Arrested Flight
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.
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EXCERPT:
Barry looked up, apparently aware of McLaren for
the first time, and called, “If Vicar takes you into the church, stay away from
the soul in the coffin.”
McLaren turned around, clearly surprised. “Pardon?”
“The soul,” Barry reiterated while chewing, “It
lives by the coffin near the north aisle. It’s a big coffin.” He turned to face
Church Lane, holding out his arms and gazing at the sky. Wriggling his left
arm, he said, “It’s on the north aisle.”
“Have you seen the soul, Barry?”
“Lots of times. Morning, noon and night. He comes
out more at night. He doesn’t like to be seen. He told me.”
“He must get cramped, lying in that tomb.”
“He comes out when the fairies fly around with
their lights, so he can see. Church is awful dark at night. He don’t frighten
me, but there’s others do.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My Review:
Arrested Flight is a Michael McLaren mystery, and I've got to hand it to the author. I don't live in Britain, but when reading Arrested Flight I felt as though I were. The author has a marvelous talent for dropping the reader into the setting and making the reader feel like he/she is a part of the action. I love McLaren's character too. He's an ex-cop, tough yet upright and moral and as vulnerable as the rest of us. I liked his compassion for the innocent, and his brilliant strategy as he went after the criminals. Hiestand wove a cunning plot for this mystery. All the clues were there, but I didn't figure out what was going on until McLaren did. If you like British mysteries I highly recommend this one to you. 5 stars.
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.
https://www.johiestand.com/
https://www.amazon.com/Jo-A.-Hiestand/e/B0057SO7VI
https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/635131.Jo_A_Hiestand
https://www.goodreads.com/series/132095-mclaren-case-mysteries
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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and
RAFFLECOPTER CODE
Jo A. Hiestand will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly
drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
