One man's death could be his fortune. In this second book in The Hidden West family mystery series, Tony and Price Shadowbrook prepare to spend another summer researching and writing about a unique Western vacation spot. This time they travel to the mining hills town of Jerome, Arizona, America's "most vertical city." Tony spots a strange traveler who carries his own tombstone in the back of his truck. The stone is engraved with the quickly approaching date of his death. Meanwhile, wedding plans for the Shadowbrook's son Josh and Melody Mason keep everyone on edge.
Copper Hill
Book 2, Hidden West Series
Book 2, The Hidden West family mystery series: Copper Hill by Stephen Bly and Janet Chester Bly
Excerpt from Copper Hill family mystery series novel:
The once neatly folded To Do list lay crumpled in the bottom of Price’s cavernous purse. As did the keys to the Winslows’ home in Jerome, Arizona. On Highway 89A, Tony and Price Shadowbrook left the Verde Valley and ascended west into Arizona’s Black Hills. Perched halfway up Mingus Mountain, two thousand feet above the valley floor, they could see the billion-dollar copper camp of Jerome. Every road, building, and creature, four-legged or two-legged, live and move on a steep slope.
Flat land is not a premium in Jerome. It doesn’t exist.
Price, dark glasses balanced on top of her shoulder-length brunette hair, rummaged inside her dark leather bag. Tony’s narrow, blue-grey eyes flitted between the view of the winding, uphill mountain road and the 1957 Chevy pickup crowding his metallic blue Jeep Grand Cherokee on a curve.
“I can’t believe it.” Price still raked through her purse.
“It’s absurd.” Tony banged the palm of his hand on the oak steering wheel. “He’s a complete and utter jerk.”
“Who?”
“Mr. I’m-going-to-pass-even-if-it-kills-me in the old grey pickup.” Tony eased on the brakes. The Chevy roared across a double yellow line, passed them and sailed into the hairpin curve.
“Tony, he’s fishtailing.”
“Hang on, darlin’.” Tony slammed the brakes and peeled off into the steep culvert on the right side of the two-lane highway. Their rig took a hard bounce over a football-sized boulder, teetered, then the rear end slid down the bottom of the drainage ditch. They faced the road, but well off the pavement.
A loud crash and a plume of dust from the now obscured other side of the roadway spurred them out of the Jeep.
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Author Janet Chester Bly on the adventure of writing the contemporary Hidden West family mystery series and historical Carson City Chronicles family mystery series:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yDrinCEDWo&feature=share&list=PL1R4q2SVqrQZHIp9bh38Zd1RNTjg54fmO[/youtube]
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