Under the Impression (Cordelia Corbett Mysteries Book 10)

A Las Vegas Vacation Turns Deadly

Cordelia Corbett, Sally, and Shelby arrive in Las Vegas ready for a long-overdue escape—and wondering whether Cordelia’s predictive dream was a warning. When their new friend Wendy’s cousin and best friend is found dead, the trio is drawn into a murder investigation that is far less straightforward than it first appears.

Determined not to let tragedy consume the trip, the friends follow clues from the bright lights of Vegas to the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Southern California, and Milwaukee. As conflicting evidence emerges and investigators disagree, Cordelia and her team must uncover the truth before their journey takes another dangerous turn.

*Under the Impression* is the tenth book in J.T. Kunkel’s Cordelia Corbett Mysteries series, blending friendship, travel, mystery, and unexpected twists.

Follow Cordelia and her friends as they uncover a case where nothing—and no one—is quite what it seems.

Excerpt from the book

January 2024

“Wake up, Cordelia. Wake up.”

I was pretending I was still asleep. I wanted to identify the voice first. Finally, I did. It was Shelby. I asked myself, “What is she doing here? Didn’t she move out with her new husband? What was his name again? I feel so groggy. Where’s Biff, my new husband? Why isn’t he here to protect me from all this?” I figured I had to face the music and respond at some point, so I did. “Why do I have to wake up, number one? And number two, what are you doing here?” I slowly opened my eyes to find my friends and business partners, Shelby Irons and Sally McIntosh Kohr, hovering over me like old mother hens, Shelby’s black locks hanging down in her eyes as usual. At least some things never changed.

They both looked confused. Sally spoke first. “What do you mean by ‘What are we doing here?’ You must be sicker than we thought.”

I racked my brain. Nowhere in it did I remember being sick, so now I was confused. “I remember going on vacation in Arizona. I remember a crazy murder case. Of course, that isn’t surprising. And then we all met guys that night in the bar and got married in Vegas—”

Shelby interrupted. “Whoa, girl. Let me set the record straight. No one is married here.”

I started to sweat. “Of course we are. We met the guys that night, and we all fell in love, and went to Vegas.” I was forced to stop, watching the concerned and pitying expressions on their faces.

They were whispering back and forth something between each other that I couldn’t hear.

I yelled, “Stop! What is going on here? Is this some sort of game? Did you two decide you didn’t want to be married, so you’re playing this trick on me?”

Shelby started slowly. “Okay, sweetheart. Hear us out. Yes, we were all going to go to Arizona for vacation, but you came down with a really bad fever, and we had to cancel. You’ve been sleeping off and on for the last twenty-four hours. We were really worried about you. The ER doctor came and checked on you and said you’d probably be okay when you came around. But, if you didn’t recover immediately to call him.” She looked like she might grab her phone any second.

I started thinking back. My memories were so vivid. I looked at my hand. No engagement or wedding rings. “This is all so crazy. I was sure that we were all married.”

Sally grinned. “Well, did I at least get a good one? What was he like?”

I nodded. “The three of them were perfect for us. I should have known it was a dream. What are the odds of that happening all at once? Darn. It was so perfect. We also opened a new office in Phoenix. A really big one to handle the surprisingly high volume of murders there.”