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Always Something Sings
SKU: 9781684921171
Book 1 in the Ada Reed Mystery Series
Available in e-book and trade paperback almost anywhere. See Coffeetown Press:
https://coffeetownpress.com/2023/07/20/always-something-sings-by-roger-lynn-howell/
Ada Reed is asked to fill in as acting sheriff when her lawman husband is recalled to duty in Korea. It would be simpler this way, the business leaders whisper, “less trouble.” When a young woman is found beaten and drowned in a dredge pond, a troubled soldier admits to the crime. But the boy could not have killed his wife from his wheelchair, nor forged the chain of gold that sank her. The trail leads through smoky taverns, muddy sloughs, and crumbling mines; a world new to Ada, who comes to see a lot of her own past in the girl’s dreams and disappointments—and too much of her own bullying husband in the volatile soldier. Now she must break the grip of the men who propped her in office and reconcile with her own hurtful past if she is to help the soldier accept his innocence and stop the killer.
...this first book in a proposed series is a good, well-written story. There are twists and turns, several plausible suspects, and a satisfying conclusion. More police procedural than cozy mystery, Howell’s novel is for fans of strong women characters, historical mysteries, and good investigative techniques.
-- Ed Goldberg, Library Journal
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Available in e-book and trade paperback almost anywhere. See Coffeetown Press:
https://coffeetownpress.com/2023/07/20/always-something-sings-by-roger-lynn-howell/
Ada Reed is asked to fill in as acting sheriff when her lawman husband is recalled to duty in Korea. It would be simpler this way, the business leaders whisper, “less trouble.” When a young woman is found beaten and drowned in a dredge pond, a troubled soldier admits to the crime. But the boy could not have killed his wife from his wheelchair, nor forged the chain of gold that sank her. The trail leads through smoky taverns, muddy sloughs, and crumbling mines; a world new to Ada, who comes to see a lot of her own past in the girl’s dreams and disappointments—and too much of her own bullying husband in the volatile soldier. Now she must break the grip of the men who propped her in office and reconcile with her own hurtful past if she is to help the soldier accept his innocence and stop the killer.
...this first book in a proposed series is a good, well-written story. There are twists and turns, several plausible suspects, and a satisfying conclusion. More police procedural than cozy mystery, Howell’s novel is for fans of strong women characters, historical mysteries, and good investigative techniques.
-- Ed Goldberg, Library Journal
Lightning Caused
Now Available Everywhere
Book 2 in the Ada Reed Mystery Series
Ada Reed must solve the mysterious deaths of an entire family who seemingly sat down in the path of a roaring forest fire and let the flames overtake them. They weren’t drunk, nor were they dead before the fire. Their car was gassed up, yet they didn’t flee. It looks like foul play, and the State Patrol sergeant is convinced he has his man – a former special-forces soldier with “Asian skills.” When Ada discovers the link between the family and the soldier’s time at the Minidoka Japanese internment camp, she fears the state cop might be right.
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Book 2 in the Ada Reed Mystery Series
Ada Reed must solve the mysterious deaths of an entire family who seemingly sat down in the path of a roaring forest fire and let the flames overtake them. They weren’t drunk, nor were they dead before the fire. Their car was gassed up, yet they didn’t flee. It looks like foul play, and the State Patrol sergeant is convinced he has his man – a former special-forces soldier with “Asian skills.” When Ada discovers the link between the family and the soldier’s time at the Minidoka Japanese internment camp, she fears the state cop might be right.
The Lambs of Spring
In the Pipeline:
Book 3 in the Ada Reed Mystery Series
Ada dredges up a car that has lain at the bottom of a reservoir for sixteen years. Inside are the battered remains of two young people, whom she eventually identifies as high school classmates of hers. The boy is remembered as a bully and a thief, while the girl was his 'shiksa,' his trollop from a poor Christian family. Ada tries to piece together the final days of the Bonnie and Clyde couple, weighed by the knowledge she'd done nothing to help the young people when she could have, and haunted by half-forgotten regrets of her own dredged up with the victims. She scours old files and opens old wounds trying to identify the long-ago killer, finding that the case touches nearly everyone in town—bringing some to shame, a few to tears, and someone, apparently, to homicide.
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Book 3 in the Ada Reed Mystery Series
Ada dredges up a car that has lain at the bottom of a reservoir for sixteen years. Inside are the battered remains of two young people, whom she eventually identifies as high school classmates of hers. The boy is remembered as a bully and a thief, while the girl was his 'shiksa,' his trollop from a poor Christian family. Ada tries to piece together the final days of the Bonnie and Clyde couple, weighed by the knowledge she'd done nothing to help the young people when she could have, and haunted by half-forgotten regrets of her own dredged up with the victims. She scours old files and opens old wounds trying to identify the long-ago killer, finding that the case touches nearly everyone in town—bringing some to shame, a few to tears, and someone, apparently, to homicide.
The Reclamation
SKU: 9781081518219
Finalist, First Novel category, 2019 Next Generation Indie Book Awards
Now available at Amazon Books: https://www.amazon.com/Reclamation-Roger-Howell/dp/1081518219/ref=monarch_sidesheet
A young woman in a government-controlled mining town in the war years of the 1940’s loses her daughter to the wilderness. Vilified by the community and haunted by guilt, Jolene seeks solace panning gold and trapping furs in the winter woods. But her singular ways put her at odds with the town and entangle her in a dangerous conspiracy and an even more dangerous love. Jolene's story is reconstructed decades later by a son who never knew her. Geologist Harlan Pruitt has returned to the ghost town of Cinnabar to evaluate the re-opening of the old mines. By the secrets he uncovers in the crumbling shafts--the grisly evidence of passion and treachery--his own mother finally comes to life for him, more human yet more heroic than he ever imagined. 
The Magpies' Song
SKU: 9798619089363
Finalist, General Fiction category, 2021 Next Generation Indie Book Awards
Carl Noxon barely survived an accident that ended the town’s last good summer. After years of recovery he sweeps the streets and keeps track of sunrises and songbirds. When skeletal remains are found in a canyon, Carl’s memories begin to stir—of a girl, Lindsey, whose eyes were blue and whose perfect body was never found after the accident. June watches over Carl now. Together they are window dressing the empty buildings on Main Street, trying to keep the old town from looking as abandoned as she feels. But as Carl’s labored memories dredge up bullying, drugs, and decadent affairs long hidden, the town begins to lose faith, and Carl becomes his own unwilling suspect. But of what?