubhouse hot tub. The authorities think it's an accident.

Gordy disagrees. Loudly.

He knows he was murdered. He even knows who did it. Unfortunately, the connection is terrible, and the dead seem to lose names first.

What Dot hears is, "Doris did it? Or the floor is wet?"

Now Dot has a murder to solve, a ghost who won't stop hollering, and two best friends who think she's losing her marbles.

Naturally, they're helping anyway.

Arlene brings the gossip, the disguises, and a golf cart with a questionable driving record. Joyce brings her clipboard and enough lists to organize a small invasion. Together, they're determined to catch a killer before somebody else winds up dead.

But the sheriff's department isn't interested in tips from beyond the grave, Dot's daughter keeps sending assisted-living brochures, and somebody in Sabal Grove has already gotten away with murder.

Dot spent thirty-one years listening to people in trouble.

She's not about to stop now.

A hilarious, heartwarming paranormal cozy mystery featuring three sassy senior sleuths, one very opinionated ghost, a nine-foot alligator, and a retirement community where everybody knows everybody's business—except who's getting away with murder.

Book 1 in the Speak Up, I'm Dead series. Clean, funny, and full of friendship, mischief, and mystery.

Amazon

Coming February 2027

Coming March 2027