Dry Death in Arizona
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Had she been a man, she probably would have been dead. But women learn to walk cautiously, to be constantly aware. Had a slight crunch on the brick surface of the patio alerted her? The faintest whiff of sweating male? Or perhaps the almost imperceptible darkening of the twilight glow as someone had moved up behind her? But these thoughts came later. For the moment only fragmented impressions rained down on her like fallout from an explosion. The sound of a swish and grunt heard as she instinctively pivoted away from the unknown assailant. Her own rising shriek which almost drowned out a masculine roar of pain. The resounding crash of something heavy and metallic slamming against the bricks of the patio. A volley of deep-throated barks intermixed with cursing. The thud of running feet. A lightning bolt of fear which coursed through her whole body. “No,” she yelled at Francis, whose leash she still miraculously retained. “Stay!” she commanded the dog, who lunged forward trying to break free and pursue the attacker. Corgis might be small dogs, but they had great strength, mighty hearts, and a full sized mouth of sharp teeth, as someone had just found out to his peril, thank God. “What happened?” gasped Maggie Lyall, her next door neighbor in the townhouse complex, as she rushed in through the patio gate. Abby Taylor caught her breath and, momentarily paralyzed, stared dumbly at the tire iron lying on the bricks. “I think somebody just tried to kill me,” she said in stunned surprise. She hardly recognized the flat, uninflected voice as her own. But that’s the way she handled extreme emotion, tucked everything tidily away like hospital corners on a bed. Wrapped it up and secreted it somewhere in her innermost being until she had achieved the distance and equilibrium to pull it out and see what was there without danger of falling apart… “Where do we go from here?” Maggie asked matter of factly. Abby knew that Maggie liked to problem-solve and sensed that her friend would be much happier when a definite course of action had been mapped out. Unfortunately Abby herself had no idea what that course should be. How could she be expected to succeed in finding anything out when well-trained, well-resourced police couldn’t? It seemed to her, as it had when she was diagnosed with an incurable kidney disease, that often the challenge lay in just carrying on. Maybe in books, life was rational; the smart and observant hero/heroine soon discovered the pattern. But for her of late, most of life was just slogging blindly ahead, doing the best she could. ~ “Award winning author Elizabeth Lewis has woven two important and timely environmental issues throughout her exciting new mystery. Forest thinning and the dangerous implications of the 1872 mining law are brought to the reader’s attention as the fast-paced plot unfolds. The author’s extensive research in both conservation and Arizona history is very impressive. Dry Death in Arizona should be read both for entertainment and for the facts and vital concerns presented which are important to the preservation of land in Arizona and the West.” —MargaretMadden Former Chairperson of the Arizona Chapter of “The Nature Conservancy”.
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About the Book
What do the sinking of Mussolini's plane in Lake Roosevelt, Arizona (the dictator unfortunately not being aboard), the placement of a house of ill repute in Globe, Arizona, and the events of December 24th, 1944, (in what is now Papago Park, partially in Phoenix), have in common? They are all part of the history of Arizona and the bedrock upon which Dry Death in Arizona is founded. However, the action takes place in the real world of Arizona today, which is given color and depth by the real world of Arizona's yesterday.
One would think that trying to rebuild a life shattered by kidney disease and adapting to the demands of dialysis would be enough of a challenge for anyone. However, when someone attacks former Vassar professor of Anglo Saxon Studies, Abby Taylor, on her own patio, she fears that she has been targeted for an immediate death which has nothing to do with renal problems. But why would anyone want to kill her? And why would anyone murder a local nephrologist with a "killer kidney?" Or shoot an annoying acquaintance of Abby's with a classic rifle? Mysteries compound, and Abby, together with her faithful Corgi dog, Francis, and the intriguing, ever dearer David Neale, find themselves once again drawn into a maelstrom of mayhem and murder...
About the Author
Elizabeth Bruening Lewis has written three interrelated works of suspense fiction, yet by no means are they all fiction. Fans say that her work should be read both for fast-paced entertainment and for many hard facts it contains. Romance and humor play their part as Abby Taylor, David Neale, and their little corgi dog dodge evil ones and are pursued by murderers. Yet these fictional characters navigate a very real world with threats to the environment, incurable kidney disease, dialysis, and other challenges.
Lewis combines a background as varied as the challenges her characters face. She is a journalist, a PhD historian, has taught at the university level, and has been an active volunteer in her community, including her nine years on the board of the Arizona Nature Conservancy. In her writing, Lewis also draws on her own personal experience including hiking much of Arizona, dialysis, and kidney transplant. She has published five books, three fiction and two nonfiction, and has won three national awards.
Lewis and her husband of forty-seven years, along with their corgi Terrwyn, divide their time between Phoenix and Prescott. They have two children and four grandchildren.