With a lifetime bowling average of sixty-nine, Maude Turner was not an aficionado of the sport. In fact, given the choice between watching a bowling tournament and throwing herself into an erupting volcano, she might reconsider her stand against self-immolation. But duty calls. Her brother-in-law Victor Jamison is the star of his bowling team and it is Maude's duty to support Victor and the other members of the Senior Citizens Center League. Also, there is the problem of the voracious thre...

Retired schoolteacher Maude Turner and her widowed brother-in-law Victor Jamison are enjoying a day of kite flying. At least, Maude is; Victor is just along as companion and driver. Since Maude stepped in a gopher hole and broke her ankle, Victor has curtailed his social life to serve as Maude's chauffeur. But chauffeur is all Victor volunteered for, certainly not to serve as Maude's assistant when she insists an accidental death by kite they both witness is actually murder. Her claims dis...

People called her That Hunter Woman and they didn't mean it kindly, but Mattie Hunter suspected if she had her life given back to her to correct, she would make the same choices. She was a hard woman, she knew that, but she had faced hard choices and hard circumstances. She built her property into the largest ranch in the Texas Panhandle, and it takes a hard woman to do that. But now was the time to reflect, to relive old memories, both the sweet and the hurtful, and there were both. Her l...

Love--Hate--Natural Disasters--Retribution--Revenge, all contribute to the humbling of Mattie Hunter in THE RECKONING, a complex sequel to Meredith's first novel of historical fiction: A TIME TOO LATE. Separated from Jesse McDade, her former ranch manager and the man she loves, Mattie is at the mercy of whatever cruel acts her weakling husband, Samuel, and his close companion, Clint Murray, can devise. Thanks to a decision her father made, Mattie no longer holds clear title to her ranch, b...

When Wild Horse Lake dries up due to drought, an old 1938 Ford surfaces to present a puzzle to Megan Clark, assistant librarian and unemployed paleopathologist, that she can't resist. When the skeleton of a homicide victim is found buried between the walls of an old laundry on Sixth Street, Megan is sure there is a connection to the old Ford. Excited by the possibility of tracking down the connection, as well as uncovering the murderer, Megan asks her mystery readers discussion group for h...

In 1868, Comanche warrior Spotted Tongue finds his second wife's body in Palo Duro Canyon, murdered by one of his fellow Comanche. To spill the blood of Spotted Tongue's wife is a forbidden act. Comanches do not murder other Comanches, and Little Flower became a Comanche when Spotted Tongue married her. But Little Flower was a white captive first, and many of the Comanche still despise her. But who hated her enough to break a taboo by murdering her. Spotted Tongue vows to track down the mu...

Planning to write a paper for Smithsonian Magazine on the cultural significance of string figures, such as Cat's Cradle, librarian and unemployed paleopathologist Dr. Megan Clark has a wonderful idea that will help her with her research. She will organize a convention and invite all the members of the International String Figure Association to attend. She invites the Murder by the Yard Reading Circle to forgo discussing mysteries and help her with her convention. The membership, eccentrics...

The most dangerous happenings at the mystery discussion group, held at Time and Again Bookstore every Tuesday night, are the arguments between the members about the finer points of the mystery genre. History professor Ryan Stevens dozes happily during the loud disagreements. Being a closet reader of Westerns with no knowledge of mysteries beyond Poe and Sherlock Holmes, Ryan is only a member of the group because he is the bosom companion and very best friend of Megan Clark, board certified...

A Lincoln Continental driven by Amy Steele, wife of millionaire rancher, James Steele, rams a tanker full of gasoline. Instant incineration of both drivers; a probable accident, according to Sergeant Larry Jenner of the Amarillo Police Department. Eight months later, it’s murder, according to Sergeant Ed Schroder of the Special Crimes Unit, and the probable murderer is the widower. Standing between James Steele and Sergeants Jenner and Schroder is John Lloyd Branson, reputed to be the be...

At first glance, he was a fine figure of a man. Even the butcher knife buried in the middle of his chest didn't seriously detract ffrom his good looks. But that corpse, nude except for a pair of mismatched socks--and the butcher knife , of course--is trouble with a capital T for Leroy MacPherson, in whose wheat field the body is dumped, and rest of his extended family. It's also trouble for the opponents of the nuclear waste depository the DOE plans to build in the Texas Panhandle. The vic...

In a variation of the classic locked room mystery, Attorney John Lloyd Branson and his beautiful, trusted, but often impetuous legal assistant, Lydia Fairchild scare up ghosts from the past and rattle family skeletons as they try to discover who murdered the young museum curator. It's no Halloween trick when Brad Hemphill materializes in a locked museum at midnight, the main feature in a prhistoric display. Who among the museum staff would kill the harmless, mild-mannered young curator, an...

Someone is killing prostitutes on Amarillo Boulevard after sending each a cryptic invitation to "cleanse your soul in the blood of the lamb." One victim mails a letter to John Lloyd Branson, the Panhandle's most famous lawyer, begging for his help. When she is murdered before she can talk to him, and her appointment is kept by her pimp and his stable of girls, John Lloyd declines any involvement in the case. His legal assistant, Lydia Fairchild is so incensed that she goes undercover on th...