The Fugitive King

by Sarah R. Shaber

Book Overview

Professor Simon Shaw's latest adventure begins when a forest ranger discovers an old pickup truck and its skeleton passenger on a parkway in North Carolina. Problem is, the murderer has been in prison for 40 years.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312290462
• ISBN13: 9780312290467
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Length: 230 Pages
• Weight: 0.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.7" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Couldn't put it down...

I picked up this book to pass a few minutes, and wound up unable to put it down. The characters were varied and well-presented allowing them to all fit comfortably into the story. The setting, the Blue Ridge Mountains, is an area full of legends and stories that boosted the storyline. All in all, I read it in one day and wish I had another in the series to start right now. It's one of those books where the characters are so well-done you don't want to lose touch with them.

A Witty Cozy Mystery!

I read it and never laughed out loud as I have at some cozy books, but I sure did smile a lot. Simon is a likeable fellow and it was a great book.

delightful amateur sleuth

Over forty years ago in the North Carolina Mountain town of Boone, Roy Freedman was courting his landlord's daughter Eva Porter. When he proposed to her, she refused saying her parents would disown her if she married a Mulingeon. Roy was arrested after the family found a lot of blood in the area where Eva was last seen.Roy confessed to the murder and was sentenced to life in prison. He was in a minimum-security prison, had a lot of privileges and even worked in the governor's mansion. Roy risked everything he had by walking out of the mansion and holding Professor Simon Shaw at gunpoint. He tells the professor he was forced to confess and wants Simon to find out what really happened to his beloved Eva. Despite his doubts, Simon is drawn into the man's story and after Roy surrenders to the law, the professor decides to find out what really happened forty years ago.THE FUGITIVE KING is a delightful amateur sleuth novel though why Roy chose the professor rather than a pro remains questionable. Still the engaging tale stars a lovable protagonist who is very much in touch with his feelings. His sensitivity is the reason he decides to help out a man who held him at gunpoint. The support cast consists of a bunch of amiable eccentrics, the kind of people who live in a rough and ready mountain town.Harriet Klausner