R.E. Donald's Blog, page 3
April 27, 2014
R. E. Donald: The Highway Mysteries and Hunter Rayne
Thanks to Marni Graff for allowing me to guest on her blog while she’s away!
Originally posted on Auntiemwrites-Mystery Author M K Graff :
Auntie M is at the Day of the Book in Kensington, MD today. Please drop by the Bridle Path Press table to say hello if you are in the area. In my absence, welcome R. E. Donald, who shares the story of her Highway Mystery Series.
A Hero in the Slow Lane
If you don’t personally know a trucker, this might come as a surprise: truck drivers are as diverse and disparate a group of individuals as the general population. Some are happy-go-lucky and chatty, some are crude and unkind, some are well-educated and eccentric, some are cowardly and mean, some are messy and good-natured – I could go on.
An assorted group of former truck drivers, for example, are Elvis Presley, Liam Neeson, Charles Bronson, Sean Connery and Richard Pryor. The long-haul driver I write about in the Highway Mysteries, Hunter Rayne, is a hero, in his own polite…
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February 20, 2014
The Highway Mysteries
The Highway Mysteries have introduced a unique new character for mystery lovers, especially fans of the ‘whodunit’. The hero, Hunter Rayne, is a retired homicide detective who left a successful career with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to become a long-haul truck driver. Why a man would do that is a mystery in itself, but it’s no mystery that his sense of justice compels him to help solve crimes that affect people he cares about.
In a genre that already has plenty of tough-talking North American homicide cops, brilliant Scotland Yard detectives and smart aleck private eyes, this polite and low-key Canadian truck driver has a niche all to himself. He has adopted a solitary profession by choice, is struggling to pay the bills just like the rest of us, and isn’t very good at personal relationships, but when it comes to solving murders, he’s a smart and seasoned detective.
Write what you know, they say. By 1994 I’d spent around twenty years working in the transportation industry. My husband had once done undercover work for the police and had used a truck driver as his cover. Truck drivers can show up just about anywhere without raising suspicion, and they aren’t limited to one geographical area. All of these factors combined to make a long-haul trucker the hero of choice for my mystery series.
As much as Hunter Rayne tries to keep his new life simple and uncomplicated, circumstances, with the help of his boss, Elspeth Watson, conspire to get him involved in murder investigations even in his civilian life. As a boy, his heroes were cowboy crusaders like Roy Rogers and the Lone Ranger, and he just can’t seem to let go of what motivated him to become a law officer in the first place, that need to see the guilty party captured and justice done.
The Highway Mysteries aren’t thrillers or full of heart pounding suspense, but they will keep you guessing. The second novel in the series, Ice on the Grapevine was a finalist for the 2012 Global Ebook Award in Mystery Fiction. The novels are available in both print and digital editions. They’re available online from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other sites, or from Proud Horse Publishing, or you can ask your local bookstore to order them. Just quote the ISBN numbers.
This is what readers have been saying:
“Those were the best mysteries I’ve read in a long time!! As soon as I finished the first one I bought the second and felt empty when I finished it! The characters were awesome and so there that I somehow think they are in my life and I should be bumping into them at IGA or Gibson’s Building Supplies!” Judi H., Roberts Creek, B.C.
“… this book caught my attention from the very first pages and it only got better. …I recommend this book to anyone who has a love for a good mystery. I usually figure out who the guilty party is when I read a book but this time it was a surprise. I think that Hunter Rayne would make a great TV detective, driving around the country in his rig visiting different states and helping to solve crimes. He is that interesting of a character.” See full PRG review of Ice on the Grapevine by Linda Tonis.
“The Hero to me is the heart of the story and having only just discovered a second book in this series I’m anxious to read more.” See reviews for Slow Curve on the Coquihalla on Amazon.
“The dialogue is well written and smooth and without giving away any spoilers there are well thought out and believable twists. The pacing is good and the lead characters are likable, flaws and all, and though I haven’t read the first book in the series I now want to and look forward to reading more in the future.
I highly recommend Ice On The Grapevine as a good read and a solid example of good writing. Plus, and this is probably most important, it is a fun ride.” See Goodreads review.
“Great trucking detail, hardboiled characters, no-nonsense dialogue, and a surprise ending.”
“One of the fine traditional mysteries that keep who-done-it on everyone’s favorite reading lists.”
“Whodunit addicts will not be disappointed.”
See full reviews for Ice on the Grapevine on Amazon.
_______________________________________________________________
The first mystery in the series is Slow Curve on the Coquihalla. When a well respected truck driver, the owner of a family trucking business, is found dead in his truck down a steep embankment along the mountainous Coquihalla highway in British Columbia, his distraught daughter wants to know how and why his truck left the road on an easy uphill curve. Her resemblance to his own daughter compels Hunter Rayne, a fellow trucker and former homicide detective, to help her find answers.
As he uncovers signs of illegal cross border activity originating in a Seattle warehouse, Hunter recruits an old friend, an outlaw biker, to infiltrate what appears to be an international smuggling ring. But while Hunter follows up clues and waits for critical information from his old friend, the wily biker starts to play his own angles.
Finally, putting all the pieces together, there in the dark on the same uphill curve on the Coquihalla highway, Hunter risks it all to confront the murderer.
The ISBN for Slow Curve on the Coquihalla is 978-0-9881118-06.
The second mystery in the series, the one shortlisted for the 2012 Global Ebook Award in mysteries, is Ice on the Grapevine. The story opens on a July morning with the discovery of a frozen corpse at a brake check just south of the Grapevine Pass in L.A. County. Hunter, who is in southern California making a delivery, is persuaded by his irascible dispatcher, Elspeth Watson, to help clear two fellow truck drivers who are arrested for the murder. His job is made more difficult by the fact that the suspects, a newlywed couple, won’t speak up in their own defence.
The circumstantial evidence is strong, and a rookie detective from the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department is eager to score a win. The investigation crosses the Canada-U.S. border when the victim is identified as a second rate musician from Vancouver, and it turns out there were more than a few desperate people happy to see him dead, including the accused couple. Hunter has to use all his investigative skills to uncover the truth.
The ISBN for Ice on the Grapevine is 978-0-9881118-13.
During what was supposed to be a few days of skiing at the Whistler Mountain resort with an attractive female acquaintance, former homicide detective Hunter Rayne finds himself the prime suspect in the RCMP’s hunt for “The Chairlift Killer”. Hunter has no choice but to get involved in the investigation in order to clear his name.
Meanwhile, trucker Hunter was scheduled to haul a load of freight to Northern California, so he calls up his old friend, biker Dan Sorenson, to take his place behind the wheel. What connects the badass biker from Yreka, California to the most prolific female serial killer in US history? And what happens when dispatcher El Watson ignores Hunter’s warning and sends the biker on a search for clues to the motive behind the murder?
The ISBN for Sea to Sky (print edition) is 978-0-9881118-20.
The fourth novel in the series is titled Sundown on Top of the World and is scheduled for release in the summer of 2014. I hope you enjoy reading about my truck driver hero as much as I enjoy writing about him!
Like my page on Facebook or follow @RuthEDonald on Twitter for updates.
February 2, 2014
18 Wheels & Heels: Women in Trucking
I am honored and delighted to be featured in the February 2014 issue of 18 Wheels & Heels, a magazine for women in the trucking industry. They first contacted me on Twitter (@RuthEDonald) to ask whether I would be interested in having them feature me and my Highway Mysteries series, and of course I replied with an enthusiastic Yes! They’ve listed my three mysteries in their “Book It List” of good reads for their subscribers as well.
Here’s a .pdf of the interview. (I’d link directly to the pages in the magazine, but I had trouble viewing it on my own computer, although it did work on an iPad.)
The role that women play in the trucking industry has obviously continued to evolve since the time period that the Highway Mysteries are set in (the 1990s). Most of us have seen a few hot pink or purple trucks on the road, with the drivers joyfully flaunting their femininity. Others downplay their gender in order to avoid harassment by their male counterparts; gender discrimination can still be a problem for women in the male-dominated industry. There are a few books out by women trucker drivers chronicling their years in the industry, among them Trucking in English by Carolyn Steele. I liked reading about her adventures, and could relate to much of what she experienced.
I enjoyed my years working in the transportation industry, and am happy that I can put my experience to good use in the Highway Mysteries series. I’m also glad to have endorsements from readers that also work in the industry, as I try very hard to make sure my settings and situations are authentic. Last year, two of my books were also reviewed and described as “recommended reads” by a trucking publication in the United Kingdom, Truck and Driver magazine. (Ice on the Grapevine and Slow Curve on the Coquihalla) I was delighted to hear from some new fans in England who had purchased my books on their recommendation.
The central plot of each novel is, of course, a murder mystery, but my stories are driven by the characters in them. Those characters are real to me, and you can meet people like them working in service industries (including trucking and law enforcement) almost everywhere in North America. They have flaws, insecurities, hopes and dreams; they have fears and triumphs, loves and losses, foibles and indulgences. They are ordinary people, and like all “ordinary” people, they are unique. They are my friends, and I hope they will become your friends, too.
October 7, 2013
Murder mystery set on the “Highway Thru Hell”
Massive, magnificent, and dangerous. Many of us who regularly travel the Coquihalla highway can remember the year it opened, and the first time we drove those long, steep climbs and descents through the Coast Mountains. Our first views from near the summit were breathtaking. As long as you had a good vehicle and the weather was fair, it was a faster and easier trip from the town of Hope to BC’s Interior than the narrow and winding Fraser Canyon route of Highway 1. It was a magnificent addition to BC’s highway system just in time for Vancouver’s Expo ’86. (You might enjoy this video from the Vancouver Archives about the construction of the Coquihalla.)
It’s no wonder that when I began to plan my first novel in 1994, I chose to have the murder take place along what Discovery channel is now calling the “Highway Thru Hell” in their new reality series. In my frequent trips up the highway that summer with my late husband, I picked out a spot where an 18-wheeler could go off the road and not be seen for days at a time. It also had to be a spot where an accident was not likely to happen. When I found a perfect spot, not very far south of Merritt, SLOW CURVE ON THE COQUIHALLA was born.
In the intervening years, the layout along that stretch of highway has changed, but the highway itself remains dangerous and spectacular. I drove it again just last month, and like every time, I marvel at the magnificent snowshed and at the incredible rocky slopes of Zopkios peak.
Zopkios Ridge from the Coquihalla highway
If you like to read, especially if you like to read mystery novels, check out the first novel in the Hunter Rayne highway mystery series. Hunter Rayne is a former homicide detective who has chosen to make long haul trucking his second career. He feels that the solitude of life on the road will help him to heal from two events that devastated his personal life before he resigned from the RCMP. His crusty dispatcher, Elspeth Watson, tries to keep Hunter and his navy blue Freightliner busy, and sometimes persuades him to get involved in murder investigations.
Links to where you can purchase both digital and print editions of the Hunter Rayne highway mysteries are at Proud Horse Publishing, or ask your local bookstore or library to order it by giving them the ISBN 978-0-9881118-06.
September 10, 2013
An Eagle’s Kiss: the story of Jeff Guidry and Freedom
(This is not my story. It has been circulating via email for several years but when I went searching for its original site to share on Facebook – it is a story worth sharing! – I couldn’t find one, so I’ve reprinted it here and added links to some related videos, etc. )
Freedom and Jeff
“Freedom and I have been together 11 years this summer. She came in as a baby in 1998 with two broken wings. Her left wing doesn’t open all the way even after surgery, it was broken in four places. She’s my baby.
When Freedom came in she could not stand and both wings were broken. She was emaciated and covered in lice. We made the decision to give her a chance at life, so I took her to the vet’s office. From then on, I was always around her. We had her in a huge dog carrier with the top off, and it was loaded up with shredded newspaper for her to lay in. I used to sit and talk to her, urging her to live, to fight; and she would lay there looking at me with those big brown eyes. We also had to tube feed her for weeks.
This went on for 4-6 weeks, and by then she still couldn’t stand. It got to the point where the decision was made to euthanize her if she couldn’t stand in a week and the eagle rehabilitation failed.
You know you don’t want to cross that line between torture and eagle rehabilitation, and it looked like death was winning. She was going to be put down that Friday, and I was supposed to come in on that Thursday afternoon. I didn’t want to go to the center that Thursday, because I couldn’t bear the thought of her being euthanized; but I went anyway, and when I walked in everyone was grinning from ear to ear.
I went immediately back to her cage; and there she was, standing on her own, a big beautiful eagle. She was ready to live. I was just about in tears by then. That was a very good day.
We knew she could never fly, so the director asked me to glove train her. I got her used to the glove, and then to jesses, and we started doing education programs for schools in western Washington. We wound up in the newspapers, radio (believe it or not) and some TV. Miracle Pets even did a show about us.
In the spring of 2000, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. I had stage 3, which is not good (one major organ plus everywhere), so I wound up doing 8 months of chemo. Lost the hair – the whole bit. I missed a lot of work. When I felt good enough, I would go to Sarvey and take Freedom out for walks. Freedom would also come to me in my dreams and help me fight the cancer. This happened time and time again.
Fast forward to November 2000 the day after Thanksgiving, I went in for my last checkup. I was told that if the cancer was not all gone after 8 rounds of chemo, then my last option was a stem cell transplant. Anyway, they did the tests; and I had to come back Monday for the results. I went in Monday, and I was told that all the cancer was gone.
So, the first thing I did was get up to Sarvey and take the big girl out for a walk. It was misty and cold. I went to her flight and jessed her up, and we went out front to the top of the hill. I hadn’t said a word to Freedom, but somehow she knew. She looked at me and wrapped both her wings around me to where I could feel them pressing in on my back (I was engulfed in eagle wings), and she touched my nose with her beak and stared into my eyes, and we just stood there like that for I don’t know how long. That was a magic moment. We have been soul mates ever since she came in. This is a very special bird.
On a side note: I have had people who were sick come up to us when we are out, and Freedom has some kind of hold on them. I once had a guy who was terminal come up to us and I let him hold her. His knees just about buckled and he swore he could feel her power course through his body. I have so many stories like that..
I never forget the honor I have of being so close to such a magnificent spirit as Freedom.
________________________________________________
Links with more on Freedom and Jeff:
Snopes’ verfication of the story with additional links. (Includes a little information about Jeff Guidry himself.)
*****
*****
A longer video of one of Jeff’s presentations:
*****
June 27, 2013
Hooked on Crime
Ever since I can remember, I’ve loved books. It’s hard to pinpoint just when murder 
became the main ingredient of my favorite reads. No doubt I cut my literary teeth on Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. I can’t remember how discriminating I was in my childhood, but I must have liked books with horses and concussions, because that’s what I remember about my first attempt at writing a novel when I was twelve. The heroine – loosely based on my young self, I suppose, although I had never had a horse or a concussion – was continually being thrown from her horse and losing consciousness in her quest to chase (or was it escape from?) a bad guy.
Once I entered the senior years of high school, I became a book snob. It was classics or nothing, and my preference was for European classics: Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Victor Hugo, Jean Paul Sartre and Thomas Mann are among those that come to mind. (I can recall throwing a Harold Robbins paperback across the room in disgust.) I also let myself read American writers like Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Bellow, plus the occasional Michener historical saga. Except…
Except when I was on summer vacation at my Uncle’s lakeside cabin, when I would raid his bookshelves for the works of John D. MacDonald, Agatha Christie, Rex Stout, Dick Francis and Ngaio Marsh, among others. Then it was on to university, my first marriage and some dark days – years actually - in my life, from which I emerged still scorning contemporary crime writers in favor of Penguin classics. My second husband, a charming and brilliant rogue, but a rogue nonetheless, got me back into reading modern novels and I quickly found myself hooked on crime.
My preference soon became mystery series, harking back to my earlier enjoyment of the Travis McGee and Nero Wolfe mystery series. That was reinforced by TV series like Perry Mason, Columbo and Murder She Wrote, followed by the original Law and Order. I shared books with my father, and sometimes others in the family, and our collective tastes ran from The Cat Who series by Lillian Jackson Braun to the Richard Jury series by Martha Grimes and the Thomas Lynley series by Elizabeth George. More recently – which may not be terribly recent by most standards - Michael Connelly and John Lescroart have become my favorite authors, and I now prefer to watch true crime like Dateline and 48 Hours on television.
So what’s my point?
Why would a law-abiding pacifist who even apologizes to flies and mosquitoes when she is forced to kill them (in self defense, of course) be so fascinated by crime? I know I’m only one of millions with the same fascination. Why, when we hate to witness actual violence, or even read about it, do we love books and shows about murder? I’m no psychologist, but I’ve often pondered the question, and it seems to me that it gives us comfort to see the perpetrators of crime found out and put away so they won’t be able to harm innocent people. We want to be able to figure out who did the evil deed and see them brought to justice, and that lets us feel a little more in control of the scary world around us.
Whatever the reason, even though I stray back to classics and will even venture to read a contemporary ‘literary’ novel now and then, I am and will no doubt remain, firmly hooked on crime.
* * * * * *
If anyone is interested in sampling my fiction writing on their e-reader, I’m offering a free short story on Kobo, Smashwords and most major ebook retailers (except Amazon, where I can’t make it less than 99 cents). It’s called Joggers and features Elspeth Watson, one of the main characters in my Highway Mystery series. The three novels in the series are available in both digital and print editions. More information about the series at Proud Horse Publishing.
I also have a Giveaway listed on Goodreads for my most recent Highway Mystery (the third in the series). It’s set mainly in Whistler, BC, and has been described in one review as “…well written, entertaining and cleverly enough plotted to keep the reader guessing.”
Enjoy!
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Sea to Sky
by R.E. Donald
Giveaway ends July 31, 2013.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
December 29, 2012
Sea to Sky, a new Hunter Rayne highway mystery
A dead man rides a chairlift on Whistler Mountain, and it doesn’t take long for the press to label the murderer “The Chairlift Killer”. Former homicide detective Hunter Rayne drove the Sea to Sky highway to Whistler’s ski resort for what was supposed to be a pleasant weekend of skiing with an attractive female acquaintance. Instead, he finds himself at the top of the suspect list, and has no choice but to get involved in the investigation in order to clear his name.
While he’s busy in Whistler, trucker Hunter is forced to hire his biker friend, Dan Sorenson, to take his place behind the wheel. What connects the badass biker from Yreka, California to the most prolific female serial killer in US history? And what happens when Hunter’s dispatcher El Watson gets the biker involved in the murder investigation?
In the midst of the investigation, Hunter’s life becomes complicated when the progress of a new relationship is arrested by the appearance of a woman from his troubled past.
Sea to Sky is the third novel in the Hunter Rayne highway mystery series. It’s now available in digital format on Amazon, and will be released through other ebook retailers and in a print edition at the end of March 2013.
December 12, 2012
The Hunter Rayne Highway Mysteries
The Highway Mysteries have introduced a unique new character for mystery lovers, especially fans of the ‘whodunit’. The hero, Hunter Rayne, is a retired homicide detective who left a successful career with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to become a long-haul truck driver. Why a man would do that is a mystery in itself, but it’s no mystery that his sense of justice compels him to help solve crimes that affect people he cares about.
In a genre that already has plenty of tough-talking North American homicide cops, brilliant Scotland Yard detectives and smart aleck private eyes, this polite and low-key Canadian truck driver has a niche all to himself. He has adopted a solitary profession by choice, is struggling to pay the bills just like the rest of us, and isn’t very good at personal relationships, but when it comes to solving murders, he’s a smart and seasoned detective.
Write what you know, they say. By 1994 I’d spent around twenty years working in the transportation industry. My husband had once done undercover work for the police and had used a truck driver as his cover. Truck drivers can show up just about anywhere without raising suspicion, and they aren’t limited to one geographical area. All of these factors combined to make a long-haul trucker the hero of choice for my mystery series.
As much as Hunter Rayne tries to keep his new life simple and uncomplicated, circumstances, with the help of his boss, Elspeth Watson, conspire to get him involved in murder investigations even in his civilian life. As a boy, his heroes were cowboy crusaders like Roy Rogers and the Lone Ranger, and he just can’t seem to let go of what motivated him to become a law officer in the first place, that need to see the guilty party captured and justice done.
The Highway Mysteries aren’t thrillers or full of heart pounding suspense, but they will keep you guessing. The second novel in the series, Ice on the Grapevine was a finalist for the 2012 Global Ebook Award in Mystery Fiction. The novels are available in both print and digital editions. They’re available online from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other sites, or from Proud Horse Publishing, or you can ask your local bookstore to order them. Just quote the ISBN numbers.
This is what readers have been saying:
“Those were the best mysteries I’ve read in a long time!! As soon as I finished the first one I bought the second and felt empty when I finished it! The characters were awesome and so there that I somehow think they are in my life and I should be bumping into them at IGA or Gibson’s Building Supplies!” Judi H., Roberts Creek, B.C.
“… this book caught my attention from the very first pages and it only got better. …I recommend this book to anyone who has a love for a good mystery. I usually figure out who the guilty party is when I read a book but this time it was a surprise. I think that Hunter Rayne would make a great TV detective, driving around the country in his rig visiting different states and helping to solve crimes. He is that interesting of a character.” See full PRG review of Ice on the Grapevine by Linda Tonis.
“The Hero to me is the heart of the story and having only just discovered a second book in this series I’m anxious to read more.” See reviews for Slow Curve on the Coquihalla on Amazon.
“The dialogue is well written and smooth and without giving away any spoilers there are well thought out and believable twists. The pacing is good and the lead characters are likable, flaws and all, and though I haven’t read the first book in the series I now want to and look forward to reading more in the future.
I highly recommend Ice On The Grapevine as a good read and a solid example of good writing. Plus, and this is probably most important, it is a fun ride.” See Goodreads review.
“Great trucking detail, hardboiled characters, no-nonsense dialogue, and a surprise ending.”
“One of the fine traditional mysteries that keep who-done-it on everyone’s favorite reading lists.”
“Whodunit addicts will not be disappointed.”
See full reviews for Ice on the Grapevine on Amazon.
_______________________________________________________________
The first mystery in the series is Slow Curve on the Coquihalla. When a well respected truck driver, the owner of a family trucking business, is found dead in his truck down a steep embankment along the mountainous Coquihalla highway in British Columbia, his distraught daughter wants to know how and why his truck left the road on an easy uphill curve. Her resemblance to his own daughter compels Hunter Rayne, a fellow trucker and former homicide detective, to help her find answers.
As he uncovers signs of illegal cross border activity originating in a Seattle warehouse, Hunter recruits an old friend, an outlaw biker, to infiltrate what appears to be an international smuggling ring. But while Hunter follows up clues and waits for critical information from his old friend, the wily biker starts to play his own angles.
Finally, putting all the pieces together, there in the dark on the same uphill curve on the Coquihalla highway, Hunter risks it all to confront the murderer.
The ISBN for Slow Curve on the Coquihalla is 978-0-9881118-06.
The second mystery in the series, the one shortlisted for the 2012 Global Ebook Award in mysteries, is Ice on the Grapevine. The story opens on a July morning with the discovery of a frozen corpse at a brake check just south of the Grapevine Pass in L.A. County. Hunter, who is in southern California making a delivery, is persuaded by his irascible dispatcher, Elspeth Watson, to help clear two fellow truck drivers who are arrested for the murder. His job is made more difficult by the fact that the suspects, a newlywed couple, won’t speak up in their own defence.
The circumstantial evidence is strong, and a rookie detective from the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department is eager to score a win. The investigation crosses the Canada-U.S. border when the victim is identified as a second rate musician from Vancouver, and it turns out there were more than a few desperate people happy to see him dead, including the accused couple. Hunter has to use all his investigative skills to uncover the truth.
The ISBN for Ice on the Grapevine is 978-0-9881118-13.
I’m working on the third novel in the series, which will be set primarily in the resort community of Whistler, B.C., which was the location of the 2010 Winter Olympic games.
I hope you enjoy reading about my truck driver hero as much as I enjoy writing about him!
October 29, 2012
The Hunter Rayne Highway Mysteries
The Highway Mysteries have introduced a unique new character for mystery lovers, especially fans of the ‘whodunit’. The hero, Hunter Rayne, is a retired homicide detective who left a successful career with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to become a long-haul truck driver. Why a man would do that is a mystery in itself, but it’s no mystery that his sense of justice compels him to help solve crimes that affect people he cares about.
In a genre that already has plenty of tough-talking North American homicide cops, brilliant Scotland Yard detectives and smart aleck private eyes, this polite and low-key Canadian truck driver has a niche all to himself. He has adopted a solitary profession by choice, is struggling to pay the bills just like the rest of us, and isn’t very good at personal relationships, but when it comes to solving murders, he’s a smart and seasoned detective.
Write what you know, they say. By 1994 I’d spent around twenty years working in the transportation industry. My husband had once done undercover work for the police and had used a truck driver as his cover. Truck drivers can show up just about anywhere without raising suspicion, and they aren’t limited to one geographical area. All of these factors combined to make a long-haul trucker the hero of choice for my mystery series.
As much as Hunter Rayne tries to keep his new life simple and uncomplicated, circumstances, with the help of his boss, Elspeth Watson, conspire to get him involved in murder investigations even in his civilian life. As a boy, his heroes were cowboy crusaders like Roy Rogers and the Lone Ranger, and he just can’t seem to let go of what motivated him to become a law officer in the first place, that need to see the guilty party captured and justice done.
The Highway Mysteries aren’t thrillers or full of heart pounding suspense, but they will keep you guessing. The second novel in the series, Ice on the Grapevine was a finalist for the 2012 Global Ebook Award in Mystery Fiction. The novels are available in both print and digital editions. They’re available online from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other sites, or from Proud Horse Publishing, or you can ask your local bookstore to order them. Just quote the ISBN numbers.
This is what readers have been saying:
“Those were the best mysteries I’ve read in a long time!! As soon as I finished the first one I bought the second and felt empty when I finished it! The characters were awesome and so there that I somehow think they are in my life and I should be bumping into them at IGA or Gibson’s Building Supplies!” Judi H., Roberts Creek, B.C.
“… this book caught my attention from the very first pages and it only got better. …I recommend this book to anyone who has a love for a good mystery. I usually figure out who the guilty party is when I read a book but this time it was a surprise. I think that Hunter Rayne would make a great TV detective, driving around the country in his rig visiting different states and helping to solve crimes. He is that interesting of a character.” See full PRG review of Ice on the Grapevine by Linda Tonis.
“The Hero to me is the heart of the story and having only just discovered a second book in this series I’m anxious to read more.” See reviews for Slow Curve on the Coquihalla on Amazon.
“Great trucking detail, hardboiled characters, no-nonsense dialogue, and a surprise ending.”
“One of the fine traditional mysteries that keep who-done-it on everyone’s favorite reading lists.”
“Whodunit addicts will not be disappointed.”
See full reviews for Ice on the Grapevine on Amazon.
_______________________________________________________________
The first mystery in the series is Slow Curve on the Coquihalla. When a well respected truck driver, the owner of a family trucking business, is found dead in his truck down a steep embankment along the mountainous Coquihalla highway in British Columbia, his distraught daughter wants to know how and why his truck left the road on an easy uphill curve. Her resemblance to his own daughter compels Hunter Rayne, a fellow trucker and former homicide detective, to help her find answers.
As he uncovers signs of illegal cross border activity originating in a Seattle warehouse, Hunter recruits an old friend, an outlaw biker, to infiltrate what appears to be an international smuggling ring. But while Hunter follows up clues and waits for critical information from his old friend, the wily biker starts to play his own angles.
Finally, putting all the pieces together, there in the dark on the same uphill curve on the Coquihalla highway, Hunter risks it all to confront the murderer.
The ISBN for Slow Curve on the Coquihalla is 978-0-9881118-06.
The second mystery in the series, the one shortlisted for the 2012 Global Ebook Award in mysteries, is Ice on the Grapevine. The story opens on a July morning with the discovery of a frozen corpse at a brake check just south of the Grapevine Pass in L.A. County. Hunter, who is in southern California making a delivery, is persuaded by his irascible dispatcher, Elspeth Watson, to help clear two fellow truck drivers who are arrested for the murder. His job is made more difficult by the fact that the suspects, a newlywed couple, won’t speak up in their own defence.
The circumstantial evidence is strong, and a rookie detective from the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department is eager to score a win. The investigation crosses the Canada-U.S. border when the victim is identified as a second rate musician from Vancouver, and it turns out there were more than a few desperate people happy to see him dead, including the accused couple. Hunter has to use all his investigative skills to uncover the truth.
The ISBN for Ice on the Grapevine is 978-0-9881118-13.
I’m working on the third novel in the series, which will be set primarily in the resort community of Whistler, B.C., which was the location of the 2010 Winter Olympic games.
I hope you enjoy reading about my truck driver hero as much as I enjoy writing about him!
October 23, 2012
Memorable first lines of mystery novels – what’s your favorite?
As a reader, you love a book that grabs your interest from the first line and doesn’t let go. We’ve all seen the classic first lines from classic novels, like Dickens’ ”It was the best of times; it was the worst of times” or “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
But I read – and write – mysteries. There’s nothing like a good mystery to pique my interest. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a master at creating great first lines for his stories, lines that introduce a mystery and make you want to read on. Here is one I consider his best.
To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. A Scandal in Bohemia
Here are a few more opening sentences I found interesting:
The lady was extraordinarily naked. Eight Black Horses by Ed McBain
Theodore is in the ground. The Alienist by Caleb Carr
“What in the world, Wimsey, are you doing in this Morgue?” The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers
How about you? Submit some of your favorites below, and be sure to include the book title and author’s name.
