The Hayloft: A 1950s Mystery

The Hayloft: a 1950s mystery features bobby sox, slow dancing, the communist conspiracy, bomb shelters-and murder. Within two weeks after starting his senior year of high school, Gary Blanchard finds himself kicked out of one school and attending another-the school where his cousin, Ralph, mysteriously died six months before. Ralph's death was labeled an accident, but when Gary talks to people about it, he gets suspicious.Did Ralph fall from the auditorium balcony, or was he pushed? Had he found a diamond necklace, talked about by cousins recently arrived from England that was supposedly stolen from Dutch royalty by a common ancestor and lost for generations? What about the principal with an abnormal liking for boys? And are Ralph's ex-girlfriends telling everything they know?Gary has a talent that helps him "get in good" with a couple of the key girls in his new school's social/political machine, the powerful Sylvia and the beautiful Natalie. This comes in handy for his quest to find out how Ralph really died. And Ed, his more distant cousin from England who also attends the school, seems to know a lot about Ralph and the lost necklace. It doesn't hurt that Ed has a pretty younger sister named Kate-or does it?Things go awry when the father of one of the students is questioned about his ties to communist organizations. The fallout from this upsets the balance of power within the school and could even get Gary thrown out of his second school within a few weeks. Key scenes take place in the hayloft of the barn on the farm where Gary is staying with his aunt and uncle-Ralph's parents. What happens in that hayloft will affect Gary for the rest of his life-if he survives. After spending more than a quarter of a century as a pioneer in the computer industry, Alan Cook is well into his second career as a writer.ROCKY ROAD TO DENVERThe death of Roger McAllister's wife in 1984 prompts him to take a break from his accounting firm and join a walk from Los Angeles to Denver, sponsored by Zeus Shoes. The people he encounters will shake him out of his comfort zone, providing comedy, peril and sexual temptation. In addition, his dead wife appears to be keeping an eye on him. Roger's life will never be the same.DEATH AT MONKSREST--Charlie and Liz No. 3Liz Reid flies to England in the 1960s because of a poem about an ancient curse that her coworker, Charlie Ebersole, has sent her, which may have led to the murder of the sister of Charlie's English friend, Reggie, whose father is the owner of the hereditary estate of Monksrest. Liz works with Lord Wheatley to find clues in spite of the risks involved.EAST OF THE WALL--Charlie and Liz No. 2Charlie Ebersole and Liz Reid are recruited by the CIA to go into East Germany in June 1963, to attempt to obtain intelligence about a secret project of the Germans during World War II, about which information has been lost. The Berlin Wall and the Stasi (East German secret police) make this a perilous mission, but the two suspect that they are the most appropriate people for the job.TRUST ME IF YOU DARE--Charlie and Liz No. 1Charlie Ebersole is good at his job as a securities analyst for International Industries in Los Angeles in the year 1962, but he is also somewhat bored at being tied to a desk most of the time. He jumps at the chance to join the fraud section of II, and is immediately put on a case that will take him and another employee, Elizabeth Reid, to Buffalo, Fort Lauderdale, and possibly to Fidel Castro's Cuba, although the Bay of Pigs fiasco is a recent memory, and relations between Cuba and the United States are not good. Charlie and Liz find out that uncovering a Ponzi scheme isn't all just fun and games, but it can be dangerous too, especially when somebody is intent on them not discovering the truth. Before they are through they may wish they were back at their nice safe desks in Los Angeles.YOUR MOVE--CAROL GOLDEN NO. 7Carol looks for a serial killer who likes to play games. As she