Kirjahaku

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.

Shocking secrets within the unpublished WWII memoir of a murdered professor sets Thomas Martindale on the trail of a killer. Will he be next?Oregon University Journalism professor and amateur sleuth, Thomas Martindale, is enjoying a summer vacation on the tranquil Oregon coast. During a brunch at the home of elderly friend, Simone Godard, he happily agrees to read her unpublished memoir. But when she reveals her fears that someone is trying to kill her, Tom is pulled into a tale of deceit that spans back to World War II.The following day, Simone's fears are realized when Tom discovers her body at Yaquina Head lighthouse. Determined to unmask her killer, Tom looks for clues in her manuscript, which details Simone's participation in the French Resistance movement along with far more shocking secrets. As the truth unravels, Martindale finds himself above the swirling waters of Yaquina Bay, face-to-face with those who will do anything to keep the past hidden."... The novel] follows the sardonic Martindale as he prowls the Oregon coast on the trail of former Nazis." -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY"...a convincing story peppered with absorbing details about World War II..." -- BOOKLIST"...a riveting story...highly recomended for mystery buffs..." -- THE BOOKWATCH

"Lovell's prose is lean and spare, with characters drawn in swift strokes. His books just plain, old-fashioned fun."-Dan Hays, Salem Statesman-Journal - - - Renegade Russians, marauding polar bears, and a quest for the facts challenge retired professor Thomas Martindale, a sometimes amateur sleuth (much too nosy for his own good) who leaves the comfort of his college campus in Oregon to sign on as science writer for an Arctic expedition. Murder Below Zero is the fourth book in the Thomas Martindale mystery adventure series. Author Lovell cleverly weaves environmental issues into a top-notch murder mystery.

Thomas Martindale's everyday routine events are often complicated. While Tom is enjoying college commencement ceremony, a trio of seemingly unrelated incidents unfold.During a committee meeting on choosing the new college president one of the candidates is murdered. As Tom investigates, he is summoned to jury duty, where, a chance encounter with a former colleague leads to a discovery involving deadly virus research on illegal immigrants. And if that weren't enough, the longtime loner is blindsided with something new: Tom may have fallen in love.Will Tom survive or will he fall deeper than expected?RonLovellAuthor.comamateur sleuth / oregon coast / murder mystery

Thomas Martindale is the prime suspect in the murder of a close friend. In order to clear his name, Tom's investigation takes him to an abandoned sanitarium in Oregon's Coast Range-a deserted building which is far from unoccupied.Bats, rats, cobwebs and the horrors of past treatment schemes for the mentally ill cling to its crumbling walls. And hidden deep within the bowels of the building, a secret research lab continues the horrors as live subjects are exposed to a deadly virus.With each turn of his investigation, Tom battles unusual obstacles: a drug gang intent on keeping their secrets, an inquisitive old lady who keeps butting into the investigation and a missing moose.Will Tom uncover the real murderer before he becomes a victim himself?

The southeast corner of Oregon, where wild mustangs run, is not the usual place where a former investigative reporter turned college professor hangs out. When Margot Tateman, an old high school friend, calls Thomas Martindale for help in finding her missing husband, it is to this remote part of the state that he goes. In and around the tiny Oregon town of Frenchglen and Steens Mountain, Tom searches for Michael Tateman. Instead, he encounters men who try to stop him. All trails lead to the remote Kiger Gorge, home to a herd of wild mustangs, descended from horses brought to the West by Spanish conquistadores in the 17th century. Tom wants to find the missing man, the men want the horses, and will do anything to get them . . .

TWO NOVELLAS In his years as a decidedly amateur detective, Thomas Martindale has called on various professionals to get him out of the dangerous situations he often finds himself in. Only a fool would do the things he has done but his friends have saved him time and again. Two of these consummate professionals return in two novellas, Paul Bickford, the mysterious Army Special Ops officer, and Lorenzo Madrid, his longtime friend and attorney.CARNIVALThe college professor/amateur sleuth is confronted by shady carnies and a murderous clown wearing a devil's mask when a traveling road show comes to town. How hard should it be to help his old love Maxine March complete a photo assignment at the carnival? Fairly difficult when a crazed killer follows her to Oregon from her last job in Ecuador and only Bickford can help her.INNOCENTLorenzo Madrid is facing a crisis in his life. The long years of helping Mexican migrants deal with their lives in the U.S.-usually without pay-have taken their toll. He is burned out and ready to do something different. When guilt drives him to handle one last case-clearing the name of a young man falsely accused of murder-Lorenzo is captured by a Mexican drug gang. Before he can find out the truth, Madrid is drawn into a web of crooked priests and ruthless drug lords and is kidnapped.

As he is setting up a law practice in a small town Oregon, Lorenzo Madrid is faced with two vexing cases. In one, he must get a young politician out of a mental clinic where his unscrupulous stepmother had him committed so she can gain control of his family's timber company. In the other, an old flame of Lorenzo's good friend Tom Martindale asks for help in adopting an Ecuadorian orphan. The problem is, she has already taken him to the U.S. When she returns to that country, she is imprisoned. In the meantime, Lorenzo must fend off unknown assailants. Were they hired by the stepmother or are they members of a drug gang he helped shut down several years before? Reluctant at first to care for Tito, the orphan, Lorenzo grows to love the little boy and now, he may have put them both in danger. As in past Lovell mysteries, the Pacific Ocean brings the characters together in a dangerous showdown by the sea.