Heart of Stone
An Ellie Stone Mystery
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- £8.49
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- £8.49
Publisher Description
WINNER OF THE ANTHONY AWARD® for Best Paperback Original! WINNER OF THE MACAVITY SUE FEDER MEMORIAL AWARD for Best Historical Fiction! A 2017 EDGAR AWARD® NOMINEE! In the waning days of a lazy August holiday, Ellie Stone is enjoying a bright Adirondack-lake morning. Nearby, two men plummet to their deaths just a few feet short of the water of a dangerous diving pool. A tragic accident, it seems. But the police quickly establish that the two victims—one a stranger to the lake and the other a teenaged boy from a nearby music camp—surely didn’t know each other. So how did they come to die together? Wading into a slippery morass of free-love intellectuals and charismatic evangelicals, Ellie’s investigation forces her to navigate old grudges and cold war passions, lost ideals and betrayed loves. As usual, she sticks her nose where it’s unwanted, rattling nerves and putting herself in jeopardy. But this time it’s her heart that’s also at risk.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in the Adirondacks in August of 1961, Ziskin's solid fourth Ellie Stone mystery (after 2015's Stone Cold Dead) begins with slovenly local police chief Ralph Terwilliger asking the vacationing 25-year-old reporter to photograph the corpses of two people who fell from a cliff in a nearby cove. Though the deceased one a teenager from an area music camp, the other a wealthy man in his mid-30s don't appear to have known one another, their deaths are deemed accidental. Sensing that there's more to the story, Ellie launches her own investigation. Clever clues and convincing red herrings share the page with discussions of faith, prejudice, and cold war politics. Larger-than-life characters entertain but fail to ring true. Terwilliger's oafishness strains credulity. And Ellie reads more like a man's idea of a strong woman than a flesh-and-blood one; whiskey-soaked, frequently naked, and lusted after by every man she meets, she's outspoken until it comes to defending her intellect and accomplishments.
