The first book in Beth Groundwater's new Rocky Mountain Outdoor Adventures mystery series starring Mandy Tanner, a whitewater river ranger, to be released March, 2011. When Mandy rescues a man who fell out of a raft on the upper Arkansas River in Colorado and he dies on the river bank, she feels driven to find out what—or who—killed him.
This book has received good reviews in all four major book review publications (Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly) as well as in Mystery Scene Magazine and the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.
The Arkansas River is the heart and soul of Salida, Colorado. It fuels the small town's economy and thrums in the blood of twenty-seven-year-old Mandy Tanner, a river ranger. When a whitewater rafting accident occurs, she deftly executes a rescue, but a man dies anyway. But it wasn't the river rapids that killed him, it was poison. Tom King was a rich land developer with bitter business rivals, who cheated on his wife, refused to support his kayak-obsessed son, and infuriated environmentalists.
Mandy cooperates with the local sheriff's department to solve the murder. But little does she know how greatly the case will affect those she loves, including her beloved Uncle Bill—the respected owner of a outfitting business, out of whose raft Tom King fell. She goes on an emotionally turbulent quest for the truth—and ends up in dangerous waters.
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"Beauty abounds in Beth Groundwater’s new novel. Beauty in the marvelous Colorado landscape, beauty in the symmetry of the story, and beauty in the language itself. Deadly Currents is a remarkable book by an author who clearly knows and loves her territory. Don’t miss it!" —William Kent Krueger
"Beth Groundwater's Deadly Currents comes rushing at you from the first page like roiling whitewater, and culminates in a riveting climax that lives up to this book's name. If you like outdoor adventure and gripping characters, this one's a must-read."
—Sandi Ault, Mary Higgins Clark and WILLA Award-winning author of the WILD Mystery series
"An exciting ride from the very first chapter, with a courageous heroine in a fascinating line of work."
—Nancy Pickard, author of The Scent of Rain and Lightning
"If you’ve wondered what white water river rafting is all about, get ready for a wild plunge into Colorado’s Arkansas River with Mandy Tanner, river ranger extraordinaire and dauntless sleuth. Beth Groundwater gets the mountain town of Salida and its cast of river denizens just right. Hurray for Deadly Currents, a heart-racing debut to a new series with as many twists and turns and unexpected upsets as a ride through the rapids itself." —Margaret Coel, author of The Silent Spirit
Professional Reviews
Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 2011
A rafting trip down the Arkansas River gives a young Colorado river ranger a lesson in murder.
Mandy Tanner learned plenty about Pine Creek, the Numbers and Wildhorse Canyon when she worked as a guide for her Uncle Bill’s adventure tours. Now she’s using her skills to protect paddlers from the dangers of whitewater. Even an experienced guide like Gonzo Gordon wipes out every now and then, and when he flips his raft in a class V, Mandy handily plucks Hannah Fowler from the rapids. Tom King isn’t so lucky; when Mandy hauls him ashore from her cataraft, his pulse is thready. After the land developer dies on the way to the hospital, his widow Paula threatens to sue Mandy’s uncle. By the time the coroner decides that King was poisoned, not drowned, Bill Tanner is dead too. And although Mandy knows that poor diet and lack of exercise were as responsible for her uncle’s heart attack as the stress of getting blamed for Tom King’s death, she still wants to find the culprit. Not her brother David’s eagerness to sell the business and get back to his accounting practice, not her boyfriend Rob Juarez’s overprotective concern, not Chafee County Sheriff's Detective Quintana’s pleas, not even the rock through her window warning her off can stop the young ranger’s need to find the truth about how Tom King died on her watch.
Groundwater (To Hell in a Handbasket, 2009, etc.) kicks off a new series that combines outdoor action with more than a modicum of old-fashioned detection.
Barbara Bibel, Booklist Online, January 24, 2011
Groundwater (A Real Basket Case, 2007) launches a new, action-packed series featuring white-water guide Mandy Tanner. Mandy, a river ranger at her uncle’s white-water rafting business, pulls a man from the river as part of her first day on the job. The man dies, but he did not drown. The victim, Tom King, was a real-estate developer with lots of nasty rivals. He also cheated on his wife and refused to support his son, an avid kayaker. He managed to make many environmentalists very unhappy, too. When Mandy’s uncle dies suddenly, she suspects something more than a heart attack and wonders whether the two deaths are related. Her independent investigation leads her through some very rough water. Readers who enjoy fast-moving stories and wilderness environments will keep turning the pages of this promising series debut.
Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, June, 2011
Groundwater’s novel is filled with river lore, vivid descriptions, and loving depictions of the varied characters who make up the tight-knit community.
Book eight in my Belinda Lawrence Classic Mysteries. Mysteries confront amateur sleuths, Belinda Lawrence and Hazel Whitby in the Somerset village of Milford.
Among the eccentrics is the shadowy Madam Malefic.
All Carson Reno Mystery Series Books are standalone novels. It is not necessary to read them in any particular order.
When a Tennessee Highway Patrolman is mysteriously murdered, the clues are nonexistent. Police have the name of a possible suspect,
