Killerwatts in the Katskills

By Helga Berliner

KILLERWATTS IN THE KATSKILLSWhat's a good Buddhist to do? A tough question for sure, one that requires serious pickling in a spicy witch's brew of reflection. And if that inquiry isn't sinewy enough, toss this one into the pot and stir. How can a cheeky grand-daughter of a hex-throwing, spell-casting Roma Gypsy witch stay un-cursed and out of sight of the evil-eye when trouble gloms onto her like love-bugs on a windshield, like skunk on a wet hairy dog, like fine sauce on ribs? Throw in two seriously sexy men determined to protect I.Z. Marins (Izzy to her non-misogynist friends) from looming dangers and a bawdy best friend--and KA-ZAM! The perfect potion for mystery and mayhem begins to boil. In what she regards as one of her past lives, Izzy Marins had existed as a stick-by-the-rules-keep-your-head-under-the-radar New York City nurse, happily married to an NYPD cop, pursuing a burgeoning career as a Medical-Legal Investigator. The falling towers of 911 ripped the young woman out of that life. Now, nine years and several millennium later, Izzy (WF, Zen Buddhist, 34 YO, not seeking long term male for marriage) lives semi-happily in her Gypsy Witch Granny's Z's farm cottage nestled on the side of Cowan Mountain, Hobart, New York (population 441), roommate to a foul-mouthed-brogue-shrieking African parrot named Petey; bonded with her militantly-feminist, eco-terrorist, karaoke-singing, man-eating BFF Dee. July 1, 2010. A Very Suspicious Death disturbs the bucolic stupor of the Stamford Valley Nursing Home and I.Z. Marins is called in to investigate. For seven deadly days in July, 2010, Izzy and Dee become embroiled in a deadly struggle, a virtual war between Delaware County's militantly Green environmentalists (valiantly attempting to Save Our Mountains/Ban Industrial Wind Turbines!!) and AirPower, Inc, a commercial wind turbine company determined to be-spoil the rolling foothills of their Catskill valley. Greed and deceit drown the tiny village of Stamford and the two women, declaring themselves Private Investigators de jour--leap into the viper's nest, armed only with Izzy's brains, Dee's willingness to use her hot body to get what she wants, and a wheelbarrow of good intentions. Incompetent, irreverent and perfectly willing to break all the rules, the BFFs bumble their way to the final denouement. Told by Izzy in her sassy first person narrative, this story is not only a suspenseful mystery, an up close and personal journaling of a post-modern woman and her rough-edged BFF doing wrong and getting away with it, but the unwitting documentation of the unwilling conception and birth of Hobart, New York's (population 441) first and only very female Private Investigator.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1478314141
• ISBN13: 9781478314141
• Release Date: July 2012
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.49 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.9" x 6.0"