Saturday, February 14, 2015

Saturday's Blurbs - Books by Joan Donaldson Yarmey

Blurb for Gold Fever
Boni Baldwin is taken out of the city and thrust into an environment she dislikes-- camping. Her mother, Elsie Wiggins, is on a quest to find information on her father who disappeared fifty-five years ago in the mountains of southern British Columbia and Boni is the only one of her children who is able, but reluctant, to accompany her.

The first person they meet is Rick, a mountain man who has a claim on the Salmo River and is prospecting with his grandfather for gold. He offers to show Boni around the area hoping to convince her that being in the bush is not a terrible thing. They also meet Jerry, who is the one Elsie contacted about camping on his gold claim. Jerry offers to show Elsie how to pan for gold during her stay. Boni and Elsie are threatened by other prospectors along the river and told to leave. When they don't, their campsite is trashed, twice. This scares Boni but only makes Elsie mad. No Rambo wannabees are going to frighten her away. They do discover some new clues about Elsie's father after all these years, but all that comes to an end when the man they are scheduled to interview is murdered before they get to his house. As much as they hate to admit it, both Rick and Jerry are on their list of suspects for the trashing of their campsite and for the murder.

Gold Fever

Blurb for the Travelling Detective Series (boxed set)
So far there are three books in The Travelling Detective Series and all three are in this one boxed set. Elizabeth Oliver, the main character, is a nursing attendant who's dream of becoming a travel writer is slowly coming true. She has had a few articles published in various travel magazines and in the first book of the series, Illegally Dead, she has an assignment from one of them to write an article on the Crowsnest Highway in southern Alberta. On her way to the bed and breakfast where she will be staying with her dog, Chevy, while doing her research, she meets two men who have discovered a skeleton in a septic tank. She had solved the mystery of a woman's death the year before while working on a speculative article and now feels the pull of this mystery.

In the second book, The Only Shadow In The House, there is a combination of three genres: mystery, travel, and poetry as one character tells her story through her poetry. This time, Elizabeth Oliver's boyfriend, Jared, asks her to help him find out if someone had actually murdered his mother thirty years ago when he was just four-years-old. As the story develops, Jared learns that his mother was not the angel he thought he remembered and that there were a number of people who had reason to kill her. While working on this mystery, the stabbing death of a man around the same time becomes entangled in their search.

Whistler's Murder takes place in the resort town of Whistler B.C. in the summer. Elizabeth Oliver's best friend, Sally Matthews, is attending a science fiction writing retreat and Elizabeth goes along to write an article on Whistler in the summer and to relax. They stay at a bed and breakfast near the retreat and on the second day of their stay a partially decomposed body of a young woman is discovered when the house next door is demolished. Word gets around that Elizabeth has solved mysteries in the past and a neighbour woman secretly tries to hire Elizabeth to find out who had killed the young woman. Elizabeth protests that she is not a detective and cannot accept any payment but the woman insists. Finally, Elizabeth agrees and goes through the motions of acting like a detective on television. While this is happening, Sally is approached by a fellow student to help her find out about the death of her cousin two years earlier at the same retreat. When that student also dies, Elizabeth steps in to assist Sally.

Books of The Travelling Detective Series boxed set:
Illegally Dead
The Only Shadow In The House
Whistler's Murder



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