Shadows of Death - (Frank Flynn Mystery) by David Sundstrand (Paperback)

About the Book

When Seth Parker kills two poachers in the Mojave Desert for shooting burros, he becomes a wanted man in detective Frank Flynn's jurisdiction. Because of Flynn's intimate knowledge of the desert, he anticipates Parker's next moves, but is one step behind.

Book Synopsis

Seth Parker is considered a terrorist by the FBI and is credited with many unusual deaths in Southern California. A man who cut the beaks off of pelicans is found dead and lipless. Another man who ran a dog fighting ring is found torn apart by his own dogs. Two boys who posted a YouTube video of themselves blowing up cats are missing, and no one expects to find them in one piece.

When Parker kills two poachers in the Mojave Desert for shooting burros, he falls into Frank Flynn's orbit. The problem is that Flynn sympathizes with Parker more than he should. Because of this connection and his intimate knowledge of the desert, Flynn seems able to anticipate Parker's next moves, though he is always one step behind.

With the opening of Sand Canyon, Flynn finds himself in the awkward position of having to protect an exclusive hunting resort. He'll have to come to terms with this duty, if he's to stay alive.

David Sundstrand's second novel gives more incredible descriptions of the desert and a riveting story.

Review Quotes

"Sundstrand knows how to keep the tale moving as quickly as a flash flood. He has staked out a forbidding landscape which I look forward to revisiting. Sundstrand's small band of quirky, eccentric and rugged characters spring to life in the Owens River Valley, the craggy rock roads of the Sierra Nevada mountains and the burning Mojave desert. Into their world steps sniper Seth Parker, an intriguing and relentless killer whose victims are all people who have tortured and killed animals ranging from kittens to burros to mountain lions. Frank Flynn, the Mountain Ranger who lives in an old derailed caboose, finds it difficult to take the moral high ground until Parker's obsession becomes mania and leads to a violent high body count ending. The trip into Flynn's corner of the world is well worth taking." --Stuart M. Kaminsky, Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel, and a Grandmaster of The Mystery Writers of America, who writes the Porfiry Rostnikov, Abe Lieberman and Lew Fonesca novels

About the Author

David Sundstrand was a longshoreman, a soldier, a railroad brakeman, and served in the United States Merchant Marine before going to college on the G.I. Bill to study English literature. He liked being a student almost as much as being a ne'er-do-well and might have stayed in college permanently were it not for the constraints of having to make a living. After many years of teaching English in high school and college, he decided to change hats and write something himself. He lives in Reno, Nevada, with his wife, Jacquelyn, two dogs, and a cat.