StoneDust: A Ben Abbott Mystery (Ben Abbott Series) - Softcover

Scott, Justin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1590580613 ISBN 13: 9781590580615

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press, 2003

Synopsis

Ben Abbott is back in StoneDust, a complex, richly plotted, and enthralling mystery that tests this witty, literate realtor and fledgling detective as never before.

The Fisks’ weekend party, a “sleep-over” for select couples, remains the talk of the town long after Reg Hopkins’ body turns up in an isolated covered bridge. For Reg may have paid the party a fleeting visit—before dying in a way everyone swears was impossible. Ben, who used to play backyard baseball with Reg and all the party guests, must take up the matter with a hometown cast of friends, foes, and family—including his ninety-year-old Aunt Connie, the rising politician and his sometime lover Vicky McLachlan, the comely and ambitious State Police Detective Marian Boyce, and a pair of deadly housebreakers. Soon everybody’s getting much more in the way of kicks than they bargained for.

About this title

About the Author:

JUSTIN SCOTT has written thirty thrillers, historicals, and mystery novels, including The Shipkiller and Normandie Triangle. With many books set at sea, he has been called "the Dick Francis of yachting."
His main pen name is PAUL GARRISON under which he has written five modern sea thrillers including Fire and Ice, Red Sky At Morning, Sea Hunter, and The Ripple Effect, and the Paul Janson series based on a Robert Ludlum character,The Janson Command and The Janson Option).
Scott created the Ben Abbott detective series (HardScape, StoneDust, FrostLine, McMansion and Mausoleum) and was twice nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award by the Mystery Writers of America.
He collaborates with Clive Cussler on the Isaac Bell series (The Wrecker, The Spy, The Race, The Thief, and The Striker.) He lives in Connecticut with his wife, filmmaker Amber Edwards.

From Publishers Weekly:

On target again, Edgar-nominee Scott (Many Happy Returns; HardScape) delivers another literate, witty and absorbing mystery starring Ben Abbott, the former Wall Street high-roller who, having done time for financial misdealing, now sells real estate in his hometown of Newbury, Conn. Here Abbott calls on his self-described "half-assed" investigative skills to prove that a childhood friend did not die from a "hotload," a heroin overdose. When the coroner reports that heroin did indeed cause the death of Reg Hopkins, whose body was discovered on a covered bridge, Abbott focuses more on the why than the how of the man's demise. A lot of their old friends aren't talking. Among these are the couple who had a Jacuzzi party for a select group of Newbury's nouveaux riches the night Hopkins died. Hopkins was not invited-but was he the mystery party crasher? Setting this simmering tale of money, sex and drugs in picturesque Newbury, with its colonial homes, fine lawns and blooming azaleas, Scott creates a mixture guaranteed to hook new readers and bring old ones back for more.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1590580613
• ISBN 13: 9781590580615
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 250