The Robleda Company announces the publication of an exciting new murder mystery, The Mt. Bachelor Murders – A Northwest Murder Mystery, by Ted Haynes.
For anyone who loves mysteries and the Pacific Northwest, this is a great story — reaching back to Bend’s Norwegian heritage and the early days of the Mt. Bachelor Ski Resort. The murder of Erik Peterson on the slopes in 1966 launches 16-year-old Sally Paulsen into aiding sheriff’s detective Forest Connor in finding the elusive killer. The murder leads Sally into a lifetime commitment to seek justice through the law. Over 50 years later, halfway into retirement after a successful career, a friend discovers Erik’s likely murderer, now a wealthy industrialist, and Sally, now called Sarah, puts her own life in danger to have him arrested before he can leave the United States.
Sarah enlists the victim’s grandson, Dan Martinez, to uncover the killer’s motive, hidden in Norwegian archives, while Dan is already coping with the aftermath of an attempted mass shooting that his wife narrowly prevented. The murder and the mass shooting turn out to be related in a surprising way.
The story introduces us to Deschutes County sheriff’s detectives from two different eras, a Scandinavian seductress, an unprincipled lumber jack, a bitter gang member, a floozy turned Mormon rancher, a crusty museum director and a villain who appears to be a model citizen.
The characters themselves tell the story: Sarah Chatham, the heroine who drives the investigations; Sheriff’s Detectives Forest Connor who hates snow and Carl Breuninger who loves snowmobiling; Leon Martinez, the art teacher who recognizes the murderer from a fifty-year-old drawing; Dan Martinez, a popular attorney who practices very little law; Amy Martinez, Dan’s beautiful wife, on leave from her scientific career to care for their new daughter; and two killers with radically different motivations. Even Erik Peterson, murder victim, has his say.
“Central Oregon is a great place to set mystery stories,” says the author. “The scenery is world-class, the people come from all sorts of backgrounds, and the history of the area has moved rapidly from wilderness to remote lumber town to booming recreational destination. The real-world murder rate is low but the rate of imaginary murders is accelerating.”
The Mt. Bachelor Murders is the third in the Northwest Murder Mysteries series. The first two books in the series, Suspects, centered in the Sunriver Area, and The Mirror Pond Murders, set in Bend, received enthusiastic receptions from readers, bookstores and libraries. A fourth book set in Central Oregon, Pole, Pedal, Murder, is in the works.
Ted Haynes is an accomplished author of both history and fiction focusing on Central Oregon. Ted and his wife first visited Bend in 1975 and finally built a log house on the Little Deschutes River in 2007. Ted is a member of Mystery Writers of America and a founding board member of the Waterston Prize for Desert Writing, located in Bend. He is a fisherman, kayaker, and competitive master swimmer. Ted has studied fiction writing with Hillary Jordan, Lynn Stegner, and Nancy Packer. Ted is available for interviews and presentations.
In addition to the Northwest Murder Mystery series, books by Ted Haynes set in Central Oregon include Vandevert – The Hundred Year History of a Central Oregon Ranch (nonfiction written with Grace Vandevert McNellis) and On the Road from Burns—Stories from Central Oregon (short stories).
The Mt. Bachelor Murders will be available in bookstores and in electronic versions on February 2, 2021. The book is distributed to bookstores by Ingram. The price is $14.99 and the ISBN is 978-1-7331544-2-0.