Title: The Girls in Cabin Number Three
Author: Chrysteen Braun
Genre: Women’s Fiction, Cozy Noir Mystery
Book Blurb:
"With themes of love, family, friendship, new beginnings, and the complexity of life, readers will get hooked from the very beginning." —San Francisco Book Review
"[The Girls in Cabin Number Three]'s complex, interesting characters, and engrossing historical and geographical settings make it a must-read." —Readers' Favorite
“Braun’s a top-notch storyteller; The Girls in Cabin Number Three is well plotted with clearly defined and relatable characters. Her research is exemplary.”
—Kate Osborn, formerly with the Mountain News, Lake Arrowhead
“Annie meets Carrie Davis, a new guest who slowly begins to unravel secrets from her own family’s past in the second part of The Guest Book Trilogy: The Girls in Cabin Number Three… with plenty of intrigue in an idyllic mountain locale.”
—Susan Denley, former Associate Features Editor, Los Angeles Times.
In book two of the Guest Book Trilogy, eighty-one-year-old Annie Parker recounts taking on, against the wishes of her new love Noah, an out-of-town design project that leads her down a path that is more than she bargained for.
Back in Lake Arrowhead, California, a long-awaited mystery is buried in Cabin Number Three. Annie meets Carrie Davis who wants to update her childhood home on the lake and feels a tie to Annie’s cabins. Apparently, Carrie’s parents stayed here during the Roaring ‘20s when Bugsy Siegel ran an underground speakeasy and distillery. Unconvinced, Annie decides to investigate and finds their names in the old guest books—Elizabeth Davis and Thomas Meyer. As exciting as that sounds, it’s only the start of a winding tale that Carrie and the new man in her life uncover. The pair unravel a family history filled with gangsters, working girls, and a surprising twist to a family tree.
The Girls in Cabin Number Three combines women’s fiction with romance, cozy noir mystery, and suspense—all wrapped up in the majestic environs of this lovely lakeside haven.
Excerpt:
The town library was only a few doors down from the flooring store, so with a few minutes to spare before I needed to get back, I stopped in. I hadn’t been in a library for years, and I took in the woody, earthy smell…that of a building full of books. I found a pleasant-looking woman who was filling a rolling cart with books that needed to be put back on their shelves and waited.
“I’d like to get some information on Bugsy Siegel,” I told her.
“I’m just a volunteer. Let me find the librarian,” she said, putting the last book in its place.
To the left, in the children’s section, a young mother was reading to her daughter and to the left of them a small room with a sign above the door said “Book Store”.
“We have books,” the librarian said as she walked up to me, “but follow me to where we have old newspaper articles.” She led me to a small room in the back. “I’ll show you how to use the microfiche machine and you can look to your heart’s content. I think you want to be around 1945 or 46. Start there.”
“Great,” I said.
It took me a few minutes to get the hang of it, but I quickly found what I was looking for.
“Bugsy” Siegel Murdered
“Rubbed out in Beverly Hills Hail of Bullets”
June 20, 1947
A graphic photo of Siegel lying on a floral patterned sofa with what looked like gunshot wounds to his chest and eye caught me by surprise. The article went on to say he was shot by an unknown assailant who fired a .30 caliber M1 carbine through a window of his girlfriend, Virginia Hill’s home while he was reading a newspaper. She was not home at the time.
The description under the photo said he hadn’t been shot in the eye as the photo suggested; instead, a bullet hit the bridge of his nose, causing the pressure that expelled his eyeball from its socket.
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):
If money were no object, where would you go for a Spring Break vacation and why?
If money were no object, I'd go to a ranch somewhere where it's green and open. I'd love to breath in the clean crisp air, to listen to the sounds of nature, and to see animals roaming the property.
Why is your featured book a must-read this spring?
Spring is a perfect time to be up in the mountains, and to sit outside and read.
Giveaway –
One lucky reader will win a $75 Amazon US or Canada gift card
Open internationally. You must have a valid Amazon US or Amazon CA account to win.
Runs April 1 – 30, 2023.
Drawing will be held on May 1, 2023
Author Biography:
Chrysteen Braun is a California native, born and raised in Long Beach.
The Lake Arrowhead mountains, where she and her husband had a second home, were the inspiration for her first three books, The Guestbook Trilogy. These fictional restored cabins from the late 1920s all had their own stories to tell. Through their children, readers get their first glimpse of who stayed in the cabins, but not why.
Perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty's The Husband's Secret and Linda Holmes's Evvie Drake Starts Over.
"A touching novel charting two women’s parallel lives, tied together by mysteries, transformation, and a cabin." —Booklife
"Braun delivers a moving portrayal of a young woman searching for herself amid personal upheaval." —Booklife
"Masterfully written, intriguing, mystifying, and spooky are how I would classify The Man in Cabin Number Five by Chrysteen Braun. As a great background, Braun uses the mountainous area and cabins to her advantage in telling the stories of Annie and Alyce. This is an exceptional plot, never leading the reader too far from the original storyline. Her character development is outstanding. I was able to feel everything Annie felt." Teresa Syms for Readers' Favorite Book Reviews and Awards.
"In The Man in Cabin Number Five, Chrysteen Braun narrates a deeply compelling, inspiring, and adorable narrative about the mountainside cabins of Lake Arrowhead, shocking secrets, and two women that are linked to the cabins in different ways—one by a buried past and the other by optimistic plans for the future.
"Chrysteen Braun does a mind-blowing job of building the characters and making them lifelike and easy to relate to. The first-person narrative is done to perfection as it reads like the narrators are speaking to friends—natural, lively, and jovial. I laughed out loud when I read the part where Anne claims that a bag of chips and a soda are "just what the doctor ordered.
"The Man in Cabin Number Five inspires anyone recovering from betrayal and infidelity to keep living and working towards a better future. The picturesque descriptions of the scenes and characters will appeal to readers who wish to get completely immersed in and escape into a fictional world. Chrysteen Braun creates a masterpiece with smooth storytelling that juxtaposes the serenity of the mountains with the eruptive chaos of dangerous secrets and ends with a bang. What a terrific story! What a talented writer!" Foluso Falaye, for the San Francisco Book Review.
Her writing crosses genres with Women's Fiction with relationships, and a little mystery and intrigue. She's published articles about her field of interior design and remodeling, both for trade publications and her local newspaper and has just received a Book Excellence Award for The Man in Cabin Number Five.
Braun lives in Coto de Caza, California (southern Orange County) with her husband Larry and two Siamese cats.
Social Media Links:
Website https://chrysteenbraun.com/
Find her everywhere https://linktr.ee/chrysteenbraunauthor