Spotlight/Book Giveaway/Guest Post: Shunned and Dangerous by Laura Bradford

About the book

Genre: Cozy Mystery, #3 in An Amish Mystery Series
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime Mystery
Release Date: March 2014



Synopsis from Goodreads...

Living in the small town of Heavenly, Pennsylvania, Claire Weatherly has come to admire the Amish for their wholesome, honest way of life. But she also knows that nothing is as simple as it seems—especially when murder disturbs the peace.

Claire has always been game for a good puzzle, so when she hears that Mose Fisher has made one of his famous corn mazes, she can’t wait to walk the paths and test her skill. But she’ll have a much more serious puzzle to solve when, deep inside the maze, she discovers the body of Amish dairy farmer Harley Zook.

It won’t be easy for Detective Jakob Fisher to investigate a murder on his own father’s farm—not after being shunned by the man for leaving the Amish community and becoming a cop. With Mose himself as a suspect, and old family secrets cropping up, it’s up to Claire to help catch the killer before she finds herself at a dead end.

Author Guest Post

A Modern Mystery In An Old Fashioned World

By Laura Bradford

“Pick up your cell phone!”

“Take a picture!”

“Turn on your GPS!”

I don’t know about you, but I know I’ve certainly shouted a few of those things to a fictional character or two over the last few years. Honestly, in today’s world, a character in a mystery novel or on a television drama would be flagged as unrealistic if they didn’t use today’s technology to solve a crime.

That is, unless, that particular character happens to live among a group of people who don’t believe in things like cell phones, cameras, GPS devices, or really any sort of technology that links them to the outside world.

In my Amish Mysteries, I’ve been able to create a present day world that operates, in many ways, like the America of the late 1800’s, when people got around by horse and buggy, and the availability of a phone wasn’t a given. Sure, the “English” (as the Amish call us) in my fictional town of Heavenly, Pennsylvania still have access to technology, but technology only works when all parties play. And on the Amish side of town, they don’t.

Think about it for a minute…

How does a parent help the police find their missing child if they don’t have any pictures to share (not because they won’t, but because they’ve never taken any)?

How does a person call for help when there are no phones in their home (not because they can’t afford one, but because they don’t want one)?
And how can a criminal be apprehended if the target of his or her misdeeds refuses to file a report or lodge a complaint (not because they can’t speak, but because they choose not to)?

And it’s that last point that comes into play in SHUNNED AND DANGEROUS, the third book, in my Amish Mysteries. In this story, Amish Dairy Farmer Harley Zook is found dead in the middle of a corn maze. Unbeknownst to police, Harley had been the victim of a number of seemingly innocuous pranks in the weeks leading up to his demise. Whether or not these so-called pranks were all done by the same person—and whether that person is guilty of murder—is what Detective Jakob Fisher must now find out.

But when the trail of clues leads Jakob to the doorstep of his former Amish home and the father who has refused to speak with him for the past seventeen years, he must lean on Claire Weatherly, a local gift shop owner and potential love interest, to help him uncover the truth…even if it’s not the truth either of them wants.

* * *

Laura Bradford is the national best-selling author of the Amish Mysteries (Berkley Prime Crime). The third title in the series—SHUNNED AND DANGEROUS—is available March 4th. To learn more about Laura and the Amish Mysteries, visit her website: www.laurabradford.com, “like” her page on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Laura-Bradford/316744455035472?ref=hl, or follow her on Twitter @Bradfordauthor.

BOOK GIVEAWAY!!!!

How would you like to win a paperback copy of Shunned and Dangerous by Laura Bradford? Thanks to Berkley, I have one paperback to giveaway to one lucky winner.

Just a few simple rules...

1) You must fill out the rafflecopter form below.

2) Contest is open to anyone over 18 years old

3) US Residents Only

4) For an one extra entry: Tweet about this giveaway.

5) For an one extra entry: Leave a comment for the author.

No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited.

The giveaway begins on March 5th (midnight est) and ends on March 12th (midnight est).

The winner will be chosen randomly by Rafflecopter. The winner will be notified by email and has 48 hours to respond, otherwise a new winner will be chosen. I will announce the winner here on my blog.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway