Five more minutes. That was all the woman standing outside his floundering business, Todd Jones Realty, wanted. Just five minutes. What could go wrong? Surprisingly, everything. And that’s what Todd Jones is about to learn when he allows the enigmatic Caterina Kadlec to enter his office. He’s hoping that her wealthy client, and the big fat commission he’ll earn, will be the answer to his prayers.

Unfortunately, Caterina has other plans...and those plans include grand larceny. As for the murder, well, sometimes things don’t go as planned, do they? Nope, they sure don’t. And that’s what Todd is also about to learn and learn the hard way. No matter, Todd always has plans of his own and has no qualms about implementing them. Because when it comes to ethics and morality, it’s all a gray area as far as Todd is concerned.

To complicate matters, his girlfriend has left him. Again. And his live-in mother, who already insists on keeping an annoying pet pig named Mr. Squeals, has invited a homeless Russian woman to take up residence, thus kicking him out of his home office. If it wasn’t for downhill, it seems Todd’s life would have nowhere to go. And he’s going to have to do something about that.

Writing under multiple names, Glenn Eric, aka J.R. Ripley, is the national best-selling author of Five Minutes: A Comic Thriller, A Bird Lover’s mystery series, Maggie Miller mysteries, TV Pet Chef mysteries (writing as Marie Celine) and other novels. He is also a successful singer-songwriter.