Searching for Murder

by Ron Lovell

As has often happened to Thomas Martindale in the past, the routine events of everyday life can suddenly become very complicated. Take commencement, that most moving and rewarding event of the year on... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0976797828
• ISBN13: 9780976797821
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: Penman Productions
• Length: 230 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A great read for a rainy day!

Ron Lovell uses his experience as a university journalism professor and magazine writer to produce the character of Thomas Martindale. Lovell has had an impressive career as a magazine writer in several large cities; having authored fourteen textbooks, hundreds of magazine articles, and his fifth Martindale mystery. In SEARCHING FOR MURDER, we find Thomas Martindale at a commencement ceremony at his own college in Oregon, when two colleagues his search committee has brought in as candidates for the next president of the university are shot on either side of Martindale. His old super sleuth buddy, Paul Bickford, is on hand to protect a high profile speaker on campus, but disappears at the ultimate inopportune time. The plot backs up to give the reader the series of events leading up to the crisis...Martindale's membership on the search committee; his short tenure on jury duty, which connects him to the real villains in the tale; a flirting infatuation with Maxine March, a somewhat mysterious and tragic figure; and Martindale's class, which is our second introduction to the woman in question: "I handed her an outline, and she moved to take a seat. She was wearing tight jeans and a somewhat skimpy tank top, a little too skimpy for her age. Hancock soon fixed on her, and she returned his unblinking stare without embarrassment. In fact, his stare not only failed to intimidate her, it seemed to act as a magnet. She sat next to him and made a great show of putting down her books and getting out a notebook and pen. I found this irritating, even though I had no reason in the world to be irritated at anything she did. I made a point of consulting my notes and my class list." Lovell's Thomas Martindale is a self-styled sleuth who is a regular guy, and therein is his charm. Lovell pokes fun at university high jinx using the search committee as his vehicle, even as Martindale is getting himself into a series of scrapes that his erstwhile cop girlfriend or his spy buddy have to extricate him from. Life seems to get ever more complicated until the last hole that Martindale gets himself into. Lovell lets the reader hang, presumably to follow up in the next mystery. A great read for a rainy day! Shelley Glodowski Senior Reviewer