Spotlight & Giveaway: She Doesn’t Have a Clue by Jenny Elder Moke

Today, HJ is pleased to share with you Jenny Elder Moke’s new release: She Doesn’t Have a Clue: A Novel

With a colorful cast of characters and a cellar full of wine, anything can happen—from murder to a second chance at love—in Jenny Elder Moke’s half mystery, half romance adult debut set at a lavish destination wedding.

 
A high-end wedding on a private island off the coast of Seattle sounds like something out of a magazine. But for bestselling mystery author Kate Valentine, it’s more like a nightmare.

Why Kate agreed to attend her ex-fiancé’s wedding is its own enigma, but she’ll plaster on a fake smile for two nights, with the aid of free champagne, naturally. And because the groom happens to be her editor, she’ll try to finish a draft of her latest Loretta Starling mystery as a wedding gift. But when the bride is poisoned and Kate stumbles across a dead body, she finds herself in a real-life mystery that eerily echoes the plot of her latest novel. And the only person who seems willing to help Kate catch the killer is Jake Hawkins, aka: the Hostralian; aka: Kate’s biggest romantic regret.

As the wine flows and the weather threatens to hold every guest hostage, bitter resentments and long-held grudges surface amongst the colorful crowd. Anyone could be capable of murder, it seems. What would Loretta do? Unfortunately, Kate doesn’t have a clue.

Enjoy an exclusive excerpt from She Doesn’t Have a Clue: A Novel 

From She Doesn’t Have a Clue by Jenny Elder Moke. Copyright © 2025 by the author and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.

Chapter One

“Pier 66,” announced her driver as he parked the car and stepped out. He squinted toward the docks. “That your boat down there? Sheesh, looks expensive.”
It did look expensive, the sleek white boat waiting below. Probably a yacht, if Kate knew anything about boats. Which you would think she would, considering she wrote a whole successful series set in the Florida Keys. But her knowledge didn’t extend very far beyond “they float in water.” She’d gotten dinged in more than a few online reviews on that front. She once put Loretta in the ocean on a pontoon during a storm, which apparently was not a seaworthy vessel, according to DanSeaLife4376.
“I’ll get your suitcase,” said her driver as she stepped out. He squinted in the direction of the dock where the possibly-a-yacht waited. “You sure that’s your boat? Looks like it’s pulling away.”
Kate had been too busy rating him five stars—at least one of them out of guilt for briefly assuming he was a murderer—to pay attention to the boat. But now that he’d mentioned it, there was a thin sliver of ocean water between the edge of the boat and the dock. A man stood on the aft deck in a puffy jacket and a thick beanie, watching as another man cast off their dock lines (that, at least, she’d learned from her research).
“I think you’re gonna miss it,” the driver said.
“Like hell I am,” Kate said, hoisting her rolling case under one arm. She took off for the stairs, waving her free arm. “Hold the boat, please!”
Now that she was full-on sprinting across the uneven wooden planks it was plain to see the fat slice of green-black ocean water between the boat and the dock. The man in the puffy jacket stood alone on the aft deck, cupping his hands around his mouth and shouting something. But it was lost in the brisk wind that stirred up the choppy waves. The forecast had been clear all week long, but now the sky looked leaden and threatening for an outdoor wedding. Still, predicting rain in Washington State in October was like predicting bears in the forest or alligators in Florida. An ever-present threat.
As she closed in on the end of the dock there was a gap of about three feet between the boat and solid ground. On impulse, she chucked her luggage across the gap and took four long strides back to give herself a running start. This was obviously an insane idea; she was going to end up splattered against the side of a luxury boat. But her computer was in that suitcase, her life’s work stored on its hard drive. She wouldn’t jump for anyone except Loretta.
“Look out!” she shouted at the man, who had caught her suitcase in an impressive maneuver, obscuring his face. “Clear the deck!”
She sprinted down the dock and leapt across the gap. Her feet pedaled and her arms windmilled, and she had a split-second realization that she’d been absolutely right; she wasn’t going to make it. She was going to hit her head and drown three feet off the docks. At least she’d have a decent excuse for missing the wedding and her deadline. Her own accidental murder.
But then a pair of hands grabbed her and pulled, helping her clear the last foot as she crashed into the man. They both went tumbling back on the sleek deck, her suitcase skittering away. He curled up with a painful grunt, the movement pulling her in tighter against him.
“I’m so sorry,” she gasped, struggling to catch her breath after that Olympic-level long jump. “I didn’t mean to crash into . . . Jake?”
Her eyes went wide, heart beating in double time as the man beneath her winced out a tight smile and spoke with that gorgeous, buttery Australian accent of his. “Still know how to make an entrance, don’t you, Katey cakes?”

Chapter Two

“Jake,” she said again, at a loss. Jake Hawkins, former pro surfer turned elite travel guide. Once the most important person in the world to her, not that she had ever told him so. Of all the places she’d imagined seeing him over the last two years—and there had been plenty of imaginings, more fantasy conversations than was probably healthy—the back deck of a boat on its way to Hempstead Island for her ex-fiancé’s wedding was not one of them.
“I know you’ll take this personally, but you’re not exactly a sack of feathers,” Jake grunted, reminding her that she was still sprawled out on top of him, crushing him with her clumsy weight.
“Oh shit, your back,” she said, clambering off and raising a distinct oof out of him. “Oh god, Jake, I’m so sorry. Let me help.”
“I’ve got it,” Jake said, rolling to one side before going very still. “Actually, no I don’t. Give me a minute.”
“We should get you inside,” Kate said, though she couldn’t quite bring herself to reach for him just then. It wasn’t like she didn’t have plenty of practice helping him in the past, when the injury that brought his pro-surfing career to an abrupt end caused him so much pain he couldn’t move. But that had been before the incident, before Kate had sworn never to try to touch him again.
He was supposed to be in Borneo this weekend; she’d checked his company’s website to make sure. She’d also called her mom and not-so-subtly confirmed it through his aunt. Not to mention she couldn’t imagine Spencer actually agreeing to invite Jake to his wedding. So what was Jake doing here?
A window slammed open above them and somebody stuck their head out from where Kate presumed all the steering equipment was (hmm, maybe DanSeaLife4376 had been right to call out her incompetence).

From She Doesn’t Have a Clue by Jenny Elder Moke. Copyright © 2025 by the author and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.

Excerpt. ©Jenny Elder Moke. Posted by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.
 
 

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Meet the Author:

JENNY ELDER MOKE is the author of award-winning children’s and adult literature. She enjoys fast-paced adventures with plenty of mysteries, surprising turns, and laughs along the way. When she’s not writing, you can find her knitting, puzzling, or fighting imaginary crime as a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. She Doesn’t Have a Clue is her adult debut. Jenny lives in Denver, CO.

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