The Marcia Banks and Buddy Cozy Mystery

Meet Marcia Banks...I’m a normal person. Well, I do have an unusual first name, pronounced Mar-see-a, not Marsha. And an abnormal vocation - I train service dogs for veterans with PTSD. But otherwise I’m normal...Except I tend to get sucked into other people’s messes, which has led to my unusual avocation - amateur sleuth. Romp along with me and my four-legged best friend, Buddy through our first three big adventures, plus a bittersweet Christmas tale!

Marcia (pronounced Mar-see-a, not Marsha) likes to think of herself as a normal person, even though she has a rather abnormal vocation. She trains service dogs for combat veterans with PTSD. Then the former marine owner of her first trainee is accused of murdering his wife, and Marcia gets sucked into an even more abnormal avocation - amateur sleuth. Called in to dog-sit the Labrador service dog, Buddy, she’s outraged that his veteran owner is being presumed guilty until proven innocent. With Buddy’s help, she tries to uncover the real killer.

Sweet, adorable Lacy has stolen Marcia Banks’ heart, but money is tight. Like it or not, the service dog trainer needs to complete the human phase of the training and deliver the dog to her new owner in order to get paid. But the former army nurse client turns out to be a challenging trainee. On top of her existing neuroses - which go beyond the psychological damage from a sexual assault during her second tour in Afghanistan - the veteran is now being stalked.

Army veteran Jake Black has a new lease on life, thanks to service dog Felix and his trainer Marcia Banks. Despite a traumatic brain injury, Jake’s able to ride his beloved motorcycle again, with Felix in the sidecar. But his freedom to hit the open road is threatened once more when he and his wife are accused of robbery.

When Mayfair’s newly minted Chamber of Commerce goes off the rails, and decides to build an ice skating rink, a decades-old skeleton is uncovered. The secrets it reveals threaten more than the town’s Christmas plans. Feeling responsible since the let’s-attract-more-tourists idea was hers initially, service dog trainer Marcia Banks is determined to help her police detective boyfriend solve the mystery - whether he wants her help or not. Maybe she can wheedle more out of the townspeople than he can.