Let’s give a warm welcome to Iris Chacon, this month’s featured author from Mystery Authors International.
If you’re looking for an authentic taste of the Sunshine State, then look no further – you’re in the right place.
Duby’s Doctor is her fifth novel, and it carries on the Chacon tradition of good, clean fun, mystery, humor, romance, and a “sunshine state of mind.” Iris hails from the Sunshine State, Florida, where her ancestors have lived since Florida was a Spanish colony, before the United States existed. She is working on her next novel, which incorporates many of the adventures she has enjoyed in the American Southwest.
We’r
e here to talk about Duby’s Doctor. So, let’s jump right in at the deep end and take a peek at an excerpt:
Excerpt from Duby’s Doctor, chapter 10 [context: Mitchell picks up John/Jean from his maintenance job at St. Luke’s Daycare.]
“He’ll be right out,” the nun said. “He’s all right. We were just cleaning him up. It looked worse than it is. The bleeding seems to have stopped—”
“Bleeding?”
“—and the paramedics said—”
“Paramedics?”
“—they don’t think Mister Kavanaugh’s ribs are broken, just bruised—”
“Who?”
“—and the police said, since nobody seems to want to press charges, — ”
“Police?”
“—that we can just forget about it. Of course, Jean had to be punished for hitting—”
“Hitting?”
“—so he had to run laps. And that started the nosebleed again. But everything’s all right now. Here he is.”
Jean limped out of the back room, holding a bloodied washcloth against his nose.
Sister Elizabeth sighed. “It’s been an exciting day.”
Mitchell studied Jean from head to toe, incredulous. She pointed at his swollen left knee. “You ran on concrete? And hitting? You were hitting! The children?”
“Oh, dear, no!” said Sister Elizabeth. “He was hitting Mister Kavanaugh.”
Mitchell stared at Sister Elizabeth and back at Jean. “You ran on concrete and you hit Mister Kavanaugh? Who is Mister Kavanaugh?”
“Debbie’s father,” answered Sister Elizabeth.
Mitchell was looking at Jean. “Excuse me, Sister, but unless Kavanaugh cut his tongue out, I’d like to hear Johnny answer something. John, why did you hit Debbie’s father?”
Jean pulled the washcloth away from his face to say, “He hits Debbie.”
After a pause, Mitchell muttered, “I told you never to run on the concrete.”
Well, that got my attention!
Reading the full blurb will have you running to one-click this right away.
When he can steal time away from his undercover assignment (as an arms dealer’s bodyguard), Agent Yves Dubreau jogs with all the other muscular Coconut Grove athletes. He enjoys the morning tai chi group in Peacock Park, and he quietly remains on the fringes of the Grove’s art scene — until he blows his cover and almost gets himself murdered. When resuscitated, he is a scarred, nameless giant with no memories, no language, and only his drawings with which to communicate. Of course, he still has the same deadly enemies he had in his former life; he just doesn’t know it. Neither does naive, lady surgeon, Dr. Mitchell Oberon. Soon, Duby’s unscrupulous supervisor forces the unsuspecting Mitchell to shelter this recovering “John Doe” in her home and begin teaching him how to live again. Both Duby and Dr. Oberon will learn a lot about living— they just may not be living long. A murderous arms dealer will soon be stalking them.
Coconut Grove sounds alluring, doesn’t it? What made Iris write this story and set it there?
Duby’s story was inspired by the landscapes, art culture, elaborate mansions, and live-aboard sailboats of Coconut Grove. For years the author passed through the magical Grove community on her way to work in the high-rise offices of Miami. The unique aura and ambience of the Grove always launched the writer’s imagination into a happy stratosphere of quirky characters and exotic locations. Sometimes the girls in the author’s carpool would simply stop in the Grove and watch the panoply of beautiful people (mostly male) passing by. Thus, a secret agent, who lived on a boat and worked undercover in an arms dealer’s mansion, was born. And if he lived in Coconut Grove, he had to be an artsy type, so Agent Yves Dubreau, a/k/a Duby, became a talented sketcher and painter.
I can see the attraction 🙂 What’s not to love about the grandeur of the location and the intriguing plot Iris has outlined here.
If this has whetted your appetite, you can get your copy here.
For more details about Iris’ books – there are some real gems to be found on her bookshelf – then check out the links here:
Thank you, Iris, for sharing these details with me. Wishing you heaps of success, but more than anything I hope your “Sunshine State of mind” lives on forever – we could all do with a healthy dose of that 🙂
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