Driving aside, Abby does have a not bad record for another skill she does enjoy; Abby has been successful in getting to the crux of more than a crime or two.

A pre-Valentine's Day rendezvous at a remote mountain inn with a former paramour becomes calamitous when Abby’s car is run off the road by a truck, leaving Abby in a ditch in his wake, where she considers her near death encounter as no accident.

A rather embarrassed Abby is soon chagrinned to find herself talking to the local police as she tries to explain that even though she is sitting in a ditch; neither the remote location or the circumstance causing her to be in that ditch were not of her choosing. Driving to meet an old lover. Abby Doyle’s car was run off a mountain road. 

The police assure Abby that her ending up in the ditch does not appear, in their opinion, to be anything more than an accident.

Unyielding in her resolve to not to let the near miss ruin her upcoming weekend, Abby continues to the site of the inn where she discovers Todd Mason has completed his preparations as she completes her check-in.

As it turned out, Todd did actually complete all preparations except one big one; a murder. His own.

The police attitude regarding the near miss on the road as nothing more than an accident came to abrupt end when the man Abby came to meet is found murdered.

Abby was on her way to meet that old friend at the resort.  However, Todd Mason’s death before he really had the chance to explain to Abby why he had suggested that she come to meet him in such an out of the way locale convinced Abby that there was likely more to both her supposed ‘accident’ and Todd's death than first appeared. 

Todd himself was known to enter, from time to time, into a bit of detecting work.  

Abby becomes single-minded to learn everything she can about Todd and what he may have been working on when Todd's mother insists that Abby study the situations surrounding her son's death.

Resolute in her determination to locate the murderer, Abby uncovers fraudulence in the trucking business and is soon pitted against corrupt men who don’t hesitate at murder to get what they want.

After a short time, Abby realizes that much more than a romantic weekend had prompted Todd's invitation. Her scrutiny into his death unearths a scheme of sleaze within the trucking industry which encompasses not only drivers of the trucks, but also duplicitous politicians and even organized crime.

Before the narrative ends; Abby herself will face possible death, will unearth a cover-up, and will gain more knowledge regarding Todd himself than she ever wanted to know.  In addition, she will come to grips with what she herself must do to keep herself alive.

On the pages of Red Roses For a Dead Trucker novelist Collins has wrought a fast paced mystery sure to captivate the most discerning mystery reader. From the opening lines in which Abby sets the scene for us with headlights threatening closer and closer in her mirror, right on to the last paragraph as she sits and talks with her grown daughter Red Roses For a Dead Trucker will hold reader attention fast.

Red Roses For a Dead Trucker offers Readers a gripping storyline set against a backdrop of deception, trickery, and chicanery.  Complete with durable portrayal and tension, Red Roses is thought - provoking and insightful.  The story line is fine.   Robust, carefully detailed, plausible characters; gritty discourse and hearty emotions abound.  Watch for red herrings, they are meant to lead the reader astray.

I especially like, Abby Doyle. As a good role model for women, Doyle is strong and gutsy. As is found with others of Writer Ashwood Collins's mysteries, Red Roses For a Dead Trucker narrative offers insights regarding ecological issues.

Hard-hitting, bitter, at times rancorous dialogue is convincing.  Conflict appears and is resolved.  Red Roses For a Dead Trucker overflows with a rich blend placed against a drapery of visual imagery, timbre, exhilarating locales and subterfuge.

Provided in the first-person, sequence of events does not decline as writer Collins leads  the reader from widespread sparsely populated Catskills to New York City with all the clamor and uproar to be found in one of the principal cities in the nation. First person is not an unproblematic structure to bring about well. Collins pulls it off with panache.

Red Roses For a Dead Trucker is an electrifying little work just the thing for a rainy evening spent sitting in front of the fire place.  Happy to recommend.

I received a paperback edition Red Roses for a Dead Trucker, Book 2 Abby Doyle Environmental Mystery Series   for review.

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Reviewed by Molly’s  Reviews   molly      martin

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