Author: Mary Jane Clark

ISBN: 9780062135445

Publisher: William Morrow (January 8, 2013)

Follow Here To Purchase Footprints in the Sand: A Piper Donovan Mystery (Piper Donovan Mysteries)


The Internet is a powerful research tool. Information is right at your fingertips and sometimes if you search long and hard enough you will find the information you are looking for and at other times more than you expected. Secrets believed to believed to be hidden beneath the layers of each link that is pulled up can uncover the hidden truths, myths, lies and deceits that some hope to conceal forever.

Shelley Hart surfed the net and found information she thought would give her leverage over a powerful adversary. Blackmail is dangerous and before you attempt to blackmail an individual be careful before the tables can be turned on you as fast as the click of a mouse can upload a picture of a new link. Shelly asked for a meeting in a public place thinking she was safe. Observed by someone that she hardly noticed would create another chain of events causing this powerful man to strike again as the action he takes to silence Shelley is observed by someone else. Sometimes our observations go unnoticed but other times it might cost you more than you are willing to pay.

The beach often brings solace and to some when they walk the sandy highway and ponder their inner most thoughts. The quiet and tranquillity of the early morning listening to surf come up and watching the waves soar and often calm the nerves of a conflicted person. Levi Fisher needed to decide where his life was going. Did he want to embrace the Amish way of life or remain free form the confine, rules and constraints imposed?

But, when Levi walks the beach he observes something that he will never forget. Imagine watching someone dig so deep down in the sand that the hole created is large enough for a body. Burying this body beneath the sand the killer does not think anyone will ever find it and the secret of where the victim remains will never be uncovered. But, some secrets are meant to be revealed while others are not and one blackmailer will go to her final resting place without her thoughts and reasons for her actions ever revealed while one young man will never be the same. The killer observes Levi Fisher and bargains with you might say the devil on his terms. When all is said and buried even deeper within the sands of the beach the footprints that are seen and revealed will not only be that of the killer but someone else too.

Piper Donovan has just arrived in Sarasota, Florida along with her parents in order to be the Maid of Honor at her cousin Kathy’s wedding. Piper and her mother Terri are both wedding cake decorators and plan to create a cake delicious sugary treats that will tantalize the pallet of every wedding guest and a cake that will not only be delicious but one that will be special for the bride and groom. Piper and her parents decide to stop at their favorite Amish restaurant after their long plane trip and have a leisurely lunch. Restless from the long trip Piper decides to check out the gift shop at the Amish restaurant they where they decide to have lunch, while her parents wait for a table. Levi Fisher is the young man that operates the gift shop and he has a special artistic talent for creating hex signs for many different occasions each symbol and sign having with their own meaning. Commissioning him to create a special Wedding Hex for the bride and groom settles the issue of a proper gift. But, little does she realize or know at the time that this simple yet costly gift would be the primary clue in a murder investigation.

Family reunions are great and when Piper and the bride to be catch up something about Kathy’s seems off. When Piper presses Kathy for information as to what might be bothering her she thinks it might be her upcoming wedding. After all sometimes brides have second thoughts or sometimes they are not sure of whether they want to get married or not. But, not in this case as she relates her concerns about the whereabouts of Shelley Hart one of her bridesmaids that seems to have disappeared.

Walter Engel is the owner of the Whisper Sands where the wedding is taking place and is dating Piper’s aunt Nora. Walter has secrets of his own and an agenda that sparks controversy with other landowners in the area. Isaac his wedding planner does not seem that distraught over Shelley’s disappearance, why? Brad the best man; an ex-drug dealer has an eye for Piper but is he the killer? Dan, our bridegroom is a marine biologist who seems to care about Kathy but does he?  Roz Golubuck is an elderly woman who observes something from her window. Added in a doctor and his wife who collect Japanese figurines and we have a colorful cast of suspects. The end result will surprise the reader as once again author Mary Jane Clark takes the reader on a fast paced walk through the sandy beach to find whose footprints were made in the sand. Once again Mary Jane Clark tempts the reader with these delicious treats and ready for Piper’s next mystery.


Follow Here To Purchase Footprints in the Sand: A Piper Donovan Mystery (Piper Donovan Mysteries)