May 2006

Welcome to the May issue of Mystery Morgue! Warm weather doesn't go well with death, so we keep things cool down here, but it's not like we're oblivious to the change of seasons—it's Spring, right?

This month, you'll find reviews of books by such authors as Michael Connolly, Mindy Starns Clark and Chris Grabenstein, as well as a fascinating look into the work ethic of Elaine Viets in "How I Write."

And Chapter 24 of our continuing tag-team mystery, "Murder By Committee," is by Eleanor Sullivan, author of Assumed Dead.  So dig in: there's plenty of meat here at the Morgue!

 

In this month's issue:

How I Write: The Joys of Insomnia, by Elaine Viets

Reviews:
Breaking Faith, by Jo Bannister
Swimming with the Dead: An Underwater Investigation, by Kathy Brandt
Blind Dates Can Be Murder, by Mindy Starns Clark
Crime Beat, by Michael Connelly
For Better or Hearse, by Laura Durham
Killer Instinct, by Joseph Finder
Mad Mouse, by Chris Grabenstein
Dark Blue Death, by Jan Grape
White Stone Day, by John MacLachlan Gray
Shadow of Death, by Patricia Gussin
Cold Granite, by Stuart MacBride
Dead Before Dying, by Deon Meyer
One Cold Night, by Kate Pepper
Moving is Murder, by Sara Rosett

Ongoing Story:
"Murder By Committee," Chapter 24, by Eleanor Sullivan

Link to Archives

 

How I Write: The Joys of Insomnia
by Elaine Viets

Elaine Viets is the author of the Dead-End Job series. Her fifth mystery, Murder Unleashed, is new in hardcover from New American Library.

It's three A.M. on a moonless night. I'm in my office, seven stories above the Intracoastal Waterway in Fort Lauderdale. I see a boat speeding through the black water with no running lights—the sure sign of a smuggler.

What is that boat carrying through the dark night: drugs, illegal humans, or some other contraband? I'll never know.

Every night, I see a dozen novels speeding past my window. The night is my inspiration.

I'm an insomniac. I've had people recommend sleep clinics and specialists to help me get those critical eight hours. They tell me about melatonin and sleeping pills.

I say, "No thanks." I don't want to be cured. Insomnia works for me. That's how I write.

I wake up about three o'clock every night. When I had a nine-to-five job, I tossed and turned and worried how I would make it through the next sleep-deprived day. It was a nightmare.

Now that I write full-time, there are no more restless nights. I get out of bed and head for my computer. I embrace my inner insomniac.

I write from three until six in the morning. It's a wonderfully peaceful time. There are no phone calls, no emails, no interruptions. I get more writing done in those quiet hours than any other time of the day.

My cat, Harry, is as nocturnal as I am. He stays with me during the long nights. Harry curls up on my desk and supervises my work. He likes my new flat-screen monitor—there's more leg room.

At sunrise, I stop for breakfast and watch the morning mist on the water. Then I go back to bed and sleep until about nine in the morning. After that, I take a walk, then settle in at the computer until four in the afternoon. I do some writing during my second work session, but those daylight hours are mostly for rewrites, emails and phone calls.

Sleep experts deplore what they call "interrupted" sleep. I don't. Thanks to insomnia, I get two work days in one.

Here's my advice for writers: Make time to write, but make sure it's your peak creative time.

Listen to your body. Find that time when your hands fly across the keyboard and your brain is snapping sparks. Carve out those hours for yourself. You may be an early morning writer, or a late-night person. Your best creative energy may flow at high noon or at dinnertime. Or, you may be an insomniac. There are a lot of us.

Whatever your peak time, find it and learn to use it. Don't listen to the experts who want to "cure" you. Don't believe people who say you should only work during working hours.

You're a writer. You already march to a different drummer. Might as well make it the rhythm you like best.

 

Reviews

Breaking Faith
by Jo Bannister
St. Martin's Minotaur
Hardcover, 256 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 0312343019
Reviewed by Janet Koch

Brodie Farrell, sole proprietor of "Looking for Something?," has a new and unusual task: find the perfect English country house for demon rock star Jared Fry. The list of requirements is long and odd, but Brodie tackles the job with characteristic zeal.

When Brodie finds the perfect house, Jared's dangerously charming manager writes her a big check and all seems well. At the housewarming party, however, Jared throws a fit, demanding to know why there isn't a swimming pool. The only thing he wanted was a swimming pool; why isn't there a swimming pool?!

The subsequent construction uncovers the body of a young woman, and the search for her killer ignites the simmering attraction between Brodie and Jared's manager. The resulting explosion flings shrapnel far and wide, and no one—from Brodie to Jared and everyone in-between—emerges unscathed.

Breaking Faith is a story of manipulation, greed, and betrayal. Using the common thread of friendship, author Jo Bannister binds together the histories of a long dead woman and the current music phenom.

A few unlikely confrontational speeches aside, Breaking Faith is a gem of a novel. Bannister's many fans should be delighted with this new installment, fifth in the series featuring Brodie and her friends, and readers fresh to the series will no doubt be on the lookout for the previous four.

Swimming with the Dead: An Underwater Investigation
by Kathy Brandt
Signet
Paperback, 258 pages, $5.99
ISBN: 0451210204
Reviewed by Terri M. Tumlin

Hannah Sampson begins this exciting new series as a Denver Homicide detective with an unusual specialty.  She is a police scuba diver.  Of course, diving only in the lakes and reservoirs around Denver whenever there is a drowning accident or a murder, she is not exactly enthralled by the beauties of diving as a sport. But when Police Commissioner Duval's son, Michael, dies in the British Virgin Islands in what appears to be a diving accident and then a secretary at the police department is murdered by someone who appears to be interested in Commissioner Duval's son's effects, Hannah is offered the chance to go to  the Virgin Islands to check up on things.

"Humm, zero degrees and a foot of snow in Denver, a sunny eighty degrees in the Caribbean."  She decides to take on the investigation.  When she arrives in the BVI, she meets a wall or resistance to the idea of possible murder..  Everyone from Tortola police chief, John Dunn, to Michael's fiancé, Lydia, are convinced Michael died in an unfortunate accident.  Although Michael was usually a careful diver, on the day of his death he went diving alone in the sunken wreck of the Chikuzen, an old Korean refrigeration ship. A sad, even tragic occurrence, but when young men push the boundaries, sometimes things don't work out.

Hannah is half inclined to agree, but two accidents, which could be attempts on her life, in her first couple of days on the island arouse her police instincts..  Michael's work as a conservationist and his passion to preserve the coral reefs from the inroads of the charter boat sailors and his relationship with Lydia provide an abundance of possible motives for murder on the tropical paradise.

In Swimming with the Dead, Brandt has done a masterful job of blending all the elements of an exciting mystery with a profound knowledge of the world of scuba diving.  The sensations, the techniques, and the hazards of this exciting sport are clearly  portrayed across the pages of the mystery. Her characters are varied and well drawn, from Robert, the Rastifarian taxi driver/tour guide, to the rich and attractive owner of one of the largest charter boat enterprises on the island, Peter O'Brien, and the free-lance diver and repairman, Harry Acuff, who helped recover Michael's body.

Whether the reader is an experienced diver, a vacation snorkler, or someone who stays in the shallows at the beach, there is plenty here to engage and entertain.  I highly recommend Swimming with the Dead and hope that there are many more to come in the series. 

Blind Dates Can Be Murder
by Mindy Starns Clark
Harvest House Publishers
Paperback, 317 pages, $11.99
ISBN: 0736914862
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

In decades of writing a "helpful hints" column, it is doubtful that Heloise ever faced anything more daunting than a typographical error.  The same can't be said for Jo Tulip, who inherited the Tips from Tulip newspaper column from her grandmother.  In her debut in The Trouble With Tulip, Jo faced murder and other calamities, as well as being jilted at the altar.  In this novel, the dangers escalate and she faces another crisis in her love life.

In a well-written second of a series expected to conclude with a third, the author provides Jo with an unexpected blind date who dies while they are having dinner. The only trouble is that the blind date has substituted himself for the scheduled date and is really murdered.  Meanwhile, her "best friend," Danny, who figures out he really is in love with Jo, ponders how to tell her.

The plot becomes more complicated, with violence and mayhem the rule.  It seems the murder victim was trying to find out from Jo how to remove stains from stolen money.  And his confederates believe Jo has the $1.5 million in bills.  They trash her house twice and a bomb demolishes it as well.

Threaded throughout the tale is whether Jo can make up her mind with regard to Danny, who she always considered her best friend, i.e., does she or doesn't she love him "that way."

Love is not the only mystery to be solved in this tightly plotted story.  The next question is: how will the third installment top this one, which is recommended.

 

Crime Beat
by Michael Connelly
Little, Brown
Hardcover, 288 pages, $25.95
ISBN: 031615377X
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

In the beginning, Michael Connelly was a crime reporter, first in south Florida and then in Los Angeles.  He worked at two newspapers in the 1980's and '90's, covering a wide assortment of crimes, even spending a week inside a detective's operation profiling the activities and frustrations of the cops.

This book is a collection of his by-lined stories, showing some of his experiences and observations as a reporter which form the basis for his novels—the characters and crimes he writes about so effectively.  Out of these experiences Harry Bosch and the Poet were created.  Crime Beat is divided into three categories: the Cops, the Killers and the Cases.  Each section is a reprint of several stories illustrating the subject and contributing to Connelly's learning.

It is an interesting approach and gives the reader an insight not only into the subject—crime and murder and police procedures—but also into the developing author's craft.

For Better or Hearse
by Laura Durham
Avon Books
Paperback, 258 pages, $6.99
ISBN: 0060739045
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

Annabelle Archer is one of Washington DC's top wedding planners, and encounters an unexpected pre-wedding hazard when Chef Henri, the Fairmont Hotel's famed and eccentric chef, chases her from the pre-nuptial kitchen at knifepoint.  Shortly thereafter his body is discovered, impaled on one of the ice sculptures in the reception ballroom.  Although Annabelle herself is initially held by the police, she is soon released.  There is no dearth of suspects, for the chef had a host of enemies.  When Annie's friend and the hotel's catering executive, Georgia, is arrested for the murder, she begs Annabelle to try to clear her.  The charming cast of characters includes her assistant, Kate, she of the endearing malapropisms; the eccentric elderly neighbor, Leatrice; and Richard, her close friend who is thought to be the city's best caterer.

For Better or Hearse, the second in the Annabelle Archer series by Laura Durham, herself a real-life DC wedding planner, is a light-hearted romp depicting a life revolving around planning others' weddings when dead bodies and drunk brides disrupt her best-laid plans.  (I have to admit, though, I was a bit taken aback by a reference early in the book to a pianist playing "tunes" from "Madame Butterfly.")

Killer Instinct
by Joseph Finder
St. Martin's Press
Hardcover, 401 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 0312347472
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

My first thought while reading this exciting novel harkened back to the Broadway show, "How to Succeed in Business...," and its theme song, "The Company Way."  But as I read, the development of the plot was like anything but the light-hearted tune.  Certainly, the protagonist, Jason Steadman, climbs the corporate ladder—but in a variety of unusual, if not unethical, ways until he lands on top, even if he is redeemed in a manner of speaking.

A likeable and even capable salesman, Jason is a happy-go-lucky working stiff, employed by a Japanese electronics giant.  His wife and immediate superior have him pegged as lacking the drive—"Killer Instinct," if you will—to advance.  Then he meets by accident a former Special Forces soldier with a wide range of abilities—from gathering intelligence to sabotage to murder—which are "secretly" used to assist Jason in his job.  Suddenly available to him are customer secrets to seal deals, undermining co-workers and sabotaging their equipment, making them lose sales.

As a result, Jason shines and is promoted and then promoted again.  Then he begins to suspect the underhanded assistance he has been receiving and tries to stop it.  His new-found friend—who by now has become head of security (he was hired on Jason's recommendation)—and he begin a struggle until Jason faces imminent danger.

The author creates tremendous tension, with twists and turns that keep the reader turning the pages to find out what happens next.  The fine narration and portrayals of various types of company men is a Finder trademark.  I thoroughly enjoyed "Killer Instinct," and am sure you will too.

Mad Mouse
by Chris Grabenstein
Carroll & Graf
Hardcover, 320 pages, $23.95
ISBN: 0786717602
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

Over a month after the murder described in Chris Grabenstein's first book in this delightful series, Tilt-A-Whirl, and on the eve of the Labor Day weekend, the seaside town of Sea Haven, New Jersey is once again struck by violence.  The town's "top citizens"—businessmen, the mayor among them—are anxious to keep anything untoward quiet until after the big holiday celebration when the tourists, on which their economy depends, go home, but an attack on a waitress at one local restaurant following vandalism at another restaurant can't be ignored, especially when the waitress is a good friend of Danny Boyle.  Danny, a part-time summer cop, may finally be given the one full-time position with the Sea Haven Police offered at summer's end, and hopes to be officially partnered with the man he most admires, John Ceepak, former marine and Iraq War vet who, with his own strict moral Code, has been Danny's mentor.  (Among other things, Ceepak will not lie, cheat, steal or tolerate those who do.)

Mad Mouse, as the Tilt-A-Whirl, is a ride on the Sea Haven boardwalk, a roller coaster to be precise, which becomes a metaphor for the out-of-control situation with which Danny is faced.  Danny and his friends become the next targets of the escalating violence, and he and Ceepak must find out who is behind these acts before things get totally out of hand.  Paintball plays a prominent part, and there's an unexpected twist at the end with a slam-bang finish.

As with the predecessor book, Mad Mouse has wonderfully realized characters in Danny and Ceepak; the balance between youthful earnestness on the one hand and a strong, upright role model on the other is deftly drawn and maintained.  The dialog is kind of a strange combination of YA laced with profanities which, I guess, is par for the course with today's youth, and it comes across as very real.  It is a fast-moving and suspenseful read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

Dark Blue Death
by Jan Grape
Five Star Press
Hardback, 205 pages,  $25.95
ISBN: 1594144230
Reviewed by Shirley Wetzel

Homicide detective Zoe Barrow is spending a month as a field training officer for the Austin PD, helping turn the new cadets into experienced lawmen and women.  She knows a few of them aren't really cut out for the job, and some, including timid Cadet Ramona Sanchez, are going to wash out of the program, but when a sniper's bullet cuts the young woman down at the Police Academy Zoe makes a promise to her.  She will do her best to find justice for Sanchez, as she would for any fallen comrade.   Before she is able to do this, however, the killer strikes again.  It soon becomes clear that he has an agenda in mind, and it becomes a race against time to stop his murderous campaign.

To add to her problems, Zoe stops at the nursing home one evening to visit her comatose husband Byron, and finds there's been a change in management, not for the better.  Her husband and two other residents have disappeared, and the new staff couldn't care less. Zoe is torn between trying to locate her missing husband and stopping a serial killer, and the stress is tremendous. To add insult to injury, Byron's parents blame Zoe for losing him, and are threatening to sue for the right to make medical decisions for him. Luckily she has help from her partner, Harry Albright, and other caring friends.  One of those individuals, private investigator Jason Foxx, would like to be more than just a friend, and Zoe finds herself considering the possibility.  She loves Byron, but knows his chances for recovery from the bullet that tore through his brain are minuscule.

The story is told from Zoe's point of view interspersed with that of the killer, and a very nasty POV that is.  Through his twisted thoughts we learn why he's targeting his specific victims, and how he gets to them: another cautionary tale for young single women in these dangerous time. The author obviously knows the quirky city of Austin well, and includes vivid descriptions that will entertain those who also know the city as well as those who don't.  She also includes interesting historical vignettes at the beginning of each chapter about Austin law officers who've died in the line of duty through the years.

This is the second in the Zoe Barrow series.  I look forward to reading more about her development as a homicide detective and as a woman trying to balance the demands of her career and her personal needs with the struggle to care for a husband she still loves, but fears is lost forever. 

White Stone Day
by John MacLachlan Gray
St. Martin's Minotaur
Hardcover, 285 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 0312282931
Reviewed by Janet Koch

Edmund Whitty has seen better times. Much better. Once upon a time, he'd been a young Victorian Englishman with a wealthy father, a loving mother, and a talented and popular older brother. Now he's a down-at-the-heels muckraking journalist who sees only dark days in his future. When a mysterious American offers him a tidy sum to expose a supposed psychic, Whitty jumps at the chance.

Whitty attends a séance led by the man he intends to expose, but in addition to the expected mirror tricks and trap doors, he is also given a shock that sends him, reeling, to the nearest pub. For if the psychic is a charlatan, how does he know so much about Whitty's dead brother?

Days later, Whitty's reputation is in shreds, a debt collector stalks him, and his lover won't give him the time of day. When a young girl's disappearance is mysteriously linked to his long-dead brother, Whitty knows he must find answers or never find peace.

White Stone Day brings to life the streets—and gutters—of Victorian England. Author John MacLachlan Gray meticulously recreates the sights and sounds and habits of the poor, the middle-class, and the gentry. Told in the present tense, White Stone Day brings home, with a slap, that your ultimate station in life is, at that time, determined by birth and that the titled can do most anything they please.

Using a multitude of well-drawn characters, Gray leads us into what seems a more innocent age, a time when children giving a man a kiss on the cheek turns no one's thoughts to pedophilia. But just below the surface of that seeming naiveté, an evil that lives and breathes. And grows. 

Shadow of Death
by Patricia Gussin
Oceanview Publishing
Hardcover, 360 pages, $22.95
ISBN: 1933515007
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

In Shadow of Death, author Patricia Gussin juxtaposes the lives of Laura Nelson, a young white woman, and the Diggs family, African-Americans living in the midst of the inner-city ghetto in Detroit, seemingly worlds apart but forever entangled with each other after one fateful night in the Fall of 1967, when Detroit was experiencing the worst civil violence ever anywhere in the US other than during the Civil War.  On that night, Laura is brutally attacked, and the aftermath of that horrific incident and Laura's decision never to reveal its secrets, forever alters both families' lives.  Ms. Gussin makes very real the atmosphere of hostility, racial unrest and poverty which pervaded the city during that period.

Laura is a first-year medical student, and her first patient, Anthony Diggs, is a young African-American man on life support, after sustaining a gunshot wound to the head during a robbery in the midst of the riots that plagued the city.  His brother, mistaking Laura for another blonde nurse who screwed up badly when Anthony was first brought into the ER, lies in wait for Laura and rapes her at knifepoint.  Fearing for her life, Laura shoots her attacker with an unregistered weapon she carries at her husband's insistence.  In her panic, she decides she has too much at stake—her career, her marriage, her two young sons—to risk anyone knowing about what happened, and decides to keep anyone from the knowledge that it even took place.  Once that decision is made there is no turning back.

The author does a masterful job of exploring these two families' lives, the one of a hardworking black woman struggling to enable her children to climb out of the difficulties facing them in a world of chaos; the other a young woman trying to balance a career she doesn't want to give up with being a "dutiful" wife and mother, when the reality of those violent times comes crashing down on her.  Laura is a very human and compelling protagonist.  Nail-biting tension and suspense drive the story to its shocking climax.  This is, surprisingly, a first novel by the author, and it is a remarkable debut.

Cold Granite
by Stuart MacBride
St. Martin's Minotaur
Hardcover, 458 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 031233995X
Reviewed by Angela McQuay

Few authors are able to turn out a well-rounded book with a thrilling plot, complex characters and excellent writing in their very first novel, but Scottish author Stuart MacBride has done just that in Cold Granite.  Set in Aberdeen, Scotland, the book follows DS (Detective Sergeant) Logan McRae, who has rejoined the Aberdeen police force after taking nearly a year off to recuperate from a near-fatal stabbing.  His first day back quickly becomes one of the worst the local police force has seen when the body of a three-year-old boy is found on the riverbanks, all signs pointing to a serial killer.  Not 24 hours later, another child goes missing and it seems that their worst fears have been confirmed.

McRae teams up with the attractive officer Jackie Watson to investigate the crimes, but his efforts are continually undermined by a leak in the office as the case's latest developments keep appearing in the local newspaper.  Will McRae be able to find the killer—and the leak—before more children go missing?

Cold Granite is a fast-paced thriller that rarely lags in the excitement department.  With new developments in nearly every chapter, the pace is lightning-fast and will keep you turning the pages.  Not only is the plot exciting, but it's also well thought out and complex, with plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing.  The writing crackles with energy and contains just the right amount of atmospheric elements and humorous dialogue to make it a well-rounded mystery with the perfect balance of light and dark.  

Character development is also one of MacBride's strengths.  DS Logan McRae is a deep character who is well developed and, though he has plenty of faults, comes across as strong and heroic.  The supporting characters are also well-written and rarely fall into the dreaded cardboard category.  Readers will find themselves respecting and admiring many of the characters, making the plot even more thrilling.

Stuart MacBride has written an excellent first novel, full of deep characters, plot twists and fine writing.  Readers will find themselves finishing Cold Granite quickly and waiting for MacBride's next offering.

 

Dead Before Dying
by Deon Meyer
Little, Brown and Company
Hardcover, 342 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 0316000132
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

Tormented by his wife's death, overweight, Captain Mat Joubert smokes too much and lives under a cloud of ennui in an ever-sinking plunge toward self-destruction.  He is one of two Captains in the South African Police Service Murder and Robbery Squad when a new superior, obviously politically appointed because of his past role in the African National Congress, puts the screws to Joubert.  He lays the law down—lose weight, see a psychologist and shape up or ship out.

Fighting for his personal and professional life, Joubert is confronted by two unusual and complicated cases.  First is a series of armed robberies of the branches of a single bank.  Second is what appears to be a serial killer. Each of the victims appears to have no relationship to each other at first, until Joubert begins to unravel the mystery. As Joubert muddles his way through the two cases and his own personal turmoil, he attempts to solve his problems, at the heart of which is the death of his wife two years before in the line of duty.

The suspense mounts is this masterfully created novel, climaxing in such an unexpected conclusion that this reader can only admire the author even more than he did when finishing Dead at Daybreak and Heart of the Hunter.  Run—don't walk—and get a copy of this novel.

One Cold Night
by Kate Pepper
Onyx
Paperback, 309 pages, $6.99
ISBN: 0451412141
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

A sense of impending menace is present early in One Cold Night, the third book by Kate Pepper, which suddenly escalates when Lisa, the 14-year old "sister" of Susan and her husband, NYPD Detective Dave Strauss, disappears one cold night in October. The event is eerily reminiscent of the one case Dave never solved, one year earlier, when another teenage girl went missing. That case has continued to haunt Dave, and this much more personal event is made that much more ominous by the parallels to the earlier one. The impact of a long-kept secret reverberates among Lisa, Susan and Dave, and compounds the shock of Lisa's disappearance.  The novel is tightly plotted and fast-reading, with some pulse-pounding suspense as it appears that both girls may have fallen victim to the same psychopath with many parallel connections between the two.  Susan is a very human and sympathetic protagonist, and the other characters are also well-drawn, down to the two detectives in charge of the case, Lupe Ramos and Alexei Bruno, both very quirky but professional and efficient as they go about their work in a race against time.

There are references to faith, or the lack thereof, which didn't ring entirely true to this reader, and some small sections seemed to me to be overwritten, particularly the epilogue which I felt for the most part was unnecessary and drew the book out to an uncomfortable degree.  That aside, One Cold Night was a quick and suspense-filled read, and an enjoyable one.

Moving is Murder
by Sara Rosett
Kensington
Hardcover, 264 pages, $22
ISBN: 0758213360
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

Ellie Avery is an Air Force wife and a new Mom.  Having moved four times in five years, she has it down to a relative science.  Her new neighborhood turns out to be known as Base Housing East—although not on the base itself, it might as well be, as nearly all those in the area are on her husband Mitch's squad.  And among them is a murderer.

One of her new neighbors, the wife of a squad member of course, is found dead, the death due to anaphylactic shock after being stung by one or more wasps, and apparently just a tragic but innocent occurrence.  But when two others die, there seems to be something more sinister at play.  Ellie is a very efficient and organized woman, but this time it gets her in trouble—she feels compelled to try to get to the bottom of whatever is happening to those around her.

Moving is Murder is the first of the Mom Zone Mysteries planned by Sara Rosett, and the series should be a good one.  She brings the world of Air Force wives and new motherhood to life, and there are plenty of suspects to keep the reader guessing.  Ellie finds herself a reluctant pet owner as well, and the scenes with the dog, whose owner was the first victim, are among the most entertaining parts of this debut novel.  Also included are Everything in Its Place Tips for an Organized Move, placed at the end of several chapters, which I at first felt were distracting till I realized I could just go back to them after reading the book.

 

Murder By Committee

Read past installments and find out more about Murder By Committee

Chapter 24
by Eleanor Sullivan

Eleanor Sullivan, RN, PhD, is the author of a mystery series (Twice Dead, Deadly Diversion, Assumed Dead) featuring nurse sleuth Monika Everhardt. A former dean of nursing at the University of Kansas, Eleanor currently serves on the national Board of Directors of Sisters in Crime.

"First time we let outsider in."  Miguel unfastened his seat belt and motioned for me to do the same.  "Except Father Joe, of course," he added as we stepped down onto the grass.  Lush green jungle surrounded the narrow parallel lines dug in the dirt that served as a landing strip.

"Father Joe?  Who is he?  Your priest?" 

Miguel gave me another enigmatic smile and with a wave signaled that I was to follow him.  We entered an opening in the dense foliage that I hadn't realized was there.  Miguel stepped silently onto what was barely a path, only a narrow trail of crushed undergrowth.  Overhead birds scattered, squawking at our invasion.  The scent of decaying vegetation lent a pungent, but not unpleasant, air to our passage.

Miguel stopped suddenly, put his finger to his lips in the time-honored gesture of silence.

I couldn't hear anything.

"Is okay," he said finally, starting up again.

Slogging through the jungle, my thoughts were as tangled as the vines we pushed through.  "Why am I here?" I asked him.

"Why are any of us here?" he shot back, lifting a vine for me to crawl under.

"Why do you answer my question with a question?"  The vine whipped around behind us and the trail disappeared. 

"Why do you?"  Another smile.

"How did you know where I was?" I persisted.

He tapped his head.  "That's our secret.  It was until that, that, man," he spit out the words.  "Tried to take from us."

"What?  What did he want?"        

Miguel pulled down the waistband of his pants.

"Whoa, there.  Stop right now, mister, I don't—"

He slipped a computer chip out from the waistband.  "This," he said, "this is what they wanted."

I pulled the matching chip from inside my bra.  "Like this one?"

He smiled a gap-toothed smile.  "They need both of them."  He shrugged.  "One without the other is..."  His voice trailed off.

I stared at the chip in my hand.  "What's on it?"

"Secrets, secrets," he whispered.

"So what is it?  The secret to eternal life?" 

"I take you to our leader."

I gave up.  I was safe so far, or so I thought, and I certainly couldn't get out on my own.  Even if I could find the way back to my plane, I had seen the fuel gauge hovering a bit above empty.  How far would I get?  And where was the nearest land?

Miguel stopped suddenly and turned to me, his face lit up in a broad smile.  "Now you see!"  He spread the foliage aside and bowed me through.

A village of palm-covered huts spread in a semi-circle in front of us around a center well where a wooden bucket hung suspended.  The ground had been swept clear of debris with a pronged tool that had left indented rows in the packed brown earth.

Miguel clapped his hands and villagers appeared from inside huts and from the surrounding jungle, smiling and exclaiming in a language that sounded similar to, but wasn't, Spanish.

A black-robed priest emerged from a hut near the back.  Tall, slender almost to the point of being emaciated, the man smiled, the planes of his cheekbones stark against his dark skin.  Reaching us, he clasped Miguel in a welcoming hug and turned to me.  He clasped long fingers together prayer like and bowed. 

"We are honored," he said, his English perfect.  "I am Father Joe."

"Where am I?  Who are these people?"

"All in good time.  Come with me and I'll tell you everything."

Again I had the feeling that this man and these people could be trusted.  Sure he was dressed as a priest and who knew what religious practices these Mayans might conjure up.  I had read about them.  Human sacrifices were common; they often cut out a living person's heart while it was still beating.  But I felt none of the fear, though, I should feel.

When we were seated on straw mats inside his hut and a woman had brought steaming mugs of tea to Miguel and I, Father Joe began.  "I came here after seminary.  I'm a Jesuit," he added with a smile.

I knew about Jesuits; my uncle had been one.  Questioning, always questioning, that was Uncle Ralph.

"I came to teach them but what happened is, they taught me."

"Taught you what?  Tell me what's going on or I'm leaving!" I demanded, starting to stand.  Patience wasn't one of my virtues.

"Sit, sit.  It's not easy to understand."  He rearranged himself on his mat.  "Do you know where our spirits come from?" 

"No one knows that."  Was this guy fooling these people?

"All I did was record their process, how they do it."

"And... how do they do it?  Or whatever it is."

"Have you ever meditated?"

Were all these people crazy?

"I'm not crazy and, yes, I can tell what you're thinking."

Body language, facial expressions, that's how he did it. 

He smiled but I stopped him before he told me my thoughts.  "So tell me, tell me how they do it." This day had been so crazy I was either hallucinating or these people really did know how to read minds.

"It's not that difficult, actually.  It's more a matter of listening."

"Listening to what?  The whole world?" I couldn't keep myself from asking.

"To the collective unconscious."

"Huh?"

"These people can tap into the collective unconscious, that place where all our minds coalesce."

"You're kidding me."

"The secret is selective listening," he said, ignoring my comment.  "How do you think they knew you were their hero?"

"Okay, let's say you're right, these people can listen to, uh, others."

"Far away."

"How did they know to 'listen' to me?"  That ought to put him back a bit, I thought, shifting on the mat.  My right foot had gone to sleep.

"The chip tells it all.  The one you have nestled in your, ah, clothing.  That's what they're after, Halsworth and his guys."

Rumbling sounded in the distance.

"Do you have any idea the mind control these people could have if they get hold of both chips?" Father Joe asked. 

The whomp, whomp of a helicopter sounded close at hand.

I jumped up and stared at the men.  "What should we do?"