Book 1: Murder on Lake Haverly
Can Maye West, an ethical, ambitious woman, survive the unscrupulous, dishonest, and incompetent Agents and Mortgage Brokers of the Real Estate profession? Women were not wanted or welcomed into that all-male club!
Maye West survived in spite of the dirty, underhanded “help” of her fellow realtors! When introduced to the crew, she was met with, “Great, we have a woman to cook for us. Not!”
One glorious day, she sold the deal of a lifetime! All the properties around Lake Haverly to a New York attorney and her wannabe writer husband. May and her best friend Eddie closed the deal. Before they could celebrate their victory, bodies started showing up in listings, impaled with cross-bow bolts, and in the much-loved Lake Haverly!
What’s a poor Realtor to do? Her lover Frank, a deputy with the Arizona Sheriff’s department, has his hands full, hunting the bad guys who are just lucky or damned smart!
I admit I was a Realtor for 30 years, and many events and characters are from real life! I changed the names to protect the guilty! I wrote this book the year I retired. If you knew me in Real Estate, you might recognize many Maye West traits, but the Sherrif’s deputy was fiction; my hubby of 62 years would not allow it.
I enjoyed this light-hearted murder mystery. The characters were quirky, fun, and some, even sassy. I look forward to more Maye West adventures. A good first novel by a new author…or as my Mom often says…it’s a start! DZ
This author has a very unique way of writing. Very refreshing. Really held my interest, and look forward to reading more books from this author. I recommend it for others to read. Frances
A description by Bob eager
Murder on Lake Haverly is a fast-moving murder mystery as told by Realtor Maye West set in Arizona, featuring characters you will love to hate.
Maye’s main interest is selling Real Estate, but her life is complicated by her sexy best friend with benefits Frank Singleton, Sheriff’s Deputy trying to solve several murders connected to her business. Her quirky side-kick BBF Lavonne Hall may make her Red Hair turn grey. Lavonne designed her Real Estate Office in a folksy, business style and wants to re-design Maye, too!
Maye is selling the deal of a lifetime; the entire property surrounding Lake Haverly, with her second in command Fast Eddie McGinley, she is met with resistance by the lone holdout property owner James Crandall! Clients murdered by cross-bow, and the body in the lake are a slight bother too!
I hope you enjoy reading this book, and thank you for leaving a review.
Chapter # 1. Go west, young woman.
Maye West is my name, and Real Estate is my game. You may remember the real Mae West, a big Blonde potty-mouth bombshell if you are old enough. You will be able to tell the difference between her and me. At five feet 4 ½ inches tall, with Red Clairol # 44R hair, my eyes turn totally green if you piss me off. Anyone that knows me will tell you that I go from Sweetheart to Bitch in 60 seconds. I have to admit they are right.
After two snowstorms dumped 5 feet of snow on my sleepy little town in Corinna, Maine, I bugged out. Upon arriving in the small rain-soaked town of Montesano, Washington, “I thought, what now?” Real Estate seemed like a viable option; the only requirement was; a high school diploma or GED. Because of some brilliant Bureaucratic Lunacy, I was allowed to start selling Real Estate with a Temporary Permit. Eventually, I passed the Washington Real Estate Exam, which, by the way, was not rocket science. I passed it on the first try. All the hopefuls were allowed a pencil, ballpoint pen, one sheet of paper, no books, and no calculator. A monitor circulated the room to make sure you weren’t cheating. You received a postcard with an X two weeks later showing that you passed or failed.
I was thrilled to be hired by Smith & Smith Realty (the name has been changed to protect the guilty). Sam Wiggins, the Broker, was a short chubby guy with thinning brown hair and gray eyes behind large thick glasses. He always sat at his computer two-finger typing with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. He greeted me with these encouraging words, “There’s your desk, there’s your phone; get to work, nothing to this business, just fill in the blanks.” When I asked, “What exactly do I put in the blanks?” He said, “Just look in the Closed Files and copy what other Agents put in them.”
“Right, This is gonna be fun.”
Later in my career, I would learn just how bad that advice was; sales are never alike. Sammy’s only other helpful words were, “Take a different route to work every day. When you see a FISBO (For Sale by Owner) sign, stop and ask if you can list the property.” So armed with all that wisdom on my first day, I spotted a FISBO sign and pulled into the driveway in my blue VW bus.
“Hey, it was what I had to drive.”
I confidently knocked on the door. An elderly man, with a full head of pure white hair and big blue eyes, dressed in jeans and a not-so-white t-shirt, opened the door. I said with a smile on my face, “I’m Maye West with Smith & Smith Realty, and I noticed your For Sale sign and would like to talk to you about listing your property.” He screamed, “I hate Smith & Smith Realty! They screwed me over on my last house, and I wouldn’t deal with them for all the rice in China! For the next half hour, he hollered at me while I stood there with my mouth hanging open. Probably, seeing the look of horror on my face, he stopped screaming and started laughing and said: “Oh, what the hell, come on in, and we’ll talk.”
The house had two small rooms that appeared to be in the final stages of remodeling. I would later learn that it was a “tearer-downer” rather than a “fixer-upper.” We chatted for about an hour, and before I knew it, he agreed to list with me.
“Hot Damn!”
Now the fun began; I realized that I did not have a clue what to do next. All those contracts that I was supposed to copy to fill in the blanks were all the way back in the office.
“Help, Mamma, come get your baby girl.”
Together, we filled in the blanks with the gentleman’s aid, who was getting an agreement to widen the road. I shot back to the office lickety-split to ask Sammy to look over the contract before I got the signature. He hollered at me, and not for the last time in my short career with Smith & Smith Realty, “You did what? Get your ass back out there and get that signature.” When I insisted Sammy look over the contract, he quickly glanced at the paper and hollered, “It looks fine, now get the hell out and go get that damn signature.”
“Why does everyone holler at me?”
Not bad for my first day in Real Estate. Sammy was thrilled because; I got a full 7 % commission. Commissions are supposed to be negotiable. However, that doesn’t mean all Realtors will negotiate, or their Brokers will be happy if their agents bring in lower percent listings. I recall one Broker being pissed at me because I didn’t write an Agreement for Sale (private contract-no Banker) at 18% interest. In Washington, the usury was 12%, with stiff penalties and jail time. It pissed him off more; knowing his greedy nature, I had both buyer and seller sign before getting his hands on it. Once the contract had both signatures, it was a deal, and he had to live unhappily with it. Another shouting match and another short career with that Real Estate Company.