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Killer Serve

Born on the southside of Chicago, Jeanne Meeks is a former business owner turned world traveler who now winters in southwest Florida. She is a member of the Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. Killer Serve is the second in the Tennis Team Mystery series that started with Gator Bait. 
Patricia (Packi) Walsh arrived at the tennis courts at seven sharp, surprised to see that the ball machine was already in use. She was more surprised to see that the balls were not being returned, and stunned to spy the body surrounded by once yellow balls stained a rusty red. Her tennis pal Kay grabbed the defibrillator from court four, dialing 911 in the process, but they both surmised that the spreading pool of blood indicated it was already too late. The usual morning calm at Paradise Palms Golf and Tennis Club was spoiled by the approaching wail of the Lee County ambulance.

Deputy Billy Tieg cringed when he saw Packi kneeling near the body. It was less than a year ago when their paths had crossed over the death of a real estate developer whose killer Packi had ID’d. Now she thought she was a veritable Miss Marple. Tieg knew he should keep Packi far from this investigation, even though he had to admit she had pretty good instincts, wasn’t afraid to be a little bit nosy, and baked the best cookies and cakes in Paradise Palms as bribes.

Author Jeanne Meeks has her fingers on the pulse of the many active senior communities in southwest Florida and local readers will get a kick out of trying to guess which one this is, located south of Colonial and west of Treeline, which is now Ben Hill Griffin Parkway. All the signs are there, the golfers and tennis players competing for time and space, the widows and widowers sizing each other up, the visiting grandkids upsetting the poolside dwellers, and the monthly jaunts downtown to enjoy a performance at Florida Rep, just scream Estero.

As Packi and her tennis buddies begin asking uncomfortable questions about the identity of the man found dead on the tennis court, they uncover the darker side of their Florida paradise, gambling junkets, human trafficking, and homeless camps where convicted pedophiles are terrorized by gangs of kids with too much time on their hands.

Then, to lighten things up, and perhaps to address the pervasive class consciousness that roils under southwest Florida’s surface, Meeks inserts a budding romance between Packi, whose husband died five years ago, and her handyman Mark Hebron, a good, steady guy who’s carving his way back from some hard times and fears he isn’t quite good enough for the perky widow in the gated community. This novel, the second in a “tennis team” mystery series doesn’t pretend to be groundbreaking literature. It’s just downright fun and sometimes that’s all we ask from a book. Go ahead, take a look. Just maybe you’ll recognize your own community