Emma Golden Mystery

Set on the southern Oregon coast, "The Difficult Sister" follows amateur sleuth Emma and her friend Melody Wyatt as they search for Melody's missing sister Aurora. Known as "the Bolter", Aurora has burned her way through a plethora of husbands and lovers. At age 50, freshly reinvented by modern science, the she meets a man on-line and falls in love. She moves with him from Portland to the remote fictional town of Radnor. Within a few weeks, her emails and phone calls cease. Melody becomes further alarmed when her sister's cell phone is answered by the man, who claims Aurora left him. She and Emma drive to Bandon, Oregon to look for her. In a novel where place emerges as a key character, the two women are swept into the miasma that is the southern Oregon coast-where the "haves" live in homes overlooking the Pacific Ocean on coastal side of Highway 101 and the "have-nots" live in 50-year-old single-wide trailers on the dark side of the highway. It is a place some folks go to cook meth, disappear into poverty, or just disappear. "The Difficult Sister" is the second book in the Emma Golden Mysteries series.

James Ryder has it all. A founding pioneer of the Oregon wine industry, he has the stately good looks of a gentleman farmer, the perfect family, an ample bank account, and the prestige of owning one of Oregon's oldest and most respected wineries. His youngest daughter has taken up the torch to become the second generation winemaker at Ryder Estate. His only problem is those pesky developers from Nevada who want to put a destination resort/spa right up the hill from his vineyard. Ryder won't have it, as he is quick to tell Max Weatherman, a representative of the developers, during the Salmon Bake at the annual International Pinot Noir Celebration in McMinnville. It's a blistering hot night. Tempers flare, fisticuffs ensue, and a short while later, Ryder is found dead, stabbed in a porta-potty at the very festival he helped found. Enter the not-so-intrepid Emma Golden, a friend and admirer of Ryder. She wants to find out who killed him. But nobody can find the man who might be able to answer her questions. Max Weatherman has vanished, and a lot of people are looking for him.