Description Little Boy Blue by Margaret Fenton
The latest installment in Fenton’s acclaimed southern mystery series, Claire Conover Mysteries, featuring Birmingham, Alabama child welfare social worker Claire Conover, Little Boy Blue is a confident, compelling, and captivating tale about long-buried secrets, revenge—and how nothing, absolutely nothing, is quite as it seems. Claire Conover is in the midst of personal upheaval: an indiscretion has cost Claire her relationship with longtime love Grant Summerville, and she is trying to weather the challenges of being a single foster mother to 13-year-old LaReesa Jones. At least her job hasn’t put her in danger again—at least until Grant is accused of child abuse by a former employee, Regina Maynard. Even though she and Grant are broken up, Claire vows to prove his innocence, despite repeated protests and warnings from her Unit Supervisor, Mac McAlister. Convinced of Grant’s innocence, Claire starts to investigate. Then Regina is murdered, and Claire takes charge of Regina’s six-year-old son, Dylan. When she starts to unravel the destruction and chaos Regina left behind, Claire realizes there is no shortage of suspects in Regina's murder, including Grant himself. Regina had plenty of enemies, including people she stole from and ex-lovers she was blackmailing. But who wanted her dead? And more importantly why? Complicating matters even further, LaReesa’s drug-addled biological mother comes back into the picture, causing the teenager to spiral-- and causing Claire immeasurable anxiety over what the future could hold. The stakes have never been higher: against the backdrop of a ticking clock, Claire and Grant must work together to solve Regina’s murder before Grant loses everything. But it’s clear that someone doesn’t want the truth to come to light, and soon Claire herself becomes the target. She’s lost Grant, she’s afraid she could lose LaReesa …but this time, Claire may lose something even more valuable: her life. Teeming with tension, simmering suspense, and a riveting storyline, Little Boy Blue is mesmerizing. An extraordinary new entry in Margaret Fenton’s Little series, Little Boy Blue is a brilliantly rendered, briskly paced mystery that brims with real, relatable characters, authenticity, and a powerhouse of a plot that will leave readers breathless.Praise for Social Worker Claire Conover Mysteries
“Did my usual thing of plunging in without reading the blurb on the back cover and my heart sank when I saw the story was about social services and child welfare? So glad I wasn’t put off as this is a great, well told, murder mystery with a cast of interesting characters. The book has a nice writing style and kept me reading as the plot developed at a frantic pace. I had real trouble putting this down and finished it in two sittings as I couldn’t wait to find out the conclusion.”- Kevin Cannon, Monty’s Book Reviews “Claire, a social worker, finds herself involved in the death of a clients child. Little Mikey only 3 dies and when they found out it was because of a drug overdose his mom, -a long time addict gone clean - gets sent to jail. But nothing is quite like it seems because Claire does not give up until she finds out the truth --even if it puts her life in danger. Finished this book in 2 days. Could not put it down.” =-Agnes, Bubbie’s Books “Little White Lies” by Margaret Fenton captured my attention with an intriguing storyline that never wavered throughout. I voraciously tore through the pages of this immersive book in one sitting; it was the ultimate escape from reality! I loved piecing together the clues from this political mystery. The author did an excellent job of illustrating conflict within a relationship. “Little White Lies” had all the necessary ingredients for a deliciously immersive mystery—perfect pacing, well-developed characters, and puzzling clues to uncover. Readers interested in books about racial disparity and familial dysfunction will be quickly immersed in the story.”- Reader Views's Review “Margaret Fenton has given the reader a wonderfully written mystery in Little White Lies that has so much exciting action and so very many lies that the reader will be completely involved and not put it down until the very last page. In Claire, the author gives the reader an excellent main character that we come to care about. Quill says: This is an excellent and well-rounded story that I would recommend to anyone who loves a really good mystery. It would be a huge surprise if, after reading Little White Lies, you don’t turn around and go right out to read the first two books in the series. I, for one, cannot wait to see what happens to Claire and the others in the next book.”- Feathered Quill Book ReviewsExcerpt
“Wait. What?” I could feel my blood rushing to my feet as I slumped onto the sofa.
“The police came to my shop at about three o’clock. Regina’s body was found in a lake, off Guyton Road, very close to where I live. Dumped there, they think. She’d been shot.”
“Oh, God.”
“I told the detectives we would meet them at the station off Valleydale Road at five-thirty.” He checked the digital watch on his wrist. “So we have to get going.”
I went to LaReesa’s room and told her I had an urgent errand to run with Grant, and that I’d be home a little after six-thirty, hopefully. Her gaze was locked on her phone and she grunted and waved a hand at me in response. I had a little concern about leaving her home alone, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.
Grant and I got in his van and went to the Hoover Public Safety Center. Hoover is a large city of 92,000 people that spans two counties, and the police station was in Shelby County, south of us and about twenty minutes away. The large, new Center had a front wall of glass and large concrete columns in the front. We entered the station and talked to the officer at the front desk. Two men, one white and one black, came to the desk and introduced themselves as Detectives Graves and Jefferson. Grant and I were separated. He gave me a nervous glance and squeezed my hand before I was shown to a small room with a table and four chairs.
I was with the white detective, Detective Graves, and another man who didn’t introduce himself and was apparently there just to take notes. Graves, like most cops I knew, had the air of an ex-military man; his posture was ramrod straight and his dark blond hair cut into a crew cut. His blue suit was neatly pressed. He began, “Thank you for meeting with me. Your name, and Mr. Summerville’s, came up in the system when we began investigating this case. He’s your boyfriend, correct?”
“Sort of.”
“Sort of?”
“We broke up in January. We’ve been spending a bit of time together recently, because of Regina and all her mess.”
He picked up the file and opened it, and I could see the printed copy of the text that Regina had sent Grant last Saturday. Several other copies of police reports were also there. “I understand Mr. Summerville has been having problems with Regina Maynard for quite some time.”
I answered, “It’s really gotten bad these past two weeks.”
“When was the last time you saw Regina?”
“In person, face to face? Hardly ever. She threw a large rock through Grant’s window last night as we were having dinner. I assume you have the note that was tied to it?”
The detective studied the papers. “I do.”
“She was stealing from Grant, and his clients. She has a history of stealing, even back to her high school days.”
The detective’s eyes narrowed. “How do you know that?”
I took a deep breath. “Regina Maynard made a false report of child abuse against Grant Summerville. I work for DHS, in the child welfare department, and we have been investigating her case. Where is Dylan, by the way?”
The detective looked alarmed. “Dylan?” he asked.
“Her son. She has a six-year-old son. My colleague and I have been trying to work out where she lives, but have had no luck.”
“The address on her Alabama driver’s license was an apartment at The Falls and Woods apartments.”
“She doesn’t live there anymore.”
“We know.”
“She doesn’t live with her parents, either. They live up in Hayden and have told DHS that they haven’t seen her in six months.”
“I’m going to have to send someone up there to do the notification. Do you have their address?”
“I can probably get it, if I can make a phone call?”
“Make it quick.”
I pulled out my cell phone and dialed Russell’s number. He answered, “What’s up?”
“Hey, I’m with the Hoover police and I can’t talk long. Regina Maynard is dead. Do you know her parent’s address, offhand?”
“What? Dead? She’s dead?”
“Her body was found in the lake off Guyton Road. Address?”
He told me the address in Hayden, which I repeated as he stated it. The detective wrote it down.
“Are you still at work?”
“Yeah, I am.”
“Can you go update Mac? Tell him I’ll call him later.”
“Will do. Call me later, too, please.”
“I will. Bye.”
The detective focused on me again. “What makes you sure it was her, last night?”
“We saw her car. A little white Kia Rio.”
“We think she was murdered a little after ten this morning. She was shot in the chest and abdomen. The autopsy will be done Monday, at the coroner’s office.”
I asked, “Do you know where she was murdered?”
He thought for a moment before answering me. “We think it had to have been close to where she was dumped, but we don’t know the exact location. We got a search warrant for Mr. Summerville’s house and that’s being executed as we speak.”
“What? Now?”
“Yes, now.”
“But Grant didn’t kill Regina. He wouldn’t do that.”
“But he does own a gun. One he bought recently.”
©Margaret Fenton
About Margaret Fenton
Award winning author, Margaret Fenton spent nearly ten years as a child and family therapist for her county’s child welfare department before focusing on writing. Hence, her work tends to reflect her interest in social causes and mental health, especially where kids are concerned. She has been a planning coordinator of Murder in the Magic City since its inception in 2003. Margaret lives in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover with her husband, a retired software developer, and their adorable Papillons.
She received her B.A. in English from the Newcomb College of Tulane University.
Website: https://margaretfenton.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557966351056
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An absolutely thrilling mystery from an author who knows her stuff!
'Little Boy Blue,' by Margaret Fenton has everything a mystery-lover could want in a novel – suspense, intrigue, murder and justice being served. The fourth book in this series gets off on a bang when Alabama social worker Claire Conover's ex-boyfriend Grant is accused of child molestation by a woman whom he recently fired from his business.
Claire knows immediately that the accusation is false and suspects that the accuser, a woman named Regina Maynard, is trying to get back at Grant for firing her after he discovered that she was stealing money. But, when Regina is found dead after having been shot and dumped into a lake, Claire realizes that the mystery of who killed the woman is going to be harder to solve than she anticipated. It turns out that Regina had more than a few enemies, and no shortage of threats against her life.
Claire must engage in some amateur sleuthing to find out who wanted Regina dead and find a way to save the man that she still loves from being accused himself.
Margaret Fenton has created a really well-plotted and tightly-written amateur detective series with this one! I knew right away that I was going to like Claire and I definitely did. She was smart, compassionate and ultimately very kind, while still not willing to take crap from anyone. I love that in a character, especially a female character!
In addition, I really enjoyed her adoptive daughter, Lareesa and the storyline surrounding her. I don't see too many stories with adoptive parents as the protagonists, and I know a lot of people that I could recommend this book to for that alone!
This was a five star read for me, and one that I would be happy to re-read any time!
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