Saturday, September 16, 2023

Books by Reed Stirling are featured today on Saturday's Blurbs #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Mystery #Revenge #Persephone #Saint-Louis

 

Blurb for The Palimpsest Murders

 

Day one: check-in on the Iphigenia, a Boat & Bike home for thirty guests of diverse backgrounds on a one week excursion through Holland and Belgium. Personalities clash, conflicts arise.

Day seven: a body is found in canal waters at the stern of the boat. And then a second body is discovered.

Many questions are asked, but few answers truly satisfy collective curiosity. Why in the canal? Why two coins for the ferryman? Who among the cyclists is hateful and motivated enough to kill? Twice. In what ways are the two murders related? Is the Phoenix jug, both admired and derided, merely symbolic? How does the gold death mask of Agamemnon lead to resolution?

Determining truth entails travelling from Amsterdam to Bruges to Paris to the ancient site of Mycenae in Greece where what’s past is shown to be prologue.

 

 

Blurb for Shades of Persephone

 

Shades of Persephone is a literary mystery that will entertain those who delight in exotic settings, foreign intrigue, and the unmasking of mysterious characters. Crete in 1980-81, more specifically the old Venetian harbour of Chania, provides the background against which expat Canadian Steven Spire labours in pursuit of David Montgomery, his enigmatic and elusive mentor, who stands accused in absentia of treachery and betrayal. The plot has many seams through which characters slide, another of them being the poet Emma Leigh, widow of Montgomery’s imposing Cold War adversary, Heinrich Trüger. In that the setting is Crete, the source of light is manifold, but significant inspiration for Steven Spire comes from Magalee De Bellefeuille, his vision of Aphrodite and his muse. “Find Persephone,” she directs him, “and you’ll find David Montgomery.”  Her prompts motivate much of the narrative, including that of the Cretan underground during the Nazi occupation, 1941- 45.

                Shades of Persephone presents a story of love and sensuality, deception and war, spiritual quest and creative endeavour. The resolution takes an unanticipated turn but comes as no surprise to the discerning reader. Like Hamlet who must deal with his own character in following the injunctions of his ghostly father, Steven Spire discovers much about the city to which he has returned, but much more about himself and his capacity for love.

 

 

 

 

 

Blurb for Séjour Saint-Louis

 

Montreal in late nineteenth century, a gifted young poet falls victim to madness.

Today, a struggling father is driven to drink over the intransigence of his music-obsessed teenage son. An equally conflicted wife and mother threatens separation.

What connects these two worlds?

The Victorian fountain in Square Saint-Louis, a series of seemingly random incidents in the city, and a school reunion where myth, art, and mysterious e-lixar fuse into dramatic reflections of family dynamics. Through mirroring, resolution proves possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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