The Missing Butler and Other Life Mysteries is out on Kindle, Nook, iBooks, Kobo, Smashwords, and other epub formats.
This short story collection has a total of fifteen stories with illustrations by the author. Most of the stories fall under the category of humor as do the whimsical illustrations.
- The Missing Butler It is Inspector Brown’s first day as chief inspector when a portly woman storms into his office with a pan of brownies proclaiming a butler fellow robs her blind, and then she drops dead.
- The Mermaids A middle-aged woman finds solace in her new above ground pool. Within its confines she discovers she can imagine all sorts of things. Her neighbors wants what she has.
- Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer Ralph only wants a vacation that won’t turn into a disaster.
- Nine Lives Max, a kitten, is curious about Oliver’s past lives. The rumor was Oliver was Buddha in one life.
- The Wickham Just your average field trip for a trio of teenagers from the planet Roma. They visit earth in the 1960’s (earth time) to retrieve the planet’s most authoritative piece of literature. They find it in the unlikeliest of places, the set of Star Trek. Star Trek meet Pride and Prejudice.
- Auld Lang Syne A middle-aged woman meets her ex-lover in the local grocery store.
- The Plans A man appears before a judge, after being picked up for dancing on the grave of Jim Morrison, and tries to explain his plan to free Henri, a giraffe, at the Parc Zoologique de Paris?
- Jury Duty A woman laments being called to serve on jury duty.
- Murder Under the Oaks: The Co-Joined Twins Caper The Carpenters spent most of their lives restoring an old house, a fixer-upper, until fate played its hand.
- Conversations in a Coffee Shop A woman revisits her past while sipping coffee in what used to be the the town’s movie theater where she went to college.
- Master of the Stacks Michael retraces his life, from childhood through his death, and how the library played such a large part.
- Man’s Best Friend A Dachshund puppy finds his best friend and hero at an amusement park
- When in Paris A couple save up for their dream, a trip to Paris. On their last night of the trip, they get lost.
- The Lost Moment A Woman observes another couple in a restaurant while reflecting on her own inability to have a meaningful relationship.
- The Red Geraniums A young girl runs away from her incestuous father. She finds refuge in an orphanage run by nuns. She only wants to stay and become a nun, and never have to deal with her fear of men again, but the head nun insists she must leave at age sixteen and take a husband.
J. Schlenker 