Slow Curve on the Coquihalla by R.E. Donald
When a well respected truck driver, the owner of a family trucking business, is found dead in his truck down a steep embankment along the Coquihalla highway that winds through the mountains in British Columbia, his distraught daughter wants to know how and why his truck left the highway on an easy uphill curve. This compels Hunter Rayne, a fellow trucker and retired RCMP detective with daughters of his own, to help her find answers.
As he uncovers signs of illegal cross border activity originating in a Seattle warehouse, Hunter recruits an old friend, an outlaw biker, to infiltrate what appears to be an international smuggling ring. But while Hunter follows up clues and waits for critical information from his old friend, the wily biker starts to play his own angles.
Finally, putting all the pieces together, there in the dark on the same uphill curve on the Coquihalla highway, Hunter risks it all to confront the murderer.
Slow Curve on the Coquihalla is the first in a traditional mystery series featuring “semi-” professional sleuth, Hunter Rayne. After serving over 20 years in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and becoming a skilled detective, Hunter resigned from the force and took to the road as a long haul trucker. His ex-wife is convinced he is running away from the personal tragedy that made him leave a job he loved. Hunter himself doesn’t know why, he only knows he has to keep following the white lines.
See reviews for Slow Curve on the Coquihalla
From on-line reviews:
This is a great read for anyone who likes mystery, intrigue and those that are looking for good reads from up and coming Canadian authors.
This series is mysteries at their best.
Slow Curve On The Coquihalla is a police procedural as well as a first rate who-done-it. Author Donald plays fair with her clues in this well crafted mystery. Interesting characters and occasionally lyric descriptions of the Canadian West are a bonus.
BUY THIS BOOK IN THE PRINT EDITION ISBN 978-0-9881118-06
Digital and/or paperback editions available from the following online retailers: Barnes and Noble, iBookstore, Goodreads, Kobo, Amazon.com, Smashwords edition
Bookseller or library inquiries please contact Proud Horse Publishing at ProudHorsePublishing@gmail.com for information or to receive a sample digital copy. These books are available to order through INGRAM.
Reviewers: please feel free to inquire from ProudHorsePublishing@gmail.com about reading copies for review.
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Ice on the Grapevine was a finalist for the 2102 Global Ebook Award in Mystery Fiction. The story opens on a July morning with the discovery of a frozen corpse at a brake check just south of the Grapevine Pass in L.A. County. Hunter Rayne, a retired homicide detective turned long haul truck driver, is in southern California making a delivery, and is persuaded by his irascible dispatcher, Elspeth Watson, to help clear two fellow truck drivers who are arrested for the murder. His job is made more difficult by the fact that the suspects, a newlywed couple, won’t speak up in their own defence.
The circumstantial evidence is strong, and a rookie detective from the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department is eager to score a win. The investigation crosses the Canada-U.S. border when the victim is identified as a second rate musician from Vancouver, and it turns out there were more than a few desperate people happy to see him dead, including the accused couple. Hunter has to use all his investigative skills to uncover the truth.
Hunter’s ex-wife maintains that by taking to the highway Hunter is running away from his past, but he believes that the solitude of days on the road is helping him to heal from guilt over the failure of his marriage and the suicide of his best friend. His life gets more complicated when he feels an unwelcome attraction for a lawyer representing one of the accused.
Tangled relationships and multiple suspects emerge throughout the novel, as Hunter butts heads with more than one officer of the law to solve the crime.
Ice on the Grapevine is a finalist in the mystery category of the 2012 Global Ebook Awards.
See reviews for Ice on the Grapevine.
BUY THIS BOOK IN THE PRINT EDITION ISBN 978-0-9881118-13
Digital and/or paperback editions available at the following online retailers:
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Sony, Smashwords, iBookstore, Diesel, or Baker-Taylor.
Bookseller or library inquiries please contact Proud Horse Publishing at ProudHorsePublishing@gmail.com for information or to receive a sample digital copy. These books are available to order through INGRAM.
Reviewers: please feel free to inquire from ProudHorsePublishing@gmail.com about reading copies for review.
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A dead man rides a chairlift on Whistler Mountain, and it doesn’t take long for the press to label the murderer “The Chairlift Killer”. Former homicide detective Hunter Rayne drove the Sea to Sky highway to Whistler’s ski resort for what was supposed to be a pleasant weekend of skiing with an attractive female acquaintance. Instead, he finds himself at the top of the suspect list, and has no choice but to get involved in the investigation in order to clear his name.
While he’s busy in Whistler, trucker Hunter is forced to hire his biker friend, Dan Sorenson, to take his place behind the wheel. What connects the badass biker from Yreka, California to the most prolific female serial killer in US history? And what happens when Hunter’s dispatcher El Watson gets the biker involved in the murder investigation?
In the midst of the investigation, Hunter’s life becomes complicated when the progress of a new relationship is arrested by the appearance of a woman from his troubled past.
Sea to Sky is the third novel in the Hunter Rayne highway mystery series. It’s now available in both digital and print editions.
BUY THIS BOOK IN THE PRINT EDITION ISBN 978-0-9881118-20
Digital and/or print editions currently available at Amazon and other online retailers, or order through your favorite bookstore.
Bookseller or library inquiries please contact Proud Horse Publishing at ProudHorsePublishing@gmail.com for information or to receive a sample digital copy. These books are available to order through INGRAM.
Reviewers: please feel free to inquire from ProudHorsePublishing@gmail.com about reading copies for review.
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“Those were the best mysteries I’ve read in a long time!! As soon as I finished the first one I bought the second and felt empty when I finished it! The characters were awesome and so there that I somehow think they are in my life and I should be bumping into them at IGA or Gibson’s Building Supplies! Yesterday I was driving home up our road and there was a huge yellow excavator motoring slowly up the road and then stopped in the middle of the road When I passed it this hefty woman who was driving it gave me a big scowl and I instantly thought of big mother trucker! I can hardly wait for the next one.”
Judi H., Roberts Creek, B.C.
“R.E. Donald’s traditional mystery SLOW CURVE ON THE COQUIHALLA is everything the genre represents. It isn’t until the last pages when you know the killer that your mind flips back to realize all the clues were there, but they were buried in a polished story. A great take to bed read for anyone who loves crime fiction in a traditional fashion.”
Nash Black, Jamestown, KY, (author of SANDPRINTS OF DEATH)
“Ice on the Grapevine will keep you guessing. Great trucking detail, hardboiled characters, no-nonsense dialogue, and a surprise ending. If you enjoy mysteries, you’ll like Ice on the Grapevine.”
Marc Mayfield, Northern California
“This is a well spun yarn, full of plot detail and credible human response. Whodunit addicts will not be disappointed.”
Kindle Book Review
