First, We Kill All the Publishers

Everyone believes that they have at least one good story to tell, one good book to be written. Everyone it seems wants to be a published author.

Over the past decade numerous publishing companies, large and small, have gone broke, been acquired by larger competitors and been especially, negatively affected by self-publishing and internet venues. This consolidation has significantly reduced competition leaving many writers to turn to small independent publishers - sometimes with tragic results.

The fourth and final book in the Cassie Doolin Mystery Series, finds Cassie contracting with a small independent book publisher, Purple Frog Tongue Publishing in Eastland, Kansas in order to have her cookbook published. Cassie had hoped it would be a collection of recipes made popular from her successful catering business, Cassie’s Creations.

When the publisher, Oz Arnold, evades her attempts to confront him about the lack of progress in the completion of her book, Cassie joins with several other stymied writers and becomes involved in a mystery which leads them down a yellow brick road of intrigue. The want-to-be authors find themselves investigating human traffickers, murder and mayhem in the story.

With a respectful “tip-of-the-hat” to the Wizard of Oz and a few other noteworthy characters â€" fictional and real â€" this is a pun filled look at the publishing business possibly at its worst.