A Faire Day for Murder by Alan Scott is now available on Amazon!

A Faire Day for Murder, the follow up to Inside Passage to Murder has been published and is available on Amazon.com! 

Blurb:

The brutal murder of an old man in his isolated farmhouse and very few clues leaves local law enforcement with no alternative but to ask the Psionic Corps for help.  Ian Houston with his paranormal abilities is called in but his presence isn’t welcomed by all.  The sheriff is convinced the owners of the nearby renaissance faire are behind the murder, especially since the victim was about to evict the faire from his land just as their season was getting underway. 

Ian is not convinced the case is so straightforward, especially since there are other people with just as motive for doing away with the old man; the neighbor whom he has had a long-going property dispute, the son who will inherit his lands although the farm isn’t very profitable; one of the many participants and patrons of the faire whom the old man harassed over the years.  To keep innocent people from being charged with murder, Ian must join the renaissance faire as a cast member to see if there is a murderer lurking among the ren folke.

Compounding his investigation is the beautiful actress Diana Morgan who instantly steals his heart.  But as a cast member, she is also under suspicion and Ian discovers she may have a dark past, too.

A second murder confounds the investigation and the mystery becomes even more confused.  Meanwhile the sheriff is moving closer to charging the renaissance faire owners with murder.

Can Ian use his powers to find the real culprit and prove his new-found friends innocent?

Chapter 1:

          Tom Eskew shifted in his favorite easy chair, situated in front of the television. The cushion sagged so much he felt his ample butt was only inches from the floor and the springs were poking him through the threadbare fabric.  He did not care.

          No one else, not even his son John, was allowed to sit there.

          He pointed the remote control at the television and began punching buttons to turn up the volume.  The channel changed instead.

          “Shit,” he mumbled.  “I’m gonna miss Wheel of Fortune.  I’ll never understand how to work this damn thing.”

          After a minute of trial and error, Tom managed to find the correct channel and appropriate level of house-shaking volume so he could hear.

          “Finally,” he said, just as the first puzzle appeared on the screen. The phone sitting on a table next to his chair shrilled.

          “Damn it,” he growled.  “Right in the middle of my show.”

     The old man picked it up and squinted at the numbers on the caller ID.

Another waste of money, he growled to himself.  What’s the use of having this feature on his phone if I can’t even see it?

“Hello!”  Tom barked into the receiver, his fleshy bulldog-like jowls quivering as he spoke.  It wasn’t a greeting as much as it was a challenge.  “What?”  He shouted as he tried to hear the caller over the TV.

“I said I ran off the road a few miles from the house, Dad!”

“What the hell did you do that for?”

 “Don’t worry about me, Dad.  I’ve already called Sheriff Weaver and he’s on his way!”  John went on without responding to the insult. 

Tom berated his son, shouting questions and issuing threats if the truck John had been driving was damaged in any way. 

“I think it’s totaled,” John replied.

“Well, you’re gonna pay for it.  I’m not buying another damn vehicle.”

Shouting a final threat in the phone, Tom slammed the receiver back into its cradle.  He sat back in his chair and glared back at the TV. 

          Commercials? What was that last puzzle?  I was about to solve it. He threw his hands up in disgust.

A sound behind him tore his attention away from his beloved program. 

“What now?”  He craned his neck to find the source of the sound.  All the windows had been opened to let in the cool air from the outside, with screens to keep the bugs out.  Everything seemed to be in order.  He was just about to turn back to the television when a movement behind him caught his eye.

He had no time to turn before a shot fired from a gun took the top of his head off, splattering the television screen with blood.  The rest of his body slumped back into the chair.