Merryll Manning The Health Farm Murders

A mystery thriller, set against the spectacular scenic backdrop of an imaginary health farm in the small mountain township of Blackheath in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, west of Sydney, Australia, this is the second suspense novel featuring Sergeant Merryll Merry Manning of the Miami Police Department. Sergeant Manning debuted in Merryll Manning: Trapped on Mystery Island in 2008. Although the characters are entirely fictitious, the plot itself was adapted from several factual incidents that occurred in Mexico, Chile, Peru and other mountainous areas of South America. The geographical details relating to Blackheath and Govett's Leap are accurate in every detail, although the atmosphere attributed to the town is purely imaginary. The health ideas touted in the book, however, are based on the advice of several highly respected nutritionists, including Mary C. Hogle and C.E. Clinkard.

Following "Merryll Manning: Trapped on Mystery Island" and "Merryll Manning: The Health Farm Murders", the third Merryll Manning mystery/suspense novel takes the Miami police sergeant to Sydney Harbor, Australia, where he finds himself the chief suspect in the murder of a young woman in her luxury beach-side apartment.

This novel tells a story instigated by a fictitious movie star named Bess Dress Blighty. Bess made the startling discovery that all a woman had to do to attract attention from the nation's press, radio and budding TV, was to take her clothes off. But alas, that action was the sum total of the attention she received. If Bess spoke about the obstacles placed in the paths of career women, or the denial of equal rights and opportunities with men, or drew attention to the plight of women who were deserted by their husbands or lovers and left to raise children on an income of less than zero, nobody gave a damn. But on the other hand, the mere action of taking her clothes off excited frenzied attention from everybody - including the nation's top church leaders, newspaper editors, radio commentators, gossip columnists, TV programmers, and even Washington politicians. Indeed, although the line-up of would-be censors was prodigious, it seems that some bigot was especially envious of Bess's successful efforts.

John Howard Reid (a well-known author with over 50 years experience in writing and publishing) is Chief Judge of three annual literary events: The Tom Howard Short Story, Essay and Prose Contest, the Tom Howard Poetry Contest, and the Margaret Reid Prize for Traditional Verse. These long-established, prestigious writing competitions each offer cash prizes totally $5,350. In "Write Ways to WIN WRITING CONTESTS", John Reid tells every aspiring author how to achieve success. To research this book, he entered no less than eighty writing contests himself. His entries won prizes, or were short-listed, at least 27 times. That's better than a one-in-three success rate. "I would easily have achieved a one-in-two success rate if I had only entered the RIGHT contests," Reid declares. "I entered some of them merely to prove my theories or simply to obtain Judges' Reports." In this book, John Howard Reid will tell YOU how to select the RIGHT contests for YOUR essays, short stories and poems.

No less than 150 classic western movies are surveyed, ranging from super productions like "The Big Country", "Destry Rides Again", "The Mark of Zorro", "Red River", "The Searchers", "The Spoilers" and "Unconquered" to the output of such popular "B" western film stars as Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Randolph Scott, William Boyd, Johnny Mack Brown, Tim Holt and Wayne Morris. Plus a big tip of the sombrero to Charles Starrett and John Wayne.

Newly translated and paraphrased selections from Old Testament and so-called "apocryphal" biblical wisdom literature, including The Wisdom of "Solomon," Jesus Ben Sirach, Tobias (Tobit), Greek "Ezra," King David and other inspired Jewish and Greek writers, are rendered into modern English. The original stories of "The Three Wise Young Men" and Tobias (Tobit} have been reconstructed, whilst retaining as many of the later moralistic interpolations as seemed consistent with the original narratives. Tobias is especially important as it is the book drawn upon by Jesus of Nazareth for his most famous parable and maxims. Other books represented include "Susanna," "The Visions of Ezra," "Proverbs," "Psalms," "Baruch" and "The Prayer of Manasseh."