Shocked to see her outside, I waved back, then swam to the dock and scrambled up the ladder to avoid getting crushed by her two-ton vessel. I grabbed my towel, blotted water from my face and hair, and wrapped it around my new bright pink one-piece suit. I’d been nervous to wear it—I thought it made my thighs look big. But now I’d been caught, and I couldn’t get that towel around me fast enough. I watched the boat drift closer, shocked at my friend’s appearance. Her face twisted in despair...
Worried now, I grabbed the rope she tossed to me and secured it around a piling. The boat glided closer. She looked horrible, as if someone had twisted her insides and squeezed all her pain up into her eyes. Damn. Had someone hurt her again? Some people were magnets for bad luck, and my dear friend seemed to attract trouble like mosquitoes to wet skin after the rain. Last year, her Honeoye Lake cottage had been broken into. The jerks had cleaned her out and beaten her senseless. She still bore the scar on her temple where the bastards had bashed her with her avant-garde pink flamingo centerpiece. Yes. A pink flamingo. Not in her yard, on her coffee table. Draped with pink pearls and fake ivy. Don’t ask. And don’t look so surprised.
My best friend cut a tragic figure, was pretty in a haunted sort of way, but I never said she had good taste. Of all the households in our quiet lakeside community here in upstate New York, her place was definitely the quirkiest. Callie switched off the ignition, and the boat miraculously nudged the dock with a soft thump. I quickly secured the stern and offered her a hand.
“Honey, what’s the matter?” With a sob that sounded more like a hiccup, she heaved a big box over the railing and onto the dock, and climbed out after it. “You won’t believe this.”
I put my arm around her shoulders and squeezed. “Try me, Velvet.” Callie’s dark hair, delicate features, and big violet eyes used to remind me of the young Liz Taylor in National Velvet, thus the nickname.
She choked and wept fresh tears. Trembling, she glanced fearfully around her, then locked eyes with me. “Marcie, I…” With another sob, she fell on my shoulder. “Can we go inside, please?”
“Of course, sweetie.” I picked up the box and led her off the dock and up to the porch. Maneuvering backwards through the screen door, I got us inside and laid the box on the coffee table, then sat her on the couch. “Now. Spill it.”
...Callie looked at Ruby briefly and buried her head in her hands. “Okay. I… I can’t breathe. Marcie. Help me.”
In seconds, fat tears soaked her cheeks. I pulled her toward me, trying not to stare at the box on the coffee table.
“Callie. Honey. What is it?”
She shuddered against me, then sat up and sighed, pointing to the box. “It’s from Sky. And I’m too scared to open it.”
My throat almost closed. “What? When did it arrive?” I balanced the heavy carton on my knees. Battered and stained, it looked to have been around the world and back. Callie’s name and address were printed neatly on a label. There was no return address...
~~~
Tall Pines Mysteries, #2
By Aaron Paul Lazar
I had missed a book from the Tall Pines Mysteries Series by Aaron Paul Lazar, and am certainly happy I discovered it! Thoroughly enjoyable story...but there was an extra advantage...The book introduces readers to essential oils which are used throughout the book to deal with various physical issues for characters... Interesting and helpful!
The characters in this book were quite intriguing, maybe more so than usual since each of the main characters had to deal with an issue beyond the main thrust of the story. This greatly added several dimensions for each that pulled readers into each individual story with sympathy, and perhaps empathy. For me, the book is definitely character-driven... for the most enjoyment...
Marcie, one of the main female characters, and her best friend, Callie, have lived on Honeoye Lake all of their lives. The story begins as Callie, a recluse, has left her home to visit Marcie. She is clearly distraught and when Marcie meets her boat, Callie immediately starts crying, clearly shocked. Marcie's mind quickly goes back to the tragedy that had happened to Callie, resulting in her seclusion, and whether something similar had occurred. Callie is carrying a box and they head inside...Callie shares that she had received a phone call, telling her that the box was coming and that her brother wanted her to have it. Callie's brother had had been done for 18 years...
But Marcie was also shocked--Callie's brother, Sky, had been her first lover and also had felt deserted when he had disappeared...
Enter Quinn, Marcie's husband, who knew about Sky and was still jealous of that first relationship of his wife...
Why did I bring this up first, well, it's because it's fun to watch Quinn and Marcie as the story moves forward. Especially when Sky finally shows up and doesn't realize that Marcie was not still single and still in love with him--as he was with her... Sure, Marcie had to be torn between her two lovers. Would this change her life dramatically?
Aside from that romantic triangle, Marcie also learns that she's had another love pining for her all of her life...Quite a quandary...all the while that a great action mystery is happening!
Sky's box contain four major items... his knapsack from high school which contained a set of essential oils and a book on their use (we learn later that he has been researching, hunting, and developing plant-based remedies for most of his time away) a necklace made out of hemp with a small bottle that looked like another oil, and a small bag of emeralds with a memory stick...
It was obvious that Sky had sent the knapsack, and that he wanted Callie to have these items...but did that mean he was dead, in hiding, and what could each of these mean. They immediately tried to discover what was on the memory stick, but it was encrypted!
When Quinn came home, he was most excited by the essential oils, which he had learned about as a native american youth. He immediately started opening various bottles and studying the book that explained how each was/could be used...From the story, these oils seemed to be miraculous just as they were bottled. And Quinn estimated the value as very high... But how were they to know what these other items were and what to do with them...
Thankfully, they do think about security for the items, because it wasn't very long before the first break-in occurred. On Callie's side of the lake! First Callie's sister was murdered, and then Callie was kidnapped... A search continued in Callie's place. It was clear that somebody was concerned that they find what they were looking for. But what was it? The emeralds, the necklace or the memory stick...for certainly, the oils were available and would not be worth killing somebody for them, or were they missing something else?
Callie couldn't help but begin to think about her time with Sky. Had his time in the Gulf War resulted in changes...physically, to his mind? They knew Sky had served eight years, but then had disappeared, some calling it MIA. But Sky had called Callie just once with the short message that he was alive, but that he had to go underground for awhile... Now it was 18 years later... and Sky had not been seen by anybody in his family...
Quinn had foolishly referred to Sky as an idiot when he learned he had sent the box...Immediately Marcie had screamed that he wasn't an idiot. Fortunately, Quinn reacted in a calm manner, having realized his mistake--but that didn't stop him from beginning to wonder and worry whether Marcie would welcome Sky back into her life... And Marcie had always felt guilty because she had wanted to go to New York and had split from him...only to blame herself for his disappearance...
The memory stick had been left with Marcie, and she had been trying to figure out a password that Sky might have used; finally, exasperated, she tried Callie, who didn't answer her phone... But was even concerned enough when she didn't answer to get into her boat to go to Callie's home...
She got there and discovered Callie wasn't there... She went next door to her sister's house...and discovered her body... Marcie's first question was whether Callie had finally killed Willow, knowing that they were at each other all the time. By then, the police had arrived... Marcie learned that it had been Callie who called in Willow's murder, but Marcie was not satisfied that she had simply left the scene for something. She explained to Runyon, the female office in charge, that Callie was agoraphobia and would not have left her home...
Callie's dog, Beau, had been left in the house, so Marcie took the dog with her when she went back home... Even if the police were doing an investigation, Callie was going to discover anything she could on her own... She and Quinn had gone back to Callie's house, hoping to find things the police search would not discover...only to be arrested by the officer covering the crime scenes... They were cleared when Runyon came and were successful in discovering, a mood ring of Marcie's, Callie's Diary, both of which were not important to the case, but of value to Marcie in her search...
And Marcie knew where Callie might have gone, if she had gone alone...To Tall Pines and also to a small town near there where the box had first been mailed...
And the search begins, though the people in the area weren't talking... A major fire had occurred and they were all afraid...
Little by little, what was happening started to be discovered and they were fairly certain that the emeralds, though perhaps an extra benefit, wasn't what was being sought...
Fascinating and suspenseful in details of what happens, we learn, first, that Sky may be in the area, but that, he too, was scared and on the run... What was going on!?!
It's a page-turner from then on as, first, he begin searching for Sky...as well as Callie... while realizing that what was happening was much bigger than lost friends... And finally getting into the memory stick gave them, first, the name of a corporation and what was occurring... One local doctor did share that they should not trust any locals and recommended they call in the Feds...
Wow! Money, Power, and Greed seems often to be behind murder and many had been killed by the corporation behind the search...They had the staff and equipment and were only able to be matched by the FBI and their staff and equipment. Helicopter fights in the air are quite scary, not knowing who was in the 'copters! I loved the book and highly recommend to all... If you are already a fan of Lazar, and missed this one...do make it a must-read...you don't want to almost miss it, like I did!
GABixlerReviews
USA Today bestselling author Aaron Paul Lazar is obsessed with writing. He's completed twenty-eight books to date, and has earned twenty literary book awards. He writes mysteries, suspense, love stories, and more. You'll usually find him writing his heart out in the early hours of the day - preferably in the dark, quiet hours when no one else is awake in his bustling household. Visit his website at www.lazarbooks.com to sign up for a free book and to learn about future deals.
GET YOUR FREE COPY OF DEVIL'S LAKE AT WWW.LAZARBOOKS.COM!
Aaron Paul Lazar wasn't always a mystery writer. It wasn't until eight members of his family and friends died within five years that the urge to write became overwhelming. "When my father died, I lost it. I needed an outlet, and writing provided the kind of solace I couldn't find elsewhere."
Lazar created the Gus LeGarde mystery series, with the founding novel, DOUBLE FORTÉ, a romantic winter mystery set in the Genesee Valley of upstate New York. Like Lazar's father, protagonist Gus LeGarde is a classical music professor. Gus, a grandfather, gardener, chef, and nature lover, plays Chopin etudes to feed his soul and thinks of himself as a "Renaissance man caught in the 21st century." There are twelve books to date in this series.
The creation of the series lent Lazar the comfort he sought, yet in the process, a new passion was unleashed. Obsessed with his parallel universe, he now lives, breathes, and dreams about his characters, and has written twelve LeGarde mysteries in addition to four other series.
One day while rototilling his garden, Lazar unearthed a green cat's eye marble, which prompted the paranormal mystery series featuring Sam Moore, retired country doctor and passionate gardener. The green marble, a powerful talisman, connects all three of the books in the series, whisking Sam back in time to uncover his brother's mysterious fate fifty years earlier. (THE DISAPPEARANCE OF BILLY MOORE, TERROR COMES KNOCKING, and FOR KEEPS)
Lazar's books feature breathless chase scenes, nasty villains, and taut suspense, but are also intensely human stories, replete with kids, dogs, horses, food, romance, and humor. The author calls them, "country mysteries," although reviewers have dubbed them "literary mysteries."
"It seems as though every image ever impressed upon my brain finds its way into my work. Whether it's the light dancing through stained-glass windows in a Parisian chapel, curly slate-green lichen covering a boulder at the edge of a pond in Maine, or hoarfrost dangling from a cherry tree branch in mid-winter, these images burrow into my memory cells. In time they bubble back, persistently itching, until they are poured out on the page."
In 2009, Kodak laid him off after 28 years of service, and during the year he had off (before he landed in his job with KB America) he had time to explore and reconnect with his environment. Little did he know that several trips to the Adirondack Mountains would reawaken his passion for that part of the country. A new romantic mystery series was started entitled Tall Pines Mysteries: FOR THE BIRDS, ESSENTIALLY YOURS, SANCTUARY, and BETRAYAL.
In between all the novels, Lazar published three short writing guides based on his many years of writing advice blogs, entitled WRITE LIKE THE WIND, volumes 1-3. These are available in eBook and audio book formats.
In his twenty-first book, Lazar has jumped genre. THE SEACREST: a love story, now winner of many literary awards, is poised to capture hearts across the globe. Book 1 in the Paines Creek Beach novels (set on Cape Cod), THE SEACREST also launched a series, and is followed by THE SEACROFT and THE SEADOG.
When the news was filled with stories about the girls captured for ten years by that monster in Cleveland (you know who he was...), Lazar was compelled to write a book to honor the women involved. Thus was born the Bittersweet Hollow romantic suspense series, featuring award-winning DEVIL'S LAKE, DEVIL'S CREEK, and DEVIL'S SPRING. A new spinoff is coming soon, entitled THE ASYLUM.
The author lives on a ridge overlooking the Genesee Valley in upstate New York with his wife, daughter Allison, two little grandsons, two dogs, and three cats. With a total of six grandkids now, he finds grandfathering to be one of the most precious and important times of life, and spends as much time as possible with Julian, Gordon, Isabella, Christopher, Luke, and Joey.
Lazar has been featured in many magazines and newspapers and has given dozens of radio interviews over the years.
Enter Quinn, Marcie's husband, who knew about Sky and was still jealous of that first relationship of his wife...
Why did I bring this up first, well, it's because it's fun to watch Quinn and Marcie as the story moves forward. Especially when Sky finally shows up and doesn't realize that Marcie was not still single and still in love with him--as he was with her... Sure, Marcie had to be torn between her two lovers. Would this change her life dramatically?
Aside from that romantic triangle, Marcie also learns that she's had another love pining for her all of her life...Quite a quandary...all the while that a great action mystery is happening!
It was obvious that Sky had sent the knapsack, and that he wanted Callie to have these items...but did that mean he was dead, in hiding, and what could each of these mean. They immediately tried to discover what was on the memory stick, but it was encrypted!
When Quinn came home, he was most excited by the essential oils, which he had learned about as a native american youth. He immediately started opening various bottles and studying the book that explained how each was/could be used...From the story, these oils seemed to be miraculous just as they were bottled. And Quinn estimated the value as very high... But how were they to know what these other items were and what to do with them...
Thankfully, they do think about security for the items, because it wasn't very long before the first break-in occurred. On Callie's side of the lake! First Callie's sister was murdered, and then Callie was kidnapped... A search continued in Callie's place. It was clear that somebody was concerned that they find what they were looking for. But what was it? The emeralds, the necklace or the memory stick...for certainly, the oils were available and would not be worth killing somebody for them, or were they missing something else?
Callie couldn't help but begin to think about her time with Sky. Had his time in the Gulf War resulted in changes...physically, to his mind? They knew Sky had served eight years, but then had disappeared, some calling it MIA. But Sky had called Callie just once with the short message that he was alive, but that he had to go underground for awhile... Now it was 18 years later... and Sky had not been seen by anybody in his family...
Quinn had foolishly referred to Sky as an idiot when he learned he had sent the box...Immediately Marcie had screamed that he wasn't an idiot. Fortunately, Quinn reacted in a calm manner, having realized his mistake--but that didn't stop him from beginning to wonder and worry whether Marcie would welcome Sky back into her life... And Marcie had always felt guilty because she had wanted to go to New York and had split from him...only to blame herself for his disappearance...
The memory stick had been left with Marcie, and she had been trying to figure out a password that Sky might have used; finally, exasperated, she tried Callie, who didn't answer her phone... But was even concerned enough when she didn't answer to get into her boat to go to Callie's home...
She got there and discovered Callie wasn't there... She went next door to her sister's house...and discovered her body... Marcie's first question was whether Callie had finally killed Willow, knowing that they were at each other all the time. By then, the police had arrived... Marcie learned that it had been Callie who called in Willow's murder, but Marcie was not satisfied that she had simply left the scene for something. She explained to Runyon, the female office in charge, that Callie was agoraphobia and would not have left her home...
Callie's dog, Beau, had been left in the house, so Marcie took the dog with her when she went back home... Even if the police were doing an investigation, Callie was going to discover anything she could on her own... She and Quinn had gone back to Callie's house, hoping to find things the police search would not discover...only to be arrested by the officer covering the crime scenes... They were cleared when Runyon came and were successful in discovering, a mood ring of Marcie's, Callie's Diary, both of which were not important to the case, but of value to Marcie in her search...
And Marcie knew where Callie might have gone, if she had gone alone...To Tall Pines and also to a small town near there where the box had first been mailed...
And the search begins, though the people in the area weren't talking... A major fire had occurred and they were all afraid...
Little by little, what was happening started to be discovered and they were fairly certain that the emeralds, though perhaps an extra benefit, wasn't what was being sought...
Fascinating and suspenseful in details of what happens, we learn, first, that Sky may be in the area, but that, he too, was scared and on the run... What was going on!?!
It's a page-turner from then on as, first, he begin searching for Sky...as well as Callie... while realizing that what was happening was much bigger than lost friends... And finally getting into the memory stick gave them, first, the name of a corporation and what was occurring... One local doctor did share that they should not trust any locals and recommended they call in the Feds...
Wow! Money, Power, and Greed seems often to be behind murder and many had been killed by the corporation behind the search...They had the staff and equipment and were only able to be matched by the FBI and their staff and equipment. Helicopter fights in the air are quite scary, not knowing who was in the 'copters! I loved the book and highly recommend to all... If you are already a fan of Lazar, and missed this one...do make it a must-read...you don't want to almost miss it, like I did!
GABixlerReviews
GET YOUR FREE COPY OF DEVIL'S LAKE AT WWW.LAZARBOOKS.COM!
Aaron Paul Lazar wasn't always a mystery writer. It wasn't until eight members of his family and friends died within five years that the urge to write became overwhelming. "When my father died, I lost it. I needed an outlet, and writing provided the kind of solace I couldn't find elsewhere."
Lazar created the Gus LeGarde mystery series, with the founding novel, DOUBLE FORTÉ, a romantic winter mystery set in the Genesee Valley of upstate New York. Like Lazar's father, protagonist Gus LeGarde is a classical music professor. Gus, a grandfather, gardener, chef, and nature lover, plays Chopin etudes to feed his soul and thinks of himself as a "Renaissance man caught in the 21st century." There are twelve books to date in this series.
The creation of the series lent Lazar the comfort he sought, yet in the process, a new passion was unleashed. Obsessed with his parallel universe, he now lives, breathes, and dreams about his characters, and has written twelve LeGarde mysteries in addition to four other series.
One day while rototilling his garden, Lazar unearthed a green cat's eye marble, which prompted the paranormal mystery series featuring Sam Moore, retired country doctor and passionate gardener. The green marble, a powerful talisman, connects all three of the books in the series, whisking Sam back in time to uncover his brother's mysterious fate fifty years earlier. (THE DISAPPEARANCE OF BILLY MOORE, TERROR COMES KNOCKING, and FOR KEEPS)
Lazar's books feature breathless chase scenes, nasty villains, and taut suspense, but are also intensely human stories, replete with kids, dogs, horses, food, romance, and humor. The author calls them, "country mysteries," although reviewers have dubbed them "literary mysteries."
"It seems as though every image ever impressed upon my brain finds its way into my work. Whether it's the light dancing through stained-glass windows in a Parisian chapel, curly slate-green lichen covering a boulder at the edge of a pond in Maine, or hoarfrost dangling from a cherry tree branch in mid-winter, these images burrow into my memory cells. In time they bubble back, persistently itching, until they are poured out on the page."
In 2009, Kodak laid him off after 28 years of service, and during the year he had off (before he landed in his job with KB America) he had time to explore and reconnect with his environment. Little did he know that several trips to the Adirondack Mountains would reawaken his passion for that part of the country. A new romantic mystery series was started entitled Tall Pines Mysteries: FOR THE BIRDS, ESSENTIALLY YOURS, SANCTUARY, and BETRAYAL.
In between all the novels, Lazar published three short writing guides based on his many years of writing advice blogs, entitled WRITE LIKE THE WIND, volumes 1-3. These are available in eBook and audio book formats.
In his twenty-first book, Lazar has jumped genre. THE SEACREST: a love story, now winner of many literary awards, is poised to capture hearts across the globe. Book 1 in the Paines Creek Beach novels (set on Cape Cod), THE SEACREST also launched a series, and is followed by THE SEACROFT and THE SEADOG.
When the news was filled with stories about the girls captured for ten years by that monster in Cleveland (you know who he was...), Lazar was compelled to write a book to honor the women involved. Thus was born the Bittersweet Hollow romantic suspense series, featuring award-winning DEVIL'S LAKE, DEVIL'S CREEK, and DEVIL'S SPRING. A new spinoff is coming soon, entitled THE ASYLUM.
The author lives on a ridge overlooking the Genesee Valley in upstate New York with his wife, daughter Allison, two little grandsons, two dogs, and three cats. With a total of six grandkids now, he finds grandfathering to be one of the most precious and important times of life, and spends as much time as possible with Julian, Gordon, Isabella, Christopher, Luke, and Joey.
Lazar has been featured in many magazines and newspapers and has given dozens of radio interviews over the years.
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