Book Five: Deadman’s trapper

A winter storm blows a new stranger onto the Hunters’ ranch. He claims to have bought-out the  Hunters’ long time friend, Mr.  McLennan, but the old trapper never mentioned moving. When Luke and Joseph ride out to McLennan’s cabin, a grave isn’t the only surprise waiting for them.

While the men are gone, Annie and her new helper Emma face their greatest challenge yet. The stranger steals a horse and kidnaps Emma, leading Henry on a desperate chase.  Annie guards their home while minding her new baby and the teen brother and sister, Gerry and Janie Moran.

All this turmoil leads to one more first: a trial in Fort Laramie. Who will be called to give testimony and what will the outcome be?  

The trial isn’t the only concern for the family,  as Luke’s head seems to be turned from Doc’s daughter Caroline to Miss Hanson, the clerk at the Fort Laramie trading post. Will spring see a new house being built on the Hunter ranch? 

A wedding, a trial, and an unexpected addition to the ranch are all possible before the winter is over!

Available February 14, 2020.

A valentine for yourself 🙂

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Writer’s Showcase: Caron Allan

Genre: Mystery (Friendship Can Be Murder series), Romantic Historical Mystery (Dottie Manderson series).

Background: I wrote my first novel Ghosts! Ghosts! Ghosts! in 1970 and unfortunately it is now lost because my mum kept it in a drawer with my drawings, a knitted bookmark and a tea-cozy I made. I started reading adventures at age seven or eight and was reading Agatha Christie by age nine. [Eventually] I remember sitting on my bed in Aldershot, Hampshire, UK, and thinking, I want to write a new story, but what shall I write about? Then I thought, what is it I am afraid of?

Writing Highlight: I had to overcome [close] people telling me that a) I was no good as a writer, b) it was wicked thing to want to write fiction, and c) who did I think I was anyway, thinking I could be a writer? So I destroyed a large amount of my writing, which I now regret.

I have spent years working on books: the first draft of Easy Living was written in 1997 and I was finally ready to share it with the world in March 2019. In my historical mysteries, I am trying to give the reader a fairly authentic yet accessible experience (books written in the 1930s are ‘wordy’ and formal for modern readers.) While I modernize compared to the way things would have been written, I keep manners and lifestyle quite close to how they would really have been.

I also like to encourage people of all ages and backgrounds to write.

Next Project: I am currently working on book five of the Dottie Manderson series; it will probably be out in the beginning of September. I have loosely planned at least five more books in that series.

I’m also working on another stand-alone book, set in the mid-1940s, right after the war, (yes, a mystery.) On top of those, next year I plan to embark on another series called the Runaway Writer.

To keep up with Caron Allan: https://caronallanfiction.com/

Book page with links for purchasing in different countries: https://caronallanfiction.com/my-books/

A note about Caron is that not only has she overcome the disparaging remarks of previous critics of writers and her writing, she has a wicked-good sense of humor. I knew she and I would hit it off when I read that when she “isn’t plotting how to kill people” she spends time in the local shops looking for everyday items that have “lethal potential.”

Now that’s my kind of shopping and my kind of creative writer.

Book Two: Deadman’s Daughters

 

Doc Johnson, friend of siblings Annie and Luke Hunter, is happily, if nervously, awaiting the arrival of his daughter, Caroline. Doc hasn’t seen Caroline since he moved to Fort Laramie four years earlier. When Doc is attacked, Annie and Luke are worried but believe it must be a case of mistaken identity. While caring for Doc, the siblings are shocked when the attacker returns to try and finish him off.

 

As if keeping Doc alive isn’t challenge enough, Luke and Annie’s foster brother, Joseph Peopeo, has unexpected news that threatens to turn their lives upside-down. While the siblings juggle the tribulations they face, their hired hand, Henry Little Light, has his own struggle – trying to keep the ranch running among all the chaos. Henry feels forced to accept help from a neighbor the Hunters do not want to be indebted to. In addition, add a new would-be suitor for Annie and the family has their hands more than full.

 

Once again, the Hunters are involved in a face-off that could have deadly consequences.

 

Deadman’s Daughters: order