Five O'Clock Shadow - Hardcover

Slater, Susan

3.92

36 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1590581040 ISBN 13: 9781590581049

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press, 2004

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From an author described by Kirkus as "lively, surprising" comes Five O'Clock Shadow with its puzzler of a plot tied to colorful New Mexico.
As the great balloon bearing the image of a clock swoops across the River Grande, Pauly Caton watches her husband of four days fall from the sky. Who is the naked child who scrambles from the gondola when it strikes a sandbar and flees? Did she just imagine it? Why would he have been up with Randy and the pilot on the honeymoon ride she was too chicken to join? Who, in fact, was meant to die? And meant to die it was—her hastily snapped photos of the scene show a masked sharpshooter stationed high up in a tree.
As Pauly tries to put her shattered life together, she discovers the lies. The first in the morgue. How else had Randy deceived her? Had he told her anything that was the truth? Were his partners in their get-rich company any more honest? Pauly knows she hadn't signed any of the documents the lawyer presents to her. Maybe she'll insist on becoming an active partner.
Pauly's flamboyant Grams, the much-married carnival queen, offers her only grandchild a place to recover, a retreat on Albuquerque's west side that's home to fifty odd folks complete with clowns, a handsome tattoo man--and the snakes. And then Pauly finds out she's rich--money that she swears could not have been Randy's. Where did he get it? Who was the son he apparently adopted? A trip to El Paso uncovers more mysterious acts and points her towards the truth. But will she live long enough to find it?
Susan Slater reveals the same sharp offbeat plotting skills, the zest for language, and colorful scenes that marked her caper Flash Flood where "troubles build like thunderheads over New Mexico skies." [Publishers Weekly]

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About the Author:

Susan Slater is the author of the Ben Pecos series (Pumpkin Seed Massacre, Yellow Lies, and Thunderbird). Flash Flood is the first in a new series featuring Dan Mahoney. By day Susan works for a government contractor; by night, she teaches creative writing. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with Roger and Emma, two Welsh Pembroke Corgis.

From Publishers Weekly:

The plot of Slater's gripping follow-up to last year's Flash Flood moves as fast and as unpredictably as the New Mexico weather, which can go from sun to blizzard in a moment. Newlywed Pauly Caton watches in horror as the hot air balloon holding her husband, Randy McIntyre, crashes into a sand bar in the middle of the Rio Grande. A small, otherwise naked boy wearing Randy's jean jacket flees the gondola, leaving behind two dead men-Randy with a broken neck, the pilot with a bullet through his forehead. When the medical examiner discovers that Randy had had an irreversible vasectomy, Pauly is shattered and confused. The children they both seemingly had looked forward to before their marriage were never a possibility. The more she learns of Randy's secret past, the more Pauly becomes suspicious of everyone around her, even her carnival-queen grandmother with whom she takes refuge in Albuquerque. With her blonde hair, heavy make-up, breast implants and growing list of ex-husbands, Grams stands out in an unusual supporting cast that includes tattooed men and lethal snakes. From the book's devastating opening to its chilling climax, readers will be captivated by Slater's fresh, gutsy heroine.
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