Story Spotlight: “A Dismal Death” by Debbie Mumford
Somewhere in Virginia’s Mournful Mountains, fifty miles east of Boring and forty west of Tenebrous, sits a town called Dismal Notch—where the librarian talks to ghosts, the sheriff is a werewolf, and a long dead ancestor won’t stop meddling from beyond the grave. In Debbie Mumford’s “A Dismal Death,” a midnight haunting kicks off a murder mystery that’s equal parts eerie, funny, and unexpectedly tender.
Excerpt
Nothing says family like your ghostly greater-grandpappy gliding through the ceiling in the wee hours of the morning to have a little chat about the town’s newest departure.
A chill like an arctic wind shivered through my innards and yanked me from a deliciously hot dream involving Conor O’Riley, a bottle of chocolate syrup, and a scrubbed oak kitchen table. I may be a divorcee in my early forties, but I can still dream… in vivid detail!
“DeeDee, you awake?”
I scrunched deeper into my warm nest of covers and pulled the sheet over my head. “Go away, Grandpappy. I’m sleeping.”
Another wave of ice flooded my veins. “Come on, woman,” Grandpappy scolded. “This is important.”
Curling into a tight fetal ball, I squeezed my eyes closed. “Touch me again with those icy fingers and I’m ignoring you for the next month.”
Grandpappy harrumphed. “Well, hell’s biscuits, woman! How the hell else am I supposed to get your attention? Now sit up and open your eyes. We’ve got a situation here.”
“Fine,” I said, punctuating the word with as much venom as I could manage in my sleep-deprived state. “You win. I’m up.”
I rolled over, scrunched into a sitting position and punched my pillow behind my back before I bothered to glance at Grandpappy.
“What’s he doing here?” I screeched, grabbing my blankets and yanking them to my chin.
Clive Adams floated beside Grandpappy, just as silvery and twice as sad-looking as my restless ancestor. The pair of them shimmered in the darkness, the only light in my windowless bedroom. At least Clive had the decency to look embarrassed.
“He’s dead,” Grandpappy stated.
About the Author
Debbie Mumford loves mystery. Author of the popular Kristi Lundrigan Mysteries series, Debbie enjoys writing quilt-themed cozies and soft-boiled detective fiction as well as speculative, romantic, and historical fiction. Her work has been published in multiple volumes of Fiction River, as well as in Heart’s Kiss Magazine, Amazing Monster Tales, and many other popular anthologies. She writes about detectives—whether amateur sleuths or professionals—dragon-shifters, and time-traveling lovers for adults as Debbie Mumford, and science fiction and fantasy for tweens and young adults as Deb Logan.
Find out more about Debbie at debbiemumford.com
If you liked…
- Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman—for its blend of witchcraft, humor, and fierce family loyalty
- The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947 film)—for its romantic, haunted charm and the comedy of living with the dead
- Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber—for small-town magic, emotional warmth, and the belief that love outlasts everything
Read the Story
“A Dismal Death” appears in Haunted Waters, available now from Blackbird Publishing.
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