The Fatal Hand (Queen’s Gambit Mysteries Book 1)

Never underestimate a grandmother with a classified past.

Ellie Queen spent thirty-five years as a covert operative for an agency that doesn’t officially exist. She’s toppled governments, extracted defectors, and once talked her way out of a Siberian gulag.

Now she’s seventy-two, officially retired, and running the most effective neighborhood watch in Coral Winds—from her front porch, with a pitcher of sweet tea and binoculars she claims are for birdwatching.

When the bridge club’s wealthiest member collapses face-first into the cards, Ellie recognizes a professional hit.

Someone murdered Cynthia Wright during Ellie’s bridge game, and Ellie takes that personally.

Now she’s using her old tradecraft—surveillance, interrogation, strategic misdirection—to unmask the killer among her wealthy suspects.

All while maintaining her cover as a harmless grandmother and managing her best friend Dotty, who has appointed herself “assistant detective” despite having all the subtlety of a brass band.

The Fatal Hand is the first book in the Queen’s Gambit Mysteries—a cozy mystery series for readers who like their grandmothers dangerous, their card games deadly, and their sweet tea served with a side of espionage.