Murder At Yaquina Head

Thomas Martindale, a journalism professor, is enjoying the first day of his summer vacation on the Oregon coast. He has brought with him the active curiosity and investigative abilities that often get him into situations most people would ignore. When he is invited to brunch at the home of an old friend, she confides that someone may be trying to kill her. The next night, that fear is realized when Tom finds her body at a nearby lighthouse. Tom immediately sets out to find her killer, using clues from a manuscript his friend gave him for review. Have the incidents during World War II, described in the manuscript, caused her death? Did they reveal secrets about someone--someone who feared their consequences if they were revealed? As he has in the past, Tom seeks help from his former lover, a State Police officer She has gotten him out of many tight spots in the past. But his determination to solve the murder puts him in great danger from unexpected sources--especially when he is finally confronted on a suspension bridge high above the swirling waters of Yaquina Bay.

A journalism professor investigates a murder at Yaquina Head Lighthouse.

Shocking secrets within the unpublished WWII memoir of a murdered professor sets Thomas Martindale on the trail of a killer. Will he be next? Oregon University Journalism professor and amateur sleuth, Thomas Martindale, is enjoying a summer vacation on the tranquil Oregon coast. During a brunch at the home of elderly friend, Simone Godard, he happily agrees to read her unpublished memoir. But when she reveals her fears that someone is trying to kill her, Tom is pulled into a tale of deceit that spans back to World War II. The following day, Simone's fears are realized when Tom discovers her body at Yaquina Head lighthouse. Determined to unmask her killer, Tom looks for clues in her manuscript, which details Simone's participation in the French Resistance movement along with far more shocking secrets. As the truth unravels, Martindale finds himself above the swirling waters of Yaquina Bay, face-to-face with those who will do anything to keep the past hidden.

In his latest adventure, professor and sometime amateur sleuth Thomas Martindale leaves campus to sign on as a science writer for a research expedition to the Arctic for a change of pace from the often mundane world of the university. The work is unique: an attempt to study ice as a tool for national security. Soon after the members of the team board a U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker for the journey to their base--a remote island in the Beaufort Sea--Russian scientists join the group with unpleasant consequences. The rivalry turns deadly after the icebreaker leaves and people start dying under mysterious circumstances. The arrival of an Arab terrorist and a marauding polar bear complicate life on the small island. An early freeze traps the men and women of the expedition as a massive ice shield closes in. The events oddly parallel a similar (and real) disaster Martindale is writing about, which took place in 1897.

The high stakes game of university recruiting and a scandal involving black athletes form the centerpiece of this mystery novel. College professor and amateur sleuth Thomas Martindale is acting as the liaison between the university and a video production company to prepare a series of TV ads. When one of his students is killed, he hunts for her killer. In the process he uncovers the scandal and encounters the wife of a coach who will stop at nothing to keep her exploits secret.

As has often happened to Thomas Martindale in the past, the routine events of everyday life can suddenly become very complicated. Take commencement, that most moving and rewarding event of the year on any campus. He is enjoying the ceremony as the host of three candidates to become the new university president when a tragic incident changes everything. Or jury duty. The chance encounter of a colleague while he is on jury duty leads to the discovery of a nefarious scheme to use illegal immigrants in deadly virus research. Or as a member of the committee choosing the new president. Is someone trying to kill one of the candidates? Added to this is something new for the longtime loner: he may have fallen in love.

In Dead Whales Tell No Tales, mystery novelist Ron Lovell returns to the locale of his first novel, Murder at Yaquina Head--the rugged Oregon Coast. It is 1987 and college professor Thomas Martindale is teaching a summer writing seminar at the university's marine center. A marine biologist dies under bizarre circumstances and his assistant, Tom's former lover, is arrested for his murder. The death occurs while a conference of the International Whaling Commission is going on at the center. In Martindale's mind, there are more likely suspects than his friend: the Japanese fisheries minister, an Eskimo whaling commissioner, and several radical environmentalists. Tom's investigation uncovers the murdered man's involvement in a drowning at sea of a graduate assistant and his collaboration with the Japanese to alter whale population statistics. It also puts him in danger from unknown pursuers who keep following him in his car. At the same time, a large Gray whale has beached herself near his house, adding a unique aura to the events on land.

What possible connection could there be between a dredge and an accountant from Seattle? This book is set in the picturesque town of Newport on the Central Oregon Coast. It is a favorite tourist destination for those who live in both Portland and Seattle, although it retains its small-town atmosphere. Its residents enjoy the active commercial fishing harbor, as well as the unique attractions of an Aquarium and the Pacific Coast Center. Each year the ocean currents move sand into the harbor entrance, creating a navigation problem for the fishing fleet residing in the port. In order to keep the channel open, the Columbia Dredge comes into Newport each year, to dredge the sand out of the channel. Accountant, Hazel Davies, and Chaplain, Anna Kohl, unexpectedly find themselves entangled in a murder mystery, which has the detective in charge completely stumped. Murder on the Columbia Dredge is the fourth mystery in this series.