by Dave Balcom
“You do?” I asked with amazement. “I can’t help but think of all the fishing and hunting and foraging I’d have to give up if I was going to become a real garden guy.” I imitated a shudder.
But Boyd was serious. “I’m not joking. Folks your age need a hobby they can do together. If you don’t have a hobby, life can get kinda boring.”
Jan and I shared a look that I recognized right away. It was the look she got when she’d read my reaction to a tee, and we were on the same page “Yes sir, Mr. Stanton,” and a devilish gleam lit up her eyes, “Right about now boredom sounds pretty good to me, too.”
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank Clay Evans, Superintendent, Marine Search & Rescue for the Western Region of the Canadian Coast Guard for his gracious willingness to wade through my questions on his area of expertise and answer them with a reasonably straight face. If there are inaccuracies in my portrayal of his organization’s part in this story, they are most certainly mine. Clay lived up to his service’s motto: Safety First, Service Always.
And, once again I am grateful to the editor I sleep with for her guidance and insight that keeps my characters’ behavior consistent with the personalities I’ve developed for them. Special education’s gain was book publishing’s loss.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dave Balcom spent his adult life as an award winning journalist, writing, editing, and photographing local news and sports for community newspapers in a career that spanned 35 years and eight states. When he was no longer involved in the newspaper business, he turned to writing Jim Stanton Mysteries to satisfy his passion for writing. He and his wife, Susie, have two happily married children and a spoiled Yellow Labrador retriever to dote on between visits with their grandchildren. Like their hero, they love the outdoors; foraging, hunting and fishing at every opportunity.
Have you read all of the Jim Stanton Mysteries?
In paperback or E-books where ever books are sold
The Next Cool Place
The first Jim Stanton Mystery
Jim revisits his childhood haunts to solve a deadly mystery and finds the answer to the question of “how tough is tough enough” right next to him throughout the story.
Acorn
Never falls far from the oak
One iconic Eastern Oregon ranch family. two mysteries 77 years apart, and questions play the definitive role in both solutions.
Song of Suzies
A young Jim Stanton’s first mystery.
The young editor is forced to dig deeper than the heart-breaking headlines to resurrect his newspaper’s reputation even as police have him tagged as a primary suspect.
Even When You Win
There is often a price to pay.
Jim and Jan answer a call for help from a couple who have won a $5,000-a-week-for-life sweepstakes prize for themselves and for one of their offspring only to be threatened that if they don’t pick the right beneficiary, all of their youngsters will die.
Fear at First Glance
Reliving shadows from the past
Jan’s high school class reunion puts Jim squarely in the sights of a madman who turns her Northern Michigan homecoming into a macabre quest for revenge.
Code Matters
In matters of moral codes, all codes matter
Jim and Jan find themselves defending the most indefensible of Jim’s acquaintances; a man who turned his intellect into a breach of everything that matters in Jim’s personal code of ethics.
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