Murder Ballad Blues: A Mystery Novel

"Readers looking for a murder mystery strongly centered in regional culture, the lives and focus of two equally powerful investigators, and a puzzle that draws them into far more than a singular investigation will relish this story's superior tension." Diane Donovan, Midwest Book Review

Laurel Falls, N.C. 2005 A mysterious death in the North Carolina mountains. Then a second. By the third, the FBI finally gets involved. Trouble is, they're looking in all the wrong places.

Abit Bradshaw has a theory, but of course the FBI doesn't take him seriously. When he teams up with musicologist Wallis Harding, bluegrass music becomes more than something to practice and perform. It's key to finding the serial killer.

Della Kincaid, a former crime reporter in Washington, D.C., can't seem to escape her past. Now living in the small town of Laurel Falls, she's busy investigating a fraud case that gets darker at every turn. She's about to give up when a secretive whistleblower pulls her in again-and back to D.C.

Abit and Della team up once again to convince the FBI to help them with both their crime investigations.

Will Abit and Wallis discover the killer's pattern ... before he strikes again?

Can Della make sense of the whistleblower's clues before the fraud case is closed for good?

You'll love this suspenseful mystery because everyone longs to find justice in this crazy world.

Get it now.

This is the fourth novel-a standalone novel-in the Appalachian Mountain Mysteries series. All the favorite characters return, along with the debut of several colorful new ones.

Find out why readers are raving about Lynda McDaniel's unique voice in mystery writing.

Interview with the Author

Q: Where does this fourth book pick up in the lives of Abit Bradshaw and Della Kincaid?

A: It's a year after the last scenes in Welcome the Little Children, but eight years after they solved the family secrets and lies surrounding Astrid Holt's mother. Life has been reasonably quiet for the two. Abit, Fiona, and their 8-year-old son, Conor, perform regularly with the Ramblin' Rollers, and Della has settled into a natural rhythm at Coburn's General Store. Then all hell breaks loose with murders and money-laundering crimes.

Q: What's new in the series?

A: New crimes, of course-in fact three murders across Western North Carolina. Abit and Della get involved, working with new characters like Wallis Harding, a self-taught expert on mountain music, and Ezra Stoltz, an FBI agent. I am especially smitten with Wallis Harding. I named him after Phil Harding, archaeologist with the British television show "Time Team." Phil is such a live wire, and his namesake doesn't let him down. Wallis' physical appearance is modeled after Mick Aston, fellow archaeologist on "Time Team."

Q: Why should readers give this series a try?

A: Because these are serious mysteries without over-the-top violence. And readers tell me the character development makes them eager to read more: "a pair of unforgettable crime-solving characters," "I became intrigued by and attached to the characters," "it's the characters - Della, Abit, Alex, even the dog, Jake, the villagers and their dialogue - that engage."