Head: Murder mystery based in Bay St. Louis

Intrigue with a bit of local flavor

By KAT BERGERON

kbergeron@sunherald.com

Kidnapping is afoot in Bay St. Louis in "Dog Gone Christmas," the fifth in the Cozy Little Murder Mystery series by Terry I. Miles, a Gulfport self-published writer who believes you don't have to have a lot of "blood, guts and sex" to tell a good story.

Instead, she prefers to have interesting, offbeat characters.

"But of course I'm around characters every day myself," said the great-grandmother, who is receptionist in the College of Education and Psychology at University of Southern Mississippi-Gulf Coast.

"I consider these murder mysteries like TV's 'Matlock' and 'Murder She Wrote' because they are able to solve the crime without getting undressed or showing guts but still solving the crime."

This latest book spins a tale around Mrs. Julia "Aunt Jules" McKenna, her boyfriend, Captain Eric Von Boatner and a dog named Maggie May. Aunt Jules and the tail-wagger Maggie May are kidnapped from Maggie May's Art & Gifts shop in the Bay. That happens when Aunt Jules stops by in the vintage 1927 Model T Ford she's just won in raffle to retrieve an earring she believes she accidently dropped in the shop dog's bed.

Enter Bea Winslow, a private investigator, and her significant other, the Sheriff Jim Travis of LaFouchfeye County. Secret land sales and death at a funeral parlor are important elements of the 199-page mystery, divided into short, quick-read chapters.

Most important, the story is set around Christmas time for a real-life reason. There is a real shop and real dog in Bay St. Louis named Maggie May.

Miles had a book signing for one of her books at the Main Street store, and the owners, John Brennan and Dave Moyhan, suggested she use their Maggie May in a book. The two had found the pooch wandering the streets with a note attached that explained she belonged to a dying elderly woman moving to a nursing home.

Brennan, Moyhan, and their existing canine, Beardog, adopted and named the little black dog, and eventually gave the name to the shop. As requested, Miles did come up with a dog plot and in August 2005 gave the shop owners a rough draft to read with promises she'd have it done in time for Christmas the next year.

Katrina waters gutted the inside of Maggie May's - with Brennan, Moyhan and the two dogs inside but surviving - and a year passed before they could reopen.

Despite Katrina's re-arranging of so many live, Miles has finished "Dog Gone Christmas" in time for the 2006 holiday season. This one is different from her others because she includes photographs of Bay St. Louis that emphasize Katrina's rebuilding challenges, but the storm itself plays no role in the mystery.

"The real Maggie May's story is a comeback, and I think that's important to let people know," said Miles, who will hold the holiday book signing as planned before the storm.

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