Title:
Murder, Mess, and the Tangerine Dress: An Order Out of Chaos Mystery Book 1
Author:
Lynn Rankin-Esquer
Genre:
Cozy mystery
Book Blurb:
A cluttered closet is nothing compared to the mess of murder.
Izzy Bishop's life is messy. Her house is chaotic, she's headed for divorce, and she's almost out of money. So, when Type-A-Sister-Boss Lauren’s organizing company hires her, Izzy vows to purge the past, master organizing, and create a sparkling future…if only she can keep her pesky extrasensory abilities under control.
Not a chance!
When Izzy picks up her client Joanna's tangerine dress, she receives a message from Joanna's dead husband that someone is trying to kill his wife. Despite Lauren’s warning to keep her psychic silliness filed away, Izzy has no choice but to investigate.
Izzy soon discovers that everyone around Joanna has secrets, and someone is willing to go to any length to keep their dirty laundry hidden. Faking it as an organizer could get her fired, but faking it as an investigator could get her killed. If Izzy can’t figure it out quickly, she’s likely to be both. Although fired doesn’t really matter if you are dead.
Excerpt:
“Heyo,” a booming voice sounded through Joanna’s bedroom door. A smell of sewage preceded a large man clad in a filthy gray uniform.
Joanna released me from our hug and turned towards the man lumbering towards us. “Yes Mr. Jacko?”
“More complicated than I thought,” Mr. Jacko said, head shaking. “Those pipes are ancient, galvanized and just breaking apart everywhere. And whoever put that shower in didn’t slope it properly.”
Joanna winced. “It’s always something in a house this old.”
“It’s a lot of somethings,” said Mr. Jacko, his face bright with anticipation. He rubbed his sleeve across a dripping nose, adding a smudge of dirt to his already unclean face. “Just need your permission to proceed.”
Joanna shrugged, “Whatever you need to do.”
“I don’t want to interfere,” said Lauren, clearly in charge of this organizing job. “But perhaps Mr. Jacko could provide you with an estimate?”
Mr. Jacko gave Lauren a dirty look. “We haven’t needed that in the past. Maybe you stick to your business and I’ll stick to mine.”
Joanna looked uncertain. “Probably a good idea?” she said faintly.
“I’ll put something together,” Mr. Jacko muttered. “After I get the leak stopped. Might not be today. I’m moving slower than usual.” With that he turned around and shuffled out on flapping dirty boots, leaving behind the smell of fetid water and worse.
I picked up a beautiful tangerine colored dress to display it for the thumbs up or thumbs down and felt a blast of cool air on the back of my neck. The cool air turned into a buzz in my head and the left side of my vision got dark. What the heck? Was I getting a migraine? Having a stroke?
I struggled to keep focused on the bedroom in front of me but was overwhelmed by a series of images, like I had fallen into a dream. A small dance floor, under the stars, twinkle lights strung overhead, white linen covered tables nearby. Flowers everywhere, people standing around the dance floor clapping and smiling. A giggling Joanna wearing the tangerine dress stared happily into the eyes of a slim gray-haired man as they danced.
I’ve always been intuitive but had never experienced a sudden scene like the one flashing through my head. It felt foreign and intrusive and as if it was flowing out of the dress. I dropped the dress and the images faded but the man stuck around. I felt horrifyingly disoriented, as if I had time traveled, and body traveled. I couldn’t shake the feeling I had just been looking through the eyes of a gray-haired man, staring at Joanna at another point in time.
Up until now my intuitiveness did not involve such clear scenes or other people. It was more that a thought would come into my head and I’d say it without thinking, like when I was six and told my mother not to worry, the baby was ready to come now. She stared at me with watery eyes, and not long after joyfully told me I was going to have a little brother or sister. Or the time I screamed ‘wait!’ at a green light only to see a huge tractor trailer come screaming through the intersection right where our car would have been.
Those had always just seemed like hunches. Channeling a person was completely new, if that’s what this was.
“Izzy?” said Joanna. I must have looked like a zombie, standing still and staring into space.
“Izzy?” said Lauren, right beside me now.
“Oh, uh, yeah, nice dress,” I said pointing at it. I was afraid to touch it again.
Joanna picked up the dress and beamed. “This was actually my wedding dress. I did the whole white dress thing in my first marriage. Thomas and I were both so happy to find love again we decided to throw out all the boring traditions. My Thomas.” Her eyes crinkled in sadness. “The reason for the Heart Gala, of course.”
I knew that we were preparing her house for a heart disease charity gala and that it was in her dead husband’s honor.
My chest stabbed in pain so badly it took my breath away. Not a stretch to know that Thomas had died from a heart attack.
“So, uh, what did Thomas look like?” I asked, still feeling out of it, like I hadn’t fully made it back to this place and time.
Joanna gestured towards pictures on the built-in wall shelves. “That’s him.”
It was the man in the images. I had just inhabited a dead man. Or he had inhabited me.
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From a reviewer: Professional organizer Izzy Bishop is the perfect mix of quirky and relatable—and you can’t help but root for her. In fact, all the characters shine in their unique, lovable glory—especially Izzy, who navigates her world with a mixture of humor, grit, and genuine warmth. Rankin-Esquer’s attention to detail brings each character to life, creating a community of personalities that feel instantly familiar yet layered with delightful surprises.
Giveaway –
Enter to win a $20 Amazon gift card:
Open Internationally.
Runs February 19 – February 25, 2025.
Winner will be drawn on February 26, 2025.
Author Biography:
Lynn Rankin-Esquer, Ph.D. is a psychologist and author living in the SF Bay area. She is the author of the YA novel 'My Paperback Cape: The Unlikely Odyssey of a Bookworm' and the family dramedy 'The Unmooring of Mrs. Mango.’ In addition to blogging https://lynnrankinesquer.wordpress.com/ she has just released the first book in a cozy mystery series. She loves baseball, Lemonheads, pickleball and slogging (slow jogging). According to her children she is ‘the goddess of potato buttering.’
Social Media Links:
email: lynn@lynnrankinesquer.com
Facebook author page: Lynn Rankin-Esquer Author
Twitter: @LRankinEsquer