Meet Frances Oakes author of The Mischief Maker, at Bethany Beach Books on Monday, June 15th at 6:30pm.

Frances Oakes published her debut mystery, The Mischief Maker, in March,2022. Her short story, Guardians Angels of the Shore, was published in the anthology, Scenes, by the Rehoboth Beach Writers Guild. Her story, The Bandstand Detective, was selected for the 2023 Creatures, Crimes, and   Creativity Conference Anthology as well as Shelf Life in 2025. She is a member of the Rehoboth Beach Writers Guild, Eastern Shore Writers Association and Sisters in Crime. Frances enjoyed teaching elementary students for 25 years before she retired. She is currently working on her second book in her Lainey Bug Mysteries series, The Love Bandit, coming out soon.

For ex-FBI agent, Lainey Pinewood, her life seems perfect: thirty-three years of marriage to her ex-CIA officer husband, four children, two grandchildren, and a teaching job she loves to share with her best friend, Rachel Honeycutt.

Some would say her life is too perfect and that’s when things begin to unravel.

First, Lainey begins to experience strange sensations in her limbs and muscle weakness that frightens her. She tries to pretend it is not happening, hoping it’s part of her hypochondriac imaginings, but the symptoms worsen. Will the cure turn out to be worse than the disease?

Then, the unthinkable happens: A substitute teacher at Lorianne Falls Elementary School is murdered. Suddenly, her peaceful community becomes a hotbed of suspects.

With her suppressed FBI yearnings awakened, Lainey quickly seeks to discover the identity of the killer despite her daughter, Detective Kate Pinewood, urging her to let the police handle it. Lainey has other ideas and enlists the help of Rachel in her scheme to foil the killer.

But has Lainey put her best friend in peril and risked a dangerous end to their friendship?