Best Laid Plans

Best Laid Plans
245 Pages
ISBN 978-0-9890079-0-0

A Victorian mansion in a swanky San Francisco neighborhood is the setting for The First Step, a recovery house for a colorful cast of female ex-felons.

Florence, the wealthy octogenarian benefactress, has underwritten blue collar social worker Shalese's dream of establishing this recovery house. At what price do our dreams come true? Is someone really getting away with murder?

When Shalese's ex-lover Mab--lesbian bar owner by night, PI by day--uncovers Florence's unsavory history,the women of the First Step find themselves temporarily homeless. Turning grapes into wine, Shalese, her partner Jenny, and Mab relocate their recovery house, renaming it The Next Step, to the vineyard hills of Santa Rosa, CA. In the transition, a moldy old cookbook surfaces, over which lives could be lost.

Just when the women think they're out of danger, fate comes calling.

Jo Lauer

About Jo Lauer (Santa Rosa, California Author)

Jo Lauer

Jo Lauer is a psychotherapist in Sonoma County, California. Her articles and essays have appeared in Sacred Hoop, Psychology Today, Journal of Clinical Activities, Assignments & Handouts in Psychotherapy Practice, Tiny Light, Moondance, GRIT magazine, In The Family, and Sonoma County Women’s Voices.

She has published two novellas, Waltzing with the Azaleas and Sojourner. Her story, “Quilt of Souls,” appears in the Vintage Voices 2010 Redwood Writers Anthology, Words Poured Out. Her essay, “She” appears in Potpourri For and About Women.

She is the author of Returning: A Collection of Stories and the lesbian fiction mystery trilogy, Best Laid Plans, which includes An Unlikely Trio: Prequel, Best Laid Plans: A Cozy Mystery, and Gone Awry: Sequel.

Please visit her website at www.jolauer.com.