Roped In

Her last clients fired her. Now investigator Karen Maxwell needs to prove she can be trusted to solve hard cases or she'll be out of a job. But will she ever be taken seriously as an investigator when her only cases involve a broken jump rope and a dead parrot?
Karen discovers a whole new world when she goes undercover into the sport of competitive jump rope. Athletes dedicate hours and hours of practice to dreams of making it to the world competition—and some might do anything to win. Add a gym-full of raging teenage hormones and overzealous parents and it becomes even more difficult to discover the truth about that broken rope.
Meanwhile, the parrot investigation gets Karen in trouble with the Neighborhood Watch, her daughter is developing a suspicious social life, and her son can't be trusted with the toaster oven. Then there's the whole romance thing—Brian is a super serious church leader one minute and then acting like a crazed adolescent the next. Is there enough caffeine in the world to get her through this?
This third book in the Karen Maxwell (the "soccer mom detective") mystery series stands alone as a story. Although the series was conceived and written for the Christian fiction market, the inspirational message in the story is low-key and designed to appeal to readers at any stage of spiritual development. As a story of relationships, it explores a woman's journey to rebuild her life after a divorce - how to find friends, how to deal with her children's increasing independence, how to manage the diverse personalities at work and how to trust herself in a new love relationship. It's all seen through the eyes of a suburban soccer mom who finds life much easier to manage with a daily dose of sarcasm and chocolate -- not necessarily in that order.