This week’s selection was “Destination Wedding” by Aaron Stander. It is number 11 in his Ray Elkins mystery series.
It is May and Cedar County, Michigan, and Sheriff Ray Elkins is slowly recovering from a near-fatal gunshot wound. He and detective sergeant Sue Lawerence are enjoying the quiet time before tourist season.
The secluded peninsula of Gull Point has been in the Ingersolle family since the civil war. When Alice Ingersolle inherited the property, she had a heated legal battle with her stepfather, landscape painter Gerhard Talmadge. When the courts awarded him life lease to the original house, Alice had a massive house built to ruin his view of Lake Michigan.
She has decided to hold her daughter’s wedding at Gull Point on Memorial Day weekend. The wealthy art gallery owner has cajoled Linda Wetherbee, owner of Simply Romantic, into assisting by assuring Linda that she and assistant Jennifer Bidwell would only need to work with property manager Scott Nelson and supervise on-site details.
Ray and Sue are summoned to Gull Point when a tennis shoe with the foot still in it is found.
The event begins with a “kid’s party” on Friday. Things go well until a sudden microburst storm hits. Trees are uprooted, the power is out and many of the mansion’s windows are broken.
Ray and Sue respond but the only way to the site is by boat. They assist with evacuations and search for missing guests. Soon, the body of Gerhard Talmadge is found beneath a downed tree. It appears that he was crushed, but Ray notes an odd wound on his head.
Ingersolle’s private security, Sal Abato and Helio Lopez, summon them to the mansion. The place had been off limits to the party guests, but someone broke into Alice Ingersolle’s gallery and made off with several valuable paintings. Abato and Lopez insist that they’d secured the place as soon as the storm ended, but something about the robbery is off.
Every guest and employee is questioned. Only Nelson, Abato, Lopez, and Jennifer Bidwell set off Ray’s alarm bells. Only Piper Ingersolle appears to be honest and straightforward about her step-grandfather and her mother.
With help from Officer Barbara Sinclair, they get comprehensive background information on all the major players. Now they have to dig deep to solve this case.
When the case is finally closed, Ray realizes they still need to close two mysteries that sprang up along the way. When Sue suggests they try being a couple, Ray reluctantly agrees. I’m sure book 12 will include that relationship and more.
AT A GLANCE
BOOK: Destination Wedding (Ray Elkins Thriller Book 11)
AUTHOR: Aaron Stander
PUBLISHER: Writers and Editors LLC
YEAR PUBLISHED: 2020
NUMBER OF PAGES: 280
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