In Death's Shadow
A Hannah Ives Mystery  
By Marcia Talley

     Hannah Ives returns in yet another mystery in which she gets involved by accident. While at the doctor's office for a checkup after her bout with breast cancer, Hannah ran into an old friend, Valerie Stone. Valerie was in the hospital at the same time Hannah was. In fact, they shared a room. Valerie had ovarian cancer, and was not expected to live. Hannah was delighted to see her.

     Valerie looked tanned and fit. She had been on a round-the -world cruise with her husband, Brian. The couple had also bought a new home, a luxury home that made their neighbors houses look like toolsheds. How had they managed to afford all of that? Hannah bided her time until she could ask Valerie. She learned that they had cashed in Valerie's life insurance policy. That gave them a lot of money to work with.

      What they had done was to sell her policy to a viatical broker who in turn sold it to an investor. It sounded morbid to Hannah, and when Valerie died a short time later, she became suspicious of the whole process. Hannah began to poke around to see what she could find out. What she found almost cost the lives of her friend Naddie and herself, and it did cost Gail Parish her life.

     From the beginning, Hannah's story is intriguing. She is fallible, all too human, and that's what makes her so believable. She wants to do this on her own, but her husband, Paul, fears for her safety. The delightful way she pursues her objectives and gets herself into trouble is all too real. If you love a good mystery with an amateur sleuth that finds out more accidentally than on purpose, this is the book for you. Pick up a copy of In Death's Shadow, and settle in for some pleasant reading.