Welcome to Mysteries to Die For.

I am TG Wolff and am here with Jack, my piano player and producer. This is a podcast where we combine storytelling with original music to put you in the heart of a mystery. All stories are structured to challenge you to beat the detective to the solution. These are arrangements, which means instead of word-for-word readings, you get a performance meant to be heard. Jack and I perform these live, front to back, no breaks, no fakes, no retakes.

This is Season 7, Games People Play. Games are about competition conducted according to rules with participants working toward a goal. Games are a part of every culture and are one of the oldest forms of social interaction and engagement. Games can be fun, challenging and exhilarating. They can also be intense, cutthroat, and lethal. This season, our authors have fashioned deadly games and unscrupulous villains to test your detection skills.

This is Episode 19, where that new sensation pickleball is the featured game. This is In a Pickle by Kaye George

DELIBERATION

Melaine Hanover is in a real pickle. Her cantankerous husband, Harvey, is dead and the pink ball points back to her. We know she didn’t do it, so let’s give her our help to find the pickle in the middle of all of this. Here are the suspects in the order we met them:

• Tony, the pickleball hating neighbor who threatened to shoot Harvey

• Town Councilmen, the people who hated listening to Harvey nearly as much as Melaine

• Anonymous Pickleballers, the people who are opposed to Harvey’s opposition

• Kai, the cop who is Melaine’s lover

• The pretty woman, Julie, who is something to Kai

Here is what Melaine knows:

• Harvey hated pickleball and everyone who played it. He was making it his mission in retirement to run the sport out of town by sabotaging pickleball courts.

• Two young men, anonymous pickleballers, knew what Harvey was up to. They followed Harvey and Melaine home from the council meeting.

• Harvey’s and Tony’s houses were vandalized, the windows painted. The Anonymous Pickleballers are suspected. Tony blamed Harvey for stirring up the trouble and threatened to shoot him if he came on his property.

• Kai was one of the cops who escorted Harvey out of the council meeting.

• Melaine and Kai were starting an affair. Harvey didn’t seem to realize what his wife was doing. A pretty woman, suspected of being Kai’s wife, seemed to lurk.

• Melaine and Kai admitted they want to be together and agree to talk later. The pretty woman saw them talk.

• Harvey was found in the office of his house, shot in the chest. One of Melaine’s pickleballs was shoved in his mouth. He had let his killer into the house. His dog, Skitter, was the only witness.

Melaine is at the line. To whom should justice be served?

ABOUT Pickleball

From Wikipedia: Pickleball is a racket or paddle sport in which two players (singles) or four players (doubles) hit a perforated, hollow plastic ball with paddles over a 34-inch-high (0.86 m) net until one side is unable to return the ball or commits a rule infraction. Pickleball is played indoors and outdoors. It was invented in 1965 as a children's backyard game in the United States, on Bainbridge Island in Washington state. In 2022, pickleball was named the official state sport of Washington. While it resembles tennis and table tennis, pickleball has separate rules, paddles, and court dimensions.

ABOUT Kaye George

Kaye George is an award-winning novelist and short-story writer who writes cozy and traditional mysteries and a prehistory series, which are both traditionally and self-published. Her two cozy series are Fat Cat and Vintage Sweets. The two traditional series feature Cressa Carraway and Imogene Duckworthy. The People of the Wind prehistory mysteries take place within a Neanderthal tribe. She has a suspense novel coming out in early 2025 called SOMEONE IS OUT THERE. About 50 or more short stories have also been published, mostly in anthologies and magazines. With family scattered all over the globe, she makes her home in Knoxville TN.

https://kayegeorge.wixsite.com/kaye-george