A popular music teacher at Grange Hall Performing Arts College, Kent Harrison had been more popular as a musician: a minstrel in the vein of 16th century troubadours. He usually appeared during the Minstrels Court, an 8-day reenacted medieval fair at Tutbury Castle.  It was at that event that Kent last appeared and gave his swan song to his fans.  McLaren first questions Kent's ex-wife: was she still bitter over their divorce? Kent's neighbor, a local herbalist, a rival castle curator, Kent's fiancee and a covetous colleage all seem to have motives for wanting Kent out of the way.  As McLaren sorts through old motives and new anger, someone near and dear to him steps into harm's way.  Now McLaren must not only solve Kent's murder bu also find his loved one -- not easy when a web of jealousy, anger and lies permeates both cases.

Swan Song

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

JO A. HIESTAND

Mystery

Golden Harvest Press

The siren song of an unsolved murder case beckons an ex-cop back into detective work -- this time on his own, and with life-threatening consequences... Michael McLaren tries to convince himself that he is perfectly happy repairing dry stonewalls in Derbyshire, a make-do career after resigning his job in an eddy of anger, disgust and an overwhelming sense of injustice.  But when a murder victim’s friend asks him to investigate a cold case, McLaren agrees, the chance to rectify a wrong and return to the work he loves too heady to ignore. Marta Hughes, the murder victim, never returned home from a local casino where she won a purse-choking sum of money.  Her body turned up ten days later and turned up the heat on the police investigation, but the time-lapse, lack of witnesses, and an untraceable bullet quickly turned the case cold.  Now, one year later, McLaren sifts through the web of lies and veiled motives as impenetrable as boulders.  Co-workers, friends, neighbors and even Marta’s husband all seem to have reasons for wanting her death -- reasons as varied as revenge for her damning silence to imagined infidelity. Anger and motives overlap and raise more questions than McLaren can answer.  In the midst of his investigation McLaren becomes entangled in his own mystery: anonymous late-night phone calls, a vanished hitchhiker, and a car crash threaten his life and sanity. Is Dena, his former fiancée, playing tricks on him, still angry over their broken engagement?  Or does the killer fear McLaren’s relentless law-skirting pursuit?  But it isn’t until McLaren unravels his personal puzzles that he discovers Marta’s killer, a killer obsessed with old anger and new revenge.

Siren Song

Things seem comfortably routine one Ash Wednesday evening in the English village of Hollingthorpe.  The regulars have come together to turn the Devil’s Stone, the age-old custom of shifting a one-ton boulder in the churchyard.  An odd, back-breaking custom that defies logic – except that to dispense with it always brings misfortune on the villagers during that year.  Yet within minutes of shifting the great boulder that evening, misfortune – or someone – does strike.  One of the participants lies beside the stone, very dead and very bloody.  The CID Team from the Derbyshire Constabulary thinks that solving the case will be a snap.  After all, isn’t their boss, Detective-Chief Inspector Geoffrey Graham, right there and a possible witness, one of the stone turning participants?  But things are never easy.  No one has seen a thing, including Graham,  And those who might have observed the terror aren’t talking.  Is it fear, the particularly vicious attack, or murmured threats that keep everyone mum?  Detective-Sergeant Brenna Taylor and the CID team quickly become embroiled not only in the problems of the villagers but also in a web of deceit. When a red rose is found near the crime scene and WPC MacMillan goes to the wood to investigate, she is attacked, left for dead, beaten in the same manner as the original murder.  Has she discovered something in the wood or close to the rose that identifies the killer?  In the midst of the murder investigation Brenna steals a few precious moments with her new boyfriend and begins to wean her emotions from Graham.  But in a midnight, rain-lashed forest, a heart-wrenching episode with Graham threatens to destroy her resolve.  And through it all the killer silently slips into and out of their lives, thumbing his nose at her and the entire CID team, ready to strike again.

Horns of a Dilemma

Hiestand, Jo A.

The village square is bathed in torchlight.  Spectators huddle against the cold this November night, Guy Fawkes Night, in Upper Kingsleigh, England.  Shadows encroach at the edge of the square, but faces are turned inward, all eyes focused on the four-hundred-year-old ceremony of the burning of a straw effigy of Guy Fawkes, a symbol of English freedom and national pride.  The flaming torch extends to light the straw -- and the villagers recoil in horror.  Twisting at the end of the rope is no straw-filled dummy.  It’s the corpse of an American tourist. This death ends an uneasy weekend.  Friday saw Mischief Night -- an evening of pranks, much like trick-or-treat but without the treat.  Saturday followed with the Graveyard Dole, the annual occasion for Talbot, the village odd-jobs man, to vociferously protest the current heir’s eligibility to the financial gift.  Unfortunately, Talbot’s rightful claim as lawful beneficiary cannot be proved. As Brenna digs into the convoluted relationships of the villagers, she becomes the target of frightening pranks.  An effigy swings from the ceiling of her bedroom; a dead bird appears in her bathroom sink; photos of her with a noose drawn around her neck materialize on her bed.  Are these the work of one of her harassing male colleagues, or a deadly warning to leave the case?  Not only must Brenna solve this personal mystery while working on the two murders, but she must also sort out her conflicting emotions of trepidation and love for Chief Inspector Graham.

Death of an Ordinary Guy

<p>Dreams woke him that night. Not nightmares. Not exactly. More like flashes from his past. Mingled, as happens through the power of dreams, with foreshadowing of the future. Except he didn’t know that yet... Since his infancy, Michael McLaren has been the target of his paternal grandfather’s anger. So when the patriarch sends an invitation to heal the rift, McLaren travels to Scotland, eager to meet and finally end the feud. But the welcome never happens. In fact, the older man is furious McLaren’s appeared on the family home doorstep, convinced it’s some trick. McLaren, however, is confused -- if the grandfather hadn’t sent for him, who had? And why? In Edinburgh, a man standing beside McLaren in a bus queue is killed in a hit-and-run accident. But McLaren wonders if the driver got the wrong person. And after an attack leaves him for dead on a wintry moor, McLaren’s convinced someone from his past is trying to murder him. As McLaren trails the hit-and-run driver from the medieval ‘underground city’ of Edinburgh to the Boar’s Rock -- the MacLaren Clan’s ancestral meeting place -- the assaults intensify, and he’s plunged into a very personal hunt for a World War II treasure. The puzzle is fascinating; he just has to stay alive to solve it.</p>

Rock Song

<p>One cold January evening Luke Barber disappears from his village. Despite search teams and a police investigation, he is never found, and his absence leaves a lot of holes in many lives. That was three years ago. Now Luke's father has employed ex-police detective Michael McLaren to find Luke. Luke had the unenviable dilemma of choosing to devote his life either to tennis or music, a difficult decision, for he excelled in both. Pressure from his tennis coach, as well as his music teacher, would probably be enough stress for any young man. But add to that his father's opinion he should work the family farm and his future mother-in-law's vocal view he should stay home, get a sensible job and support her daughter. It all may have proved too much for Luke to handle. But fear and jealousy may also have spurred Luke into flight or contributed to his death. There's the local gang that tried to strong-arm Luke into turning drug supplier. And his fiancee. Was she jealous of Bethany? Perhaps her husband resented the hours of rehearsal and performances that took her from home. It isn't until McLaren figures out a connection with a medieval stone carving and a local legend that he discovers what became of Luke and leads him to someone he dearly loves.</p>

Love Song (The McLaren Case Mysteries) (Volume 6)

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Golden Harvest Press publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.