Spotlight on Vice and Virtue
This year we say hello to a new kind of hero. Layla Virtue's career as a cop hit rock bottom in one incendiary moment that will forever live in Potomac County Police infamy. Now she finds herself living in the Lake Pinecrest Mobile Home Park trying to launch her backup career as a rock star about twenty years too late.
She's competing against high school kids with garage bands who still live in their parent's basements and will work for tacos, while she's trying to pay the lot fees on her run down single wide.
At least she's alone and that's how she likes it. Far away from whispers of judgment and looks of pity. Until three women from her AA group decide to make her their fourth. She tries to shake them, but they are hanging on like Layla is bound to be their new bestie. Then there's this guy who keeps showing up on her front porch out of the blue.
Layla's dead broke so she can't afford to say no to any gig. That's how she gets stuck playing guitar for an eight-year old's birthday party surrounded by screaming kids who only want to hear Baby Shark.
When the birthday party clown dies on stage, Layla knows she has to get out of there fast. This is her old precinct. She knows what's coming next.
Layla's broken, but strong. Fragile, but fierce. She'll need a lot of help to make it in this life. If only she'd stop shutting everyone out.
Vice and Virtue is full of humor and my love of Classic Rock, pulling from my life growing up with a musician for a father.
My Life is Murder meets Mom meets Gilmore Girls meets Spinal Tap.
Don't just take my word for it. Here are some reviews by people you might just recognize.
Read along to the Vice and Virtue playlist on Spotify.
Giveaway
I'll give a copy of Vice and Virtue to a lucky reader who can tell me their favorite classic rock song in the comments below.
Layla Virtue, a blue-haired, 30-something recovering alcoholic and former cop is trying to reinvent herself as a musician—between AA meetings, dodging eccentric neighbors at her trailer park, and reconnecting with her mysterious dad—in this unforgettable new mystery brimming with hilarity and heart.
Layla is taking her new life one day at a time from the Lake Pinecrest Trailer Park she now calls home. Being alone is how she likes it. Simple. Uncomplicated. Though try telling that to the group of local ladies who are in relentless pursuit of Layla as their new BFF, determined to make her join them for coffee and donuts.
After her first career ended in a literal explosion, Layla’s trying to eke out a living as a rock musician. It’s not easy competing against garage bands who work for tacos and create their music on a computer, while all she has is an electric guitar and leather-ish pants. But Layla isn’t in a position to turn down any gig. Which is why she’s at an 8-year-old’s birthday party, watching as Chuckles the Clown takes a bow under the balloon animals. No one expects it will be his last . . .
Who would want to kill a clown—and why? Layla and her unshakable posse are suddenly embroiled in the seedy underbelly of the upper-class world of second wives and trust fund kids, determined to uncover what magnetic hold a pudgy, balding clown had over women who seem to have everything they could ever want. Then again, Layla knows full well that people are rarely quite what they seem—herself included . . .
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