by Jo A. Hiestand
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GENRE: British mystery
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BLURB:
Ex-police
detective Michael McLaren is determined to have a peaceful holiday after the
fiasco of his first attempt at Windermere, so he stops at a bed-and-breakfast
in Moorton, a village in Cumbria. But
mystery and murder seek him out, and he soon succumbs to the B&B owner’s
plea to investigate the year-old death of her daughter’s fiancé, a young
musician.
The Lake District parish seems
peaceful, but a rival musician’s
jealousy and a business partner’s anger boil beneath the façade. Mix that with ‘Barmy Barry’s’ sightings of
fairy lights at the castle, references
to Uther Pendragon's return and the secrets in the woods, and McLaren finds his
sanity shaky.
When the vicar is attacked and Barry
disappears, McLaren sets a trap for the killer.
But as it plays out, his concern shifts from the potential capture to
praying he and his friend can escape with their lives.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT
McLaren’s
fingers wrapped around the torch. It would do for a weapon if he needed it. He
remained there for several minutes, hardly daring to breathe. When the tower
fell into darkness, he crept toward it.
He
made for the nearest corner, groping for it in the confusion of darkness. It
gradually defined itself, separating from the night as his sight adjusted to
the new blackness. He reached, stiff-armed, for the wall and nearly yelped.
Ivy, brittle with cold and age, wrapped around his fingertips and grabbed at
his ring. He jerked away, momentarily alarmed. The wind sighed through the
leaves, rustling gently, and he cursed his stupidity. He laid his hand back on
the wall and moved toward the main archway.
The
moon had inched above the treetops by the time he came to the end of the wall.
He glanced up, hoping for cloud cover. The sky was clear. He cursed his choice
of the hour and prayed for rain, but he knew it to be a hollow hope. He kept
his hand on the stone wall as he left the moonlit courtyard. Drifts of snow
sagged against the base of the tower, chilling the air with a hint of frost and
emphasizing the position of the foundation. He crouched near the entry,
ignoring the arch, and pressed the torch against his chest. And waited in the
darkness.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
A month-long
trip to England during her college years introduced Jo to the joys of Things
British. Since then, she has been lured
back nearly a dozen times, and lived there during her professional folksinging
stint. This intimate knowledge of
Britain forms the backbone of both the Taylor & Graham mysteries and the
McLaren mystery series.
Jo’s insistence for accuracyfrom police
methods and location layout to the general “feel” of the areahas driven her
innumerable times to Derbyshire for research.
These explorations and conferences with police friends provide the
detail filling the books.
In 1999 Jo
returned to Webster University to major in English. She graduated in 2001 with a BA degree and
departmental honors.
Her cat,
Tennyson, shares her St. Louis home.
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GIVEAWAY
a Rafflecopter giveaway
The tour dates can be found here
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My review:
4 out of 5 stars
Arrested Flight by Jo A. Hiestand is a contemporary
mystery set in England featuring former police detective Michael McLaren as he stumbles
into another mystery while he is searching for a place to vacation. Not only is
there a cold case to be solved, but the folks he meets definitely seem to have
their share of secrets. Despite his wariness due to events in his recent past,
McLaren feels compelled to use his skills to investigate, but the danger
increases until a single cold case will explode into a wide-ranging set of
mysteries that may prove to be life-threatening.
This is the 8th book in the ‘McLaren Mysteries’
series but can be read as a stand-alone story. There are allusions to McLaren’s
tragic past, but I was relieved to see that he is working through his grief and
starting to heal, although possibly with a little bit of rebound effect. I
enjoy this author’s ability to evoke quaint scenes of picturesque villages and
people them with a broad spectrum of characters who add richness to the story.
The vivid descriptions make me want to snuggle into a warm jacket and sip on a
steaming cup of tea while following the twisty trail that the detective is
doggedly pursuing, even as I scratch my head at some of the interactions he
has. Personally, I find it disconcerting that additional points of view
suddenly pop up occasionally, and there are odd explosions of violence along
the way, but they definitely added to the mystery. There is a hint of
otherworldliness that adds to the aura of the story and I enjoyed this
opportunity to both armchair travel and savor the mystery. I look forward to
finding out what new adventures this tenacious man encounters.
A copy of this title was provided to me for review
