Cyber-Linked
Unpredictable
Evidence
Signed copies of The Martindale Mystery Series
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Book for all Seasons” a bookstore
in Leavenworth, WA
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by Ron Lovell
College professor Thomas Martindale returns to the scene of his debut as an amateur sleuth, the Yaquina Head lighthouse on Oregon’s central coast, in Yaquina White. The “white” of the title stands for cocaine and that is what a murderous drug gang is importing into the state. His career in tatters because of his arrest on a bogus murder charge, Martindale must flee Oregon to escape from the leader of the gang. He joins a media tour of the Arctic only to face new dangers from Russian border guards and the crew of a ship smuggling a secret cargo over the North Pole to Pacific coast cities. After his return to Oregon, Tom has a final, deadly encounter with the drug lord at the lighthouse, from which only one of them will walk away.
Paperback, $15.00
ISBN 978-0-9767978-6-9
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Praise for Descent into Madness
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by Ron Lovell
Before he does anything else, amateur sleuth and college professor Thomas Martindale must get out of jail and clear his name. In the process, he has to find the real killer of a close friend and stop the fiendish plans of her former husband, a biologist trying to use human subjects in deadly virus research. His search leads him to an abandoned and spooky sanitarium in Oregon’s Coast Range where he finds a murderous Mexican drug gang, an inquisitive old lady who keeps butting into his investigation, and a missing moose amid the bats, rats, cobwebs, and the horrors of past treatment schemes for the mentally ill and those with debilitating illnesses.
Paperback, $15.00
ISBN 978-0-9767978-5-2
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Praise for Lights, Camera, MURDER!
Lights,
Camera, MURDER! The high stakes game of university recruiting and a scandal involving athletes
form the centerpiece of Ron Lovell’s new Thomas Martindale mystery, Lights,
Camera, MURDER! Martindale is acting as the liaison between the university
and a video production company to prepare a series of television advertisements
to attract new students. When one of his young students is murdered, Martindale
goes on the trail of her killer. Along the way, he uncovers a scandal involving
the recruitment of black football players. He also encounters the wife of a
coach who will stop at nothing to get young men into her bed and keep her exploits
secret.
by Ron Lovell
Second Edition
More campus-oriented than the two previous novels in the Martindale series, Murder at Yaquina Head and Dead Whales Tell No Tales (both in second edition), Lights, Camera, MURDER! also skewers the committee system that dominates most universities and reveals the amusing—and often tedious—day-to-day world of the classroom. As always, Martindale’s search for the killer puts him in danger in some unlikely places: the steam tunnels running under campus, a covered bridge on campus, and the high cliffs behind an isolated inn above the churning Pacific Ocean.
Paperback, $15.00
ISBN 978-0-9767978-4-5
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Praise for Searching for Murder.
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 any campus. He is
enjoying the ceremony as the host of three candidates to become the new
university president when a tragic incident changes everything. Or jury
duty. The chance encounter of a colleague while he is on jury duty leads
to the discovery of a nefarious scheme to use illegal immigrants in deadly
virus research. Or as a member of the committee choosing the new president.
Is someone trying to kill one of the candidates? Added to this is something
new for the longtime loner: he may have fallen in love.
Paperback, $15.00
ISBN 0-9767978-2-8
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Praise for Dead Whales Tell No Tales.
NEW
FROM PENMAN PRODUCTIONS
Dead Whales Tell No Tales
by Ron Lovell
Second Edition
In Dead
Whales Tell No Tales, mystery novelist Ron Lovell returns to the locale
of his first novel, Murder at Yaquina Head—the rugged Oregon
Coast. It is 1987 and college professor Thomas Martindale is teaching
a summer writing seminar at the university’s marine center. A marine
biologist dies under bizarre circumstances and his assistant, Tom’s
former lover, is arrested for his murder. The death occurs while a conference
of the International Whaling Commission is going on at the center. In
Martindale’s mind, there are more likely suspects than his friend:
the Japanese fisheries minister, an Eskimo whaling commissioner, and several
radical environmentalists.
Tom’s investigation uncovers the murdered man’s involvement
in a drowning at sea of a graduate assistant and his collaboration with
the Japanese to alter whale population statistics. It also puts him in
danger from unknown pursuers who keep following him in his car. At the
same time, a large Gray whale has beached herself near his house, adding
a unique aura to the events on land.
Paperback, $15.00
ISBN 0-9767978-3-6
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Praise for Murder at Yaquina Head.
NEW
FROM PENMAN PRODUCTIONS
Murder at Yaquina Head
by Ron Lovell
Second Edition
When an elderly friend of Thomas
Martindale is found murdered, the vacationing journalism professor and
amateur sleuth turns to a manuscript—a World War II memoir of her
youth in occupied France—to find the killer. His search leads him
to an isolated lighthouse, the shark tank at a local aquarium, a spooky
graveyard, and an abandoned rock quarry. Have the incidents describe in
the manuscript caused her death? Did they reveal secrets someone desperately
wants to hide? After several other people die, Martindale winds up confronting
the unlikely killer on a bridge high above the swirling waters of Yaquina
Bay, Oregon.
“[The author] crafts a convincing story peppered with absorbing
details about World War II. Much of the fun here is reading Simone’s
gripping memoir over Tom’s shoulder.”
— Booklist
Paperback, $15.00
ISBN 0-9767978-1-X
Click here for a sample chapter.
Praise for Murder Below Zero.
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Murder
Below Zero
by Ron Lovell
In
his latest adventure, professor and sometime amateur sleuth Thomas Martindale
leaves campus to sign on as a science writer for a research expedition
to the Arctic for a change of pace from the often mundane world of
the university. The work is unique: an attempt to study ice as a tool
for national security. Soon after the members of the team board a U.S.
Coast Guard icebreaker for the journey to their base—a remote island in
the Beaufort Sea—Russian scientists join the group with unpleasant
consequences.
The rivalry turns deadly after the icebreaker leaves and people start
dying under mysterious circumstances. The arrival of an Arab terrorist
and a marauding polar bear complicate life on the small island. An early
freeze traps the men and women of the expedition as a massive ice shield
closes in. The events oddly parallel a similar (and real) disaster Martindale
is writing about, which took place in 1897.
Murder Below Zero was published by Penman Productions on July
1, 2005.
Paperback, $15.00
ISBN 0-9767978-0-1
Click here for a sample chapter.
Praise for Lights, Camera, Murder.
Out of print
Lights!
Camera! Murder!
by Ron Lovell
First Edition
The
high stakes game of university recruiting and a scandal involving athletes
form the centerpiece of Ron Lovell’s new Thomas Martindale Mystery, Lights, Camera … Murder. Martindale is acting as the liaison
between the University and a video production company to prepare a series
of television advertisements to attract new students. When one of his
young students is murdered, Martindale goes on the trail of her killer.
Along the way, he uncovers a scandal involving the recruitment of black
football players. He also encounters the wife of a coach who will stop
at nothing to get young men into her bed and keep her exploits secret.
More campus-oriented than the two previous novels in the Martindale series,
Murder at Yaquina Head and Dead Whales Tell No Tales, Lights,
Camera…Murder also skewers the committee system that dominates
most universities and reveals the amusing—and often tedious—day-to-day
world of the classroom. As always, Martindale’s search for the
killer puts him in danger in some unlikely places: the steam tunnels
running under campus, an isolated covered bridge, and the high cliffs
behind an isolated inn above the churning Pacific Ocean.
Sunstone Press published Lights, Camera...Murder in July, 2004.
Click here for a sample chapter.
Praise for Dead Whales Tell No Tales.
Out of printDead
Whales Tell No Tales
by Ron Lovell
First Edition
In
Dead Whales Tell No Tales, mystery novelist Ron Lovell returns to
the locale of his first novel, Murder at Yaquina Head—the rugged
Oregon Coast. It is 1987 and college professor Thomas Martindale is teaching
a summer writing seminar at the university’s marine center. A marine
biologist dies under bizarre circumstances and his assistant, Tom’s
former lover, is arrested for his murder. The death occurs while a conference
of the International Whaling Commission is going on at the center. In Martindale’s
mind, there are more likely suspects than his friend: the Japanese fisheries
minister, an Eskimo whaling commissioner, and several radical environmentalists.
Tom’s investigation uncovers the murdered man’s involvement
in a drowning at sea of a graduate assistant and his collaboration with
the Japanese to alter whale population statistics. It also puts him in
danger from unknown pursuers who keep following him in his car. At the
same time, a large Gray whale has beached herself near his house, adding
a unique aura to the events on land.
Sunstone
Press published Dead Whales Tell No Tales on March 29, 2003.
Click here for a sample chapter.
Praise for Murder at Yaquina Head.
Out of print
Murder
at Yaquina Head
by Ron Lovell
First Edition
Thomas
Martindale is a journalism professor at an Oregon university who used to
be a magazine investigative reporter in New York. Although Martindale wants
to concentrate on his teaching and writing, his curiosity and investigative
ability often get him into situations most people would ignore.
As
he begins a summer vacation on the Oregon Coast, Tom is invited to brunch
at the home of an old friend, a retired professor of French. After meeting
other guests and eating a delicious meal, Tom is asked by his friend to
read her memoirs of her years as a Resistance fighter in World War II.
In passing, she confides that someone may be trying to kill her. The next
night, that premonition comes true when Tom finds her body at a nearby
lighthouse.
Tom immediately
sets out to find her killer, using clues from the manuscript. Has it caused
her death? At the same time, he must contend with a mentally challenged
former colleague who, blaming him for the loss of his job, tries to pin
the murder on him. Another nemesis, the slightly dumb local sheriff, puts
Tom on his list of suspects.
As he has in
the past, Tom gets help from his former lover, a State Police officer
who has long gotten him out of tight spots. Tom’s hunt for the killer
puts him in danger on the lonely Yaquina Head of the title and, in an
exciting last scene, on a suspension bridge high above the swirling waters
of Yaquina Bay.
The book contains
a story within a story: a Frenchwoman’s dramatic exploits during
World War II and how their revelation has consequences for the present
in a small town on the Oregon Coast.
Sunstone
Press published Murder at Yaquina Head in 2002.