Emily Lied

When Alexis Spanarkel awakens from a six-month-long coma, her first words are "Emily Lied." A brain anomaly induces vivid, yet structured, dreams in which she becomes a dream detective in search of the mysterious Emily. In dreamstate, she reads the headline, "Prosecution Witness, Emily Trout, Presents Damaging Testimony," from a 1977 Morehead City, N.C., newspaper and she is off to the Crystal Coast. There she enlists the help of retiree James Lattimore, who was the lead detective on the murder case thirty-eight years ago; and a Beaufort police officer, Dex Moorefield, with whom she has a "summer beach" romance. By manipulating her dreams, Alexis relives events leading up to the murder of an academy headmaster’s wife, whose body was never found; and uses her dream sleuthing in real time to help solve the mystery and possibly clear the wrongfully convicted husband.

Elbert Marshall has written two solo novels since the 2012 publication of "Plotz," which he co-authored with Sandra Z. Bruney under the pseudonym, Marshall Bruney. In what has become the "Glamorgan Series" (Glamorgan is a fictional North Carolina city.) "Nomad" was published in 2013 and "Who Slew Bonnie Blue?" in 2014. Marshall has re-occurring characters in the mystery series, including newspaper personnel and police officers. His new mystery novel is based in Glamorgan but takes place on North Carolina Crystal Coast. Marshall has relied on his 29 years of experience in the newspaper trade to allow the reader a glimpse at the inner workings of the editorial side of the print business. In 1994, he left newspapering to become the executive director of the Anson County (N.C.) Chamber of Commerce, where he served until his retirement in December 2005. In 2001, he and Bruney formed Marshall Bruney Media Consultants, a website development company, that operated through 2009. He and his wife, Carla, have three sons and two grandsons; and reside in Pound, Va.