Please help us welcome Nupur Tustin, author of the Joseph Haydn Mystery Series, to Chicks on the Case! We are so delighted that she’s here today with a special sneak peek–an introduction to her forthcoming series featuring Celine Skye. 

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Two Chicks; One Deadly Secret

Pssst . . . Can you keep a secret? I’ve had this on my chest for nearly a year now, and I really need to unburden myself.

Last spring, I solved the Gardner Museum heist. You’ve heard of the theft, haven’t you?

Thirty years ago, in the early morning hours of a March morning, two men dressed as cops—some say they were in security guard uniforms—persuaded the night guards at the Boston museum to let them in.

Once in, the men proceeded to take thirteen of the museum’s treasures, including an exquisite Vermeer and two or three Rembrandts. Boston police were the first to respond, and then the FBI took over the case.

But the leads—no matter how promising—always fizzled out, and the agents—no matter how talented—came no closer to discovering the mastermind behind the theft. The art seemed to be irrevocably lost.

Until last spring when my psychic friend Celine Skye and I pieced together what really happened. We don’t have all the pieces of the puzzle, and so far we’ve only recovered two of the thirteen pieces stolen.

Yes, I know, neither the FBI nor the Gardner Museum have issued press releases about the happy event. But that’s the way we wanted it.

You see, the elusive, dangerous mastermind of the Gardner Museum heist is still out there. He’s been after the Gardner’s lost treasures for as long as the Feds. Thieves being thieves, not all of the stolen goods made their way into his hands. So the less he knows about the leads we’ve developed, the better.

Celine, unfortunately, has already caught his attention. Although I doubt he has any idea how powerful her visions can be.

Ah! I see I’ve whetted your curiosity. You’re dying to know what we’ve recovered and what we’ve found out so far. You’re in luck. I need to share our story with someone, and you’ll do.

But  . . . shhh . . . please promise to keep this to yourself.

How did it all start? How did Celine get involved?

Last March the FBI hotline received not one, but two viable tips about the Gardner’s stolen treasures. A week later, a stranger from Boston walked into the Delft Coffee & Wine Bar. The owner of the bar, Dirck Thins, had employed Celine seven years ago to serve as marketing manager for the bar and the Mechelen winery. Both are located in the picturesque city of Paso Robles in San Luis Obispo County.

That evening, shortly before she noticed the Boston stranger, Celine’s visions of death returned. Someone would die. Celine knew that. Most likely it would be a violent death. Her first interpretation of the vision was that it was her turn this time.

What an awful realization to have!

It was only the stranger’s odd remarks about the long-ago art theft that distracted Celine from the shock.

But, several hours later, when her eyes jolted open at two in the morning—her heart thudding violently—she knew someone else was in danger. She raced to the Delft.

But nothing in Celine’s visions could have prepared her for what she found.

Dirck lying face-up in the bar, brutally garroted to death with a piano wire, burn marks on his face. Who had done this? Why? And did a stranger’s comments about a long-forgotten heist in Boston have anything to do with a murder in a Paso Robles bar?

The answers are in a secret book entitled Master of Illusion. If you’d like to know when and where you can get your hands on a copy, go to https://ntustin.com and sign up—ostensibly to receive three stories set in Haydn’s Austria.

But you and I both know you’ll be entering a  chamber of secret knowledge. Be warned, though, the details you receive could put you in harm’s way.

And if you choose to join our circle, you must promise never to tell anyone what we share with you.

 

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A former journalist, Nupur Tustin relies upon a Ph.D. in Communication to paint intrigue and orchestrate mayhem in her fictional worlds. She’s the author of the Joseph Haydn Mystery series, which have been praised by bestselling authors such as Anna Lee Huber, Emily Brightwell, and Kate Kingsbury.

Master of Illusion is her first contemporary mystery novel and the first in the Celine Skye Mystery series.

Three Free Short Stories: Receive three free mystery stories by signing up to Tustin Mystery Circle at https://ntustin.com

The Haydn Mysteries are available at:

Amazon: https://bit.ly/Haydn3Books

B& N Nook: https://bit.ly/Haydn3BooksNook

Apple: https://bit.ly/HaydnAll3

Kobo: https://bit.ly/KoboHaydnBooks

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About Master of Illusion:

When death arrives in Paso Robles, so do clues to an infamous art heist in Boston. . .

For seven years, psychic Celine Skye has led a life free of visions in quiet Paso Robles. But now the visions are back. Along with a dodgy customer from Boston.

Celine has always been able to sense death. But not even she can foresee her employer Dirck’s murder. Finding his corpse in the wine bar he owns is bad enough. Grappling with the suspicion that Dirck’s death could be connected with the Gardner Museum heist is even worse.

As Celine struggles to make sense of the psychic clues she receives, there’s just one question in her mind: What exactly did Dirck know about the Gardner Museum heist to get himself killed?