Hallow: A Fractured Family Tale

by M R Dimond

Overview

Family: What you don't know can kill you.

As the holiday season rolls in-fall holidays, that is, from High Holy Days to Thanksgiving-young attorney JD Thompson basks in his life in a small Texas town where he and his ABBA tribute band roommates live with the seventy black cats that his veterinarian partner rescued. Probate cases with inheritance squabbles leave him time to help out family members, like when his grandfather receives a surprising present from the past. But the squabbles turn deadly, the present isn't a gift, and the lovely woman who captures his heart isn't what she seems. Knee-deep in ashes with murder on the doorstep, JD races to defend his client and family. Can he untangle the dark secrets that threaten to destroy everything he holds dear? The walls are already splattered with blood.

Join JD on his fifth adventure in the Black Orchid Enterprises Mystery series today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781956204162
Publisher:	Rock Rose Press
Publication date:	06/19/2024
Series:	Black Orchid Enterprises Mystery , #5
Pages:	282
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.64(d)

About the Author

After stints in professional orchestras, law firms, cat rescue, bookkeeping, and technical communication, M. R. Dimond returned to a childhood dream of writing fiction, which has turned out to be about musicians, lawyers, veterinarians, accountants, and cats. Her Black Orchid Enterprises Mystery series, set in her near-native Texas, currently contains five novels with more soon to come.She has had short fiction published in Strange Horizons, Dancing USA, and various anthologies (most recently in Dreaming the Goddess; Hook, Line, and Sinker; and Riddles, Resolutions, and Revenge), as well as nonfiction articles in various publications. She holds an MBA from University of Tulsa and is a veteran of writing workshops, including Clarion, Viable Paradise, Jim Gunn's Center for Science Fiction, and Taos Toolbox. She lives in the wilderness east of Austin, Texas, with her husband and many foster cats.

Editorial Reviews

2024-08-15
An attorney’s probe into the past may turn deadly in Dimond’s mystery novel, one in a series.

JD Thompson lives and works with his friends and business partners in a Victorian mansion in Texas. Their community turns to Black Orchid Enterprises for JD’s legal representation as well as his colleagues’ accounting skills and veterinary services. JD’s latest case seems simple enough: Hospital administrator Vidal Abreu’s half-brothers are unhappy about having to split their late father’s inheritance with him equally and are contesting the will. Vidal has a mystery to ponder, too, as his daughter’s recent DNA test indicates someone else is her biological father, which comes as a shock to both Vidal and his wife. Concurrently, JD’s grandfather hires his grandson to track down a woman he’d known decades ago (she was pregnant at the time) before she inexplicably vanished. JD digs into these dual cases, which may have ties to some recent bizarre incidents—including someone collapsing at a festival and a lethal bar fire that breaks out where JD’s ABBA tribute band is playing. The situation only grows more complicated as cops begin to eye Vidal as a murder suspect. Dimond’s series characters are delightful; Black Orchid intern Darryl Swann draws in potential clients with holiday-related (High Holy Days and Halloween) events at the mansion, CPA Dianne Cortez is JD’s bandmate and three-time ex, and vet Johnny Ly, who runs an animal shelter, rescues myriad cats who practically take over the mansion (“If you find any more pregnant cats, please don’t put them in my bedroom, okay?”). Their breezy subplots play out (with loads of feline appearances) as JD finds a romantic interest while uncovering startling secrets. The author’s deliberate pacing and dialogue-heavy scenes perfectly suit the narrative as the mysteries slowly unfurl. Readers won’t discover many surprises in JD’s investigations (especially regarding his grandfather), although the final act does deliver a memorable plot turn and an equally solid ending.

An outstanding cast elevates this engaging but somewhat predictable thriller.

Kirkus Reviews