Stream of Death: An Ed McAvoy Mystery - Hardcover

Stackhouse, Bill

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1890208566 ISBN 13: 9781890208561

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Pr, 2001

Synopsis

A Catskills community is rocked by a dog who digs up a famous stolen diamond and Sicilians who have sworn a vendetta for a World War II crime. Sicily, World War II. The Allied landing has begun. Will the Italians fight with the Germans, or run? The answer leads a German officer to a murderous act and the theft of a Sicilian family heirloom. Ulster County, New York, the present. The Catskills community is the perfect, peaceful place for a widowed mother to raise her son, work in her brother's pub, and date the chief of police. Young Danny and his ace dog love to fish and make two friends, both old men, who share their stream with him. Nature's generosity and Danny's skill is such that fish becomes a regular menu item at the pub. All goes swimmingly until one day, the dog digs up a pouch containing the long missing Isabela Pendant. More shocking, someone soon shoots the senior gentleman, the one who is married to toothsome Cynthia. He falls into the stream, but a young Protestant priest fishes out the dying man and hears his last confession. Chief McAvoy would like to know what it was, but Fr. John's lips are sealed. In Greene County, just to the north, a luxurious retirement home houses Don Vittorio Gianelli, brother of the long dead Contessa whose dazzling diamond has now reappeared. Chief McAvoy finds this coincidence hard to swallow. But no matter how he prods, no information falls his way. In the end, like a fisherman, he relies upon guile to reel in his killer...

About this title

About the Author

Mystery writer, playwright, and part-time actor Bill Stackhouse has a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from General Motors Institute in Flint, Michigan, and a Master’s degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. At Ford Motor Company and later, as Director of Quality Assurance & Training at a large automotive parts supplier, Bill became involved in the development of instructional manuals and training films. In the throes of a mid-life crisis, he decided to pursue the most enjoyable aspect of his job on a full-time basis—writing. Bill’s scriptwriting credits include training films and promotional videos for NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to name just a few. He has also written numerous radio and TV commercials. Branching out from technical writing into the arts, four of Bill’s seven stage plays (The Best Laid Plans, The Early Bird, To Serve and Protect, and A Tradition of Service) have won contests—a local, a statewide, a regional, and a national. In addition to playwriting, Bill has directed many productions for various community theatres. For a very brief time, he even had a theatre company of his own. After filling his gas tank at a truck stop on I-65, Bill entered the station and slipped on the wet floor. While in a dazed state, he thought he heard the ghost of John Barrymore say, “If you offer it, they will come.” Thinking that the late, great actor was referring to theatre, Bill promptly formed Road Show with the Vagabond Players and set out to tour six mid-size cities in Northern Alabama and Southern Tennessee. After an initial 5-play season, meager attendance, and a debt of many, many dollars, RSVP folded. Only then did Bill realize that the voice he had heard was not that of John Barrymore’s ghost, but that of Bubba Barrymore, the fry-cook at the truck stop. Bubba, of course, had not been talking about theatre, but about tractor pulls and monster truck rallies. Only rarely does Bill wake up anymore in the middle of the night, haunted by the sound of one hand clapping.

Edition details

• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Pr
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1890208566
• ISBN 13: 9781890208561
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 226