5
1
Overview
The hordes of summer visitors come and go like the passing tides, but nothing much ever happens in Blue Heron Harbor, a sleepy shore town known mostly for its broad white sand beaches, quiet Saturday nights, and its egret-flocked municipal bird sanctuary. And for Mark Allen, the Assistant County Prosecutor there, life is a pleasant enough concoction of petty crimes and misdemeanors, fishing trips through the back bays, and casual relationships that drift along on the currents.
But tonight, a vicious double homicide on the beach by the town bird sanctuary brings an abrupt end to summer fun. There are no victim ids, or suspects, or witnesses at all, save Mr. Carl Rocht, a night watchman who was on duty at a nearby Coast Guard facility at the time the victims were killed. But Rocht adamantly denies hearing or seeing anything, and when it develops that Mark has met Rocht years before,interviewing him as part of an army intelligence investigation, Rocht vehemently denies it, and heatedly stomps out the interview. With little to go on except coincidence and distant memory, Allen presses Rocht for some reaction, and gets much more than ever bargained for: verbal threats, late night visits by strangers to his back dock, and finally, a knife in the ribs.
Patched up, Mark locates some old army records which confirm his memory of meeting Rocht. And in looking further, he gets help from a normal adversary, Sandy Ellerman, the newly-appointed County Public Defender, and his relationship with her crosses, in the process, from the professional to the personal. The two of them make a visit to a Chesapeake Bay marine electronics firm, and after that, the violence escalates against both of them. Moving against the backdrop of an ever-deepening, complicated relationship with Sandy, the horrific public relations fiasco that the two murders pose for a popular shore vacation resort, and several exciting, ongoing criminal trials, the tide of events conclusively turns after a late night, warrantless search of Rocht's apartment discloses software and technical drawings for a classified weapons system. But by the time the official police net closes, he and his minions are gone, and it seems the double homicide by the bird sanctuary is destined to come to an unarresting conclusion. Some sense of near-normalcy even begins to descend on Mark and Sandy's daily lives. But it is short-lived. Rocht and one of his cronies, still free, are intent on wreaking fatal vengance on Mark and Sandy for ruining their early retirement plans, and have remained in the area to do just that.
An unnamed but major character in this book is the natural setting and the wildlife of the Atlantic New Jersey coast--snowy egrets and herons, pink-tinged conch shells and two-eyed summer flounders, blue claw crabs, miles of green marshes and soft white sand beaches, the quirky characters and easy rhythms of its small towns and people, the psychic ghosts of the recent death of Mark's younger brother Rich, and golden retrievers, maybe especially golden retrievers, in particular Mark's golden retriever Thomas. And, A Sanctuary For Murder is one of three mystery-adventure novels-in-progress that feature the same cast of funny, likeable, engaging, sensual, smile-begetting characters. So please give A Sanctuary For Murder a try; you'll enjoy it, I know and promise. Alan
But tonight, a vicious double homicide on the beach by the town bird sanctuary brings an abrupt end to summer fun. There are no victim ids, or suspects, or witnesses at all, save Mr. Carl Rocht, a night watchman who was on duty at a nearby Coast Guard facility at the time the victims were killed. But Rocht adamantly denies hearing or seeing anything, and when it develops that Mark has met Rocht years before,interviewing him as part of an army intelligence investigation, Rocht vehemently denies it, and heatedly stomps out the interview. With little to go on except coincidence and distant memory, Allen presses Rocht for some reaction, and gets much more than ever bargained for: verbal threats, late night visits by strangers to his back dock, and finally, a knife in the ribs.
Patched up, Mark locates some old army records which confirm his memory of meeting Rocht. And in looking further, he gets help from a normal adversary, Sandy Ellerman, the newly-appointed County Public Defender, and his relationship with her crosses, in the process, from the professional to the personal. The two of them make a visit to a Chesapeake Bay marine electronics firm, and after that, the violence escalates against both of them. Moving against the backdrop of an ever-deepening, complicated relationship with Sandy, the horrific public relations fiasco that the two murders pose for a popular shore vacation resort, and several exciting, ongoing criminal trials, the tide of events conclusively turns after a late night, warrantless search of Rocht's apartment discloses software and technical drawings for a classified weapons system. But by the time the official police net closes, he and his minions are gone, and it seems the double homicide by the bird sanctuary is destined to come to an unarresting conclusion. Some sense of near-normalcy even begins to descend on Mark and Sandy's daily lives. But it is short-lived. Rocht and one of his cronies, still free, are intent on wreaking fatal vengance on Mark and Sandy for ruining their early retirement plans, and have remained in the area to do just that.
An unnamed but major character in this book is the natural setting and the wildlife of the Atlantic New Jersey coast--snowy egrets and herons, pink-tinged conch shells and two-eyed summer flounders, blue claw crabs, miles of green marshes and soft white sand beaches, the quirky characters and easy rhythms of its small towns and people, the psychic ghosts of the recent death of Mark's younger brother Rich, and golden retrievers, maybe especially golden retrievers, in particular Mark's golden retriever Thomas. And, A Sanctuary For Murder is one of three mystery-adventure novels-in-progress that feature the same cast of funny, likeable, engaging, sensual, smile-begetting characters. So please give A Sanctuary For Murder a try; you'll enjoy it, I know and promise. Alan
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940015580327 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Alan Bruce |
| Publication date: | 10/09/2012 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
If brevity is the soul of wit, I'm well-served here, as my prior literary credits are confined to winning--three(3) times, mind you, the Medford Central Record Annual Christmas Story Contest. For myself, I'm a recently retired civil trial attorney who spent his boyhood in the seashore world described in A Sanctuary For Murder. Later, I was a real life Special Agent with United States Military Intelligence(1968-1971), and later still, worked for a Jersey shore County Prosecutor's Office, and the United States Attorney's Office in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This is my first book, and hopefully not my last. In every way I can think of, it will be a great read for you.
From the B&N Reads Blog
Page 1 of