Tuesday - First Chapter - First Paragraph - Scene Of The Climb

Each Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile By the Sea shares the first part of a book that she is reading or thinking about reading.  This week I'm sharing the first few paragraphs of Scene of the Climb by Kate Dyer-Seeley.  I met this author at Left Coast Crime and immediately wanted to read this first book in her cozy series that is set in the Pacific Northwest.  We lived in that area for a few years in the '90's and I do love to visit when we can.  Kate made me laugh as she talked about her protagonist Meg Reed.  See what you think:

Angel's Rest Summit, Oregon
     My fingernails dug into the soggy dirt as my body lurched closer to the sheer cliff face.  I desperately jabbed deeper into the ground for traction.  It didn't work.
     I kicked frantically into a boulder on my right, trying to slow my momentum.  The trail was disappearing in front of me.  Fast.  Two more feet and I would launch over a ledge, straight down the side of the rock face.
     That's when I heard the scream.  It took a minute to sort out whether the sound was coming from my lungs or somewhere ahead.  Definitely ahead.
     I skidded over slick jagged rocks.  They jammed into my exposed skin and snagged my paper-thin T-shirt.
     ...not the shirt.  I'd spent a wad of cash I didn't have on the shirt.  When I spotted it on the rack with its pale pink ivy vine design and the words 'Live. Love' on the front, it spoke to me, as Gam likes to say.  Plus, it's the perfect blend of Northwest chic--equal parts hippie and hipster.
     At that moment I looked up to see a man's body plummet over the ledge.
     I should have been concerned that I was losing ground and about to fly off after him.  Instead, all I could think about was that I never should have taken that umbrella.

Blurb:

Portland, Oregon, is the perfect fit for someone like Meg Reed.  It's a city with a small town feel, where she can crash on the couch of her best friend Jill, now that she's graduated from journalism school. . .

But a girl needs a job, so Meg bluffs her way into writing for Northwest Extreme magazine, passing herself off to editor-in-chief Greg Dixon as an outdoor adventure enthusiast.  Never mind that Meg's idea of sport is climbing onto the couch without spilling her latte.  So when she finds herself clawing to the top of Angel's Rest--a two-thousand-foot peak--to cover the latest challenge in a reality TV adventure show, she can't imagine feeling more terrified.  Until she witnesses a body plummet off the side of the cliff.  Now Meg has a murder to investigate.  And if the climbing doesn't kill her, a murderer just might. . .

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It's been a while since I read very many cozy mysteries, but I'm game to try them again.  This seems like a good place to start and I'll enjoy the local culture very much.  I miss living in Oregon.