Only by Chance in Cripple Creek

Accident or murder--what really happened to Kelly's best friend, Tara, at the Colorado National Monument? The officer ruled it an accident. She fell off a cliff, he said. Kelly's intuition told her otherwise. Two months after Tara's funeral, Kelly, a reporter from Grand Junction, Colorado, sets out, taking Tara's diary with her, on a long overdue vacation to try and make some sense of her friend's death. As chance would have it, on her way to New Mexico, Kelly gets caught in a frightening blizzard and has to take refuge in Cripple Creek, where Tara used to spend a lot of time. Finding herself stranded for a few days, Kelly begins to work at unravelling the events of Tara's death with the help of a private eye, who is investigation another Cripple Creek mystery. As a result of her probing, Kelly puts her own life at risk.

Kelly felt numb. It was all too surreal. She knew she was at a funeral, but she still couldn't grasp that it was her best friend, Tara, who lay in the coffin. The officer's words burned in her mind: It was an accident, he had said. Her foot must have slipped. She fell off a cliff. She shouldn't have gotten so close to the edge, he said. His words played over and over in her head until she felt like screaming. She knew that trail was one of Tara's favorites, and even though she had some fear of heights, Tara loved hiking the Colorado National Monument. Kelly stood by the graveside, oblivious to the sounds surrounding her, and kept her gaze on the hole in the ground. As she watched Tara's casket being lowered, she tried to imagine how her friend could have fallen. The officer thought it was an accident, but deep down, Kelly knew her friend wouldn't go to the edge and cause her own death. She vaguely heard the last words that were spoken as the Elders compassionately ushered the mourners away. She lingered, but they soon encouraged her to leave too. As she walked away, she looked over her shoulder one last time. She paused and watched the remains of the freshly dug earth being shoveled gently over Tara's final resting place. It was at that moment she felt her friend's presence.

Debby Arthur Warner resides on the Western Slope of Colorado with her husband Verl, and her 4 pound yorkshire terrier, Mia. One of her favorite places to visit in Colorado is the quaint gambling town of Cripple Creek. After staying a few times in an old Victorian Bed & Breakfast, and experiencing first hand why it had the reputation of being haunted, Debby was inspired to use Cripple Creek as the setting for her first novel Only by Chance in Cripple Creek. Only by Chance is a cozy mystery with memorable characters, and is the first in a series of three. Debby has just completed her second mystery Four Keys and a Cabin which takes place in Gatlinburg Tennessee and is due to be released late fall. She is now working on the sequel to Only by Chance. Debby is a spiritual and intuitive person whose priorities are family and friends.