Spyglass Lane

Look Before You Leap by Elizabeth Ludwig

Part 2

The radio erupted with a crackle. Jerry nodded in approval. So far, everything was going according to plan. Now, for the trickiest part. . .

He reached up and with a sharp tug, removed his bulky sweater. The Velcro released with a rip, just as intended. Around him, the passengers on board the small airplane gaped. The parachute strapped to his back was plainly visible now.

Jerry fought not to laugh. It was always the same—the shock on the passenger’s faces when he pulled the gun, the anger as they realized he intended to rob them, and ultimately, the resignation as they accepted there was nothing they could do to stop him.

“Why, you’re not chubby at all!” the stout woman at the rear of the plane exclaimed. “It was all a disguise.”

Snagging a pair of goggles he’d stashed inside his pocket, he slid them over his head and covered his eyes. Jerry held up his bag of loot, stuffed full with valuables snitched from the wealthy passengers. “You’re absolutely right,” he said, laughing. “It was all part of my plan to swindle you good folks out of your millions. Now, if you don’t mind. . .”

Before any of them could react, he reached for the handle on the cabin door and pulled. It released with a whoosh and Jerry swung out of opening, into the clear, night sky.

Wind roared past his ears, flattening his cheeks and making it hard to breathe. Darkness closed around him, pressing and black. Good thing he’d made this jump, or rather, ones like it, before. He counted the seconds, waiting for the perfect moment when he’d release his chute and drift lazily to the ground.

Below, a ring of flares blazed brightly. His landing spot. Jerry managed a grin. Good ‘ol Buck. He could always count on his partner. He flung the booty away—south of the landing spot—where they’d find it, easily.

Reaching back, Jerry found the rip cord and pulled. His chute opened, jerking him upward. Once he’d stabilized, Jerry directed the landing straight for the center of the glowing flares.

Only. . .something was wrong!

Fear built in Jerry’s chest. He muttered an oath, sucked in a breath, and then squeezed his eyes shut as a shower of sparks erupted all around him.

FOR DISCUSSION: What happened to Jerry?

Stay tuned next week for Part 3 of Look Before You Leap.

As 2008 comes to a close, it's only fitting to review the wonderful selection of mysteries released by Heartsong Mysteries in the inaugaral year. Below you'll find the second selection of books. Check back in the next few Saturdays to see them all. To order any of these books simply click on the book cover and it's take you to the Heartsong Mystery site.

Fog Over Finny's Nose
By Dana Mentink / Heartsong Presents Mysteries

The worm business is thriving for vermi-culturist Ruth Budge. . . until a disembodied toe turns up on the golf course, and members of a strange cult begin
to infiltrate the quiet seaside town of Finny, California.
Life is already crazy for forty-seven-year-old Ruth, juggling the needs of her worm farm, her new spouse, and a platoon of crippled seabirds bequeathed to her
by her dead husband. Then there's the insanity swirling around the first ever Finny Fog Festival and the discovery of a bizarre diary from one of the town's
seediest ancestors.
Things go from misty to murderous as a man plummets to his death from an exploding hot air balloon. Is the craziness a byproduct of the festival or a
decades-old curse unearthed in the antique diary? Ruth had better find out fast or her worms won't be the only things six feet under.

For Whom The Wedding Bell Tolls
By Nancy Mehl / Heartsong Presents Mysteries

Ivy Towers is getting married to the love of her life. . .But she finds that trying to run a rare bookstore and plan her upcoming nuptials is more than she
can handle. In steps Delaphine Shackleford, a new and unwilling resident in the small town of Winter Break, Kansas. Delaphine offers to be Ivy's wedding
planner, and Ivy jumps at her offer. But hiring the eccentric woman will not only drive Ivy to the brink of madness, it will also propel her into the middle of
a bizarre murder mystery!

Fudge Laced Felonies
By Cynthia Hickey / Heartsong Presents Mysteries

While transplanting the rosebush her church's handsome greeter, Ethan Banning, inadvertently killed, Summer and Ethan discover a hidden stash of
diamonds, a rusty can full of cash, and a bloody gardening. glove. This discovery sets Summer and her candy-making aunt on a search for a killer.

George Washington Stepped Here
By KD Hays / Heartsong Presents Mysteries
Karen Maxwell, a divorced mother of two, is struggling to balance her life as a soccer mom with her need to have a life of her own. After working as a
bookkeeper in her brother's private investigation firm for years, she finally gets the chance to go undercover and handle a case on her own. Her first
assignment is to find out who has stolen the local historical society's greatest treasure. Along the way she makes some new friends, one of whom is very
attractive, unmarried, and unfortunately a prime suspect in the case.

Gunfight at Grace Gulch
By Darlene Franklin / Heartsong Presents Mysteries

The feud between the Graces and the Gaynors is still going strong more than a century after its inception in the 1891 Oklahoma land run. Newspaper
editor Penn Hardy is murdered during the reenactment of the most famous gunfight in the history of Grace Gulch, Oklahoma. Cici Wilde, owner of a vintage
clothing store, feels compelled to investigate when police suspect people close to her. She soon discovers her talent for sleuthing equals her flare for wearing
period clothing. Theater director Audie Howe never expected the reenactment to end in a real murder. He cares too much for the future of the Magda Grace
Mallory Theater - and the charming Cici Wilde - to let her face danger alone. Cici and Audie take a dangerous gamble to nail the killer - and lay their lives on
the line.

Homicide at Blue Heron Lake
By Susan Page Davis and Megan Elaine Davis / Heartsong Presents Mysteries

Emily Grant returns to the lakeside community of Baxter, Maine, expecting a peaceful week in her family's island cottage. Instead, she and her high
school crush, Nate Holman, discover the body of Henry Derbin, an elderly island resident. Later, Emily finds another body, buried more than a decade earlier,
on Mr. Derbin's land. Can Emily and Nate overcome past hindrances to their romance long enough to dig up clues that will help solve both murders?

In The Dead of Winter
By Nancy Mehl / Heartsong Presents Mysteries

Samantha "Ivy" Towers returns to Winter Break, Kansas, where she spent her summers as a child, to make funeral
arrangements for her Aunt Bitty. While there, she begins to suspect her aunt's death, which resulted from a fall
in her bookshop, wasn't an accident after all. Childhood friend, Amos Parker, now sheriff of Winter Break, seems
anxious to get Ivy out of town. A missing book, a message scrawled by an unknown person, and an extra coffee cup
leaves Ivy with more questions than answers.

Kitty Litter Killer
By Candice Miller Speare / Heartsong Presents Mysteries

TRISH CUNNINGHAM IS PUSSYFOOTING WITH A MURDERER.
Amateur sleuth Trish has retired from her short-lived crime- solving foray. No more walking deliberately into danger. Her short-term goal is to see her best
friend, Abbie, marry fiancé, Eric Scott, in three weeks.
But the brutal murder of Abbie's ex-husband could ruin the nuptials, especially since Abbie was the last one seen with him-when they had a hostile argument
at the local convenience store.
With evidence pointing at Abbie and the possibility of jail looming in her best friend's future, Trish comes out of her self-imposed sleuth retirement. And as
the clock ticks down to the wedding date, Trish once again puts herself in reach of a murderer's claws-this time to protect her best friend.

Misfortune Cookies
by Linda Kozar / Heartsong Presents Mysteries

WHEN EVEN THE FORTUNE COOKIES HINT AT CALAMITY AHEAD, WATCH OUT!
Best friends Sue Jan and Lovita run a beauty shop/boutique in the little West Texas town of Wachita. They share a passion for food and fun. But one day,
over lunch in a Chinese restaurant, Lovita opens a fortune cookie with a sinister message: "Your father was murdered. . ." a clue that leads them to God, an
international spy ring, and several devastatingly handsome strangers. A most unlikely pair of detectives, these girlfriends "comb" the countryside with style,
sarcasm, and lots of Szechwan. This tale is like good take-out food-definitely worth bringing home.

Miss Aggie's Gone Missing
By Frances Devine/ Heartsong Presents Mysteries

When Aggie Pennington-Brown mysteriously disappears on the same day the Cedar Chapel bank is robbed, the sheriff assumes she was kidnapped by the
robbers, and the whole town seems to agree. Victoria Storm, owner of Cedar Lodge Boarding House and her elderly boarders reluctantly come to the same
conclusion. But when secrets from their missing friend's past begin to unfold, a horrible possibility arises. Could someone they know and love have harmed
Miss Aggie? Could it be one of them?
As Victoria and her elderly friends attempt to solve the mystery and locate Miss Aggie, more secrets are revealed until Victoria begins to wonder if there is
anyone she can trust.

Murder In The Milk Case
By Candice Miller Speare / Heartsong Presents Mysteries

When mommy and wife Trish Cunningham finds the body of pharmacist Jim Bob Jenkins behind the two-percent milk,
she knows she's having a bad day. Worse, she's a suspect in the case. Sleuthing to exonerate herself from murder charges,
she shakes up a murderer who has nothing to lose by killing anyone in the way including Trish.

Murder On The Ol Bunions
By S. Dionne Moore / Heartsong Presents Mysteries

LaTisha Barnhart's bunions tell her something's afoot as she delves deeper into the murder of her former employer, Marion Peters. When LaTisha
becomes a suspect, the ante is upped, and she is determined to clear her name and find the real culprit.