POSTAGE AND PERJURY: a Small-Town Dog Cozy Mystery Featuring Midlife Woman Sleuth

Jorie Maddox watches people sign documents for a living.Now her own signature may cost her everything.When frightened Foundation bookkeeper Corinne Sayer arrives at Parcel & Pine with a five-page affidavit, Jorie follows every notary procedure carefully. She verifies Corinne's identity, watches her sign, records the transaction and sends the original by certified mail.By the next morning, Corinne is missing.Days later, she's found dead near the County Records Annex.Then police discover another affidavit.This one says Corinne lied about financial records connected to a disputed charitable property trust.It also carries Jorie's signature and notary seal.Jorie knows she never witnessed it.Proving that is another matter.As questions spread about Parcel & Pine's notarizations, Jorie finds herself confronting an uncomfortable echo of the scandal that ended her television career. A signature looks authoritative. A seal looks official. Neither necessarily proves the event happened the way the document claims.A dead postage meter, altered Foundation accounts, a donor's convenient alibi and an old scanned notary block lead toward a carefully manufactured paper trail.Someone didn't merely need Corinne silenced.They needed her to confess afterward.