Joan Dahr Lambert

Wading into Murder Joan Dahr Lambert

Publisher Marketing: The irrepressible Laura Morland, Professor of Gender Studies, is back again! In WADING INTO MURDER Laura wades - and swims - across a rat-infested pool to rescue a baby in the famous Roman Baths of England. Attempts on her life and near-escapes come thick and fast after that. Laura is pushed down a circular stone stairwell, stalked at night by a sadist through a safari park full of wild animals, locked in the cellar of an ancient church and chased through cobbled streets on a stolen (and very wobbly) bicycle by a mob of angry drinkers. Laura is ably assisted in her efforts to unearth the villain(s) by another marvelously eccentric cast of characters - the indomitable Lady Longtree, whose oversized umbrella plays a central role, her talented grandson who makes mystery-solving graphs, and a six foot tall redhead improbably named Violet. But are these friends really on Laura's side? Violet could be a man, and the aristocratic Lady has her own suspicious agenda. And who among the members of the exclusive bus tour Laura has joined is also a member of the criminal gang? One or more of them must be - that fact soon becomes clear. When an innocent member of the tour group is murdered, Laura becomes even more determined to solve the mystery. The international baby-stealing gang she's tangling with is deadly and sophisticated - and intent on eliminating her - but to Laura, the fact that the children who are disappearing seem destined for the sex slave trade is more compelling. This is an issue she knows all about, for she plans to lecture on that very subject in Oxford later in the summer. Laura must summon all her imaginative powers and more courage than she knew she possessed to solve the mystery of WADING INTO MURDER. But neither she nor anyone else knows the identity of the master criminal until the very end. A trap is set, the lure baited, a meeting called. The tension in the room rises to unbearable heights. Then, in a wrenchingly dramatic scene that culminates in a totally unexpected accusation, the killer is exposed. The action in WADING INTO MURDER takes place in some of England's most famous and atmospheric sites: the city of Bath, with its ancient Roman Baths, Stourhead Gardens, Longleat House and Safari Park, and the magnificent cathedral in Wells. Contributor Bio:  Lambert, Joan Dahr Joan Dahr Lambert is the author of CIRCLES OF STONE, a prehistoric novel about the Mother People, who lived in Old Europe until 3,000 years ago. It was published by Simon & Schuster in 1997 & 1999, and was published in ten other countries. Lambert has written two other prehistoric novels: STAR CIRCLES, the second book in the Mother People trilogy; and ICE BURIAL, the story of Oetzi, the 15,000 year-old murdered Iceman discovered in Italy. She has also written The Wolves of Peat Moss Forest, a novel for children, and SEAHORSE MEMOIRS, a novella. All her books will soon be published online. Lambert is now writing mysteries, mostly because she can't find the type of mystery she wants to read at the end of a long day. She doesn't want blood and gore, hard-boiled detectives and depressing plots, nor is she keen on vampires or chick-lit. Instead, she wants light-hearted, well-written mysteries with intriguing plots, interesting characters and an appealing female protagonist, preferably over fifty like her, who is adventurous, amusing, and able to outwit villains with a unique mix of bravado, ineptness, intelligence and guts. Enter the irrepressible Laura Morland, of Walking into Murder and Babes in the Baths, the first two mysteries in a series. They are part spirited amateur female sleuth, part primer on gender issues since Laura is an American professor of Gender Studies with a specialty in the history of male/female relationships, part traditional English murder mystery. It is no accident that Laura Morland specializes in gender and goes on walking trips. Walking is the author's favorite form of recreation, and she has studied gender issues for decades in an effort to understand how and why women and men became as they are today. One day she hopes to write a non-fiction book with her conclusions. For now, all her novels, mysteries included, deal with some aspect of gender. Lambert began her studies began at Radcliffe College, took a few years to raise children, earned a Bachelor's degree from Harvard University's Extension Program and a Master's degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, then spent four years as a Doctoral Candidate in the Human Sexuality Program at New York University. She has performed many jobs, taught at seminars and community colleges, and is now planning a course on empowering women across the world for adult education programs. In her free moments she writes novels, and probably always will.