Book 1
Last Dance
Book 2
One Last Goodbye
Book 3
The Last to Remember
Book 4
Until Our Last Embrace
Book 5
For The Last Time
Book 6
Dreams Don't Last
Book 7
Last Fires Burning
Book 8
Glory's Last Victim
Book 9
Last Rites
Oct. 2004
Book 10
Last One Down
February 2005
Book 11
Before the Last Lap
August 2005
Book 12
The First Shall Be Last
June 2007
All books are available at Avalon Books
Glory's Last Victim
Piper College
(Photo by Jennifer Chappelle)
Short Notes...
Si-ga-ni. That’s what the Cherokee call the evil spirit that dwells within a knife used to murder a young woman in a small college town outside Diamond Springs, North Carolina. With her Aunt Selma’s new beau, Sam Two Rivers, arrested for the crime, newly re-elected Sheriff Sharyn Howard finds herself unwillingly drawn into the occurrence.
She’s already up to her ears in a series of house robberies and short a deputy who was downed by a rabid raccoon. But working outside her county with a greasy police chief and his belligerent assistant, she will solve a mystery that involves a string of unsolved murders that date back to the Civil War.
Book Details:
Thomas Bouregy and
Co.
Book 8-Avalon Books
ISBN-0-8034-9638-9
Read more on the story in the excerpt below...
The cover design and illustration of "Glory's Last Victim" by Tess Anson (DSG)
Sheriff
Sharyn Howard fact...
Sharyn and Nick’s favorite place to eat is Fuigi’s, a small, romantic Italian restaurant in the new Diamond Springs Mall..
Sources...
If you're ready to sit back and relax with a fast-paced story that has some interesting characters and a good plot, GLORY'S LAST VICTIM by Joyce and Jim Lavene would be the book to reach for. The plot sets up a likable character as the suspect and leaves the reader hanging on until the last pages of the book to fully unravel the mystery. Along the way there is a little romance, a little side intrigue, and a cast of many.
—Deb Jones:
Round Table Reviews
Intricately woven, GLORY’S LAST VICTIM continues the Sharyn Howard Mystery series. It is true the Lavene’s are masterminds in laying out their mystery plots. The details are finely tuned while ironically, the clues are in black and white. Readers are placed right on scene as Sharyn attempts to put the facts together. This is an amazing feat to be in her shoes and her thoughts while at the same time be able to clearly see the final results. Even the villains in this tale require you to feel their honesty and self-worth while the plot moves steadily forward. The pieces of this insightful tale interlock without unraveling the truth before the final page is turned. It is one of those books that begs to be read.
–Brenda Ramsbacher
Scribblers, RIO Member
President, Reviewers International Organization, 2004-2006
Excerpt
from "Glory's Last Victim"...
“I haven’t had a chance to tell you,” Nick said as he drove to the house, “but you were right about the thumbprint. It belonged to the dead girl. We’ll have to wait for the hair because Bobby didn’t keep a sample.”
Sharyn nodded. “If I’m right about the rest of the gang, that will give us access to Lynette’s room. We should be able to get a hair sample there.”
“Which also puts you in line for anything else you can find to help Sam?”
“I hope so. Since we already have the murder weapon, that leaves us with the off chance that they haven’t disposed of their bloodstained clothes. If not, we don’t have much to go on.”
“Unless one of them wants to confess.”
She grimaced. “How likely is that?”
The three cars sped through the cold January night like a strange parade. They used the back roads around the city to be able to maintain high speeds. Many of the roads were single lane with tiny bridges spanning creeks and rivers. Traffic was forcing the state to build bigger roads to accommodate the new people in Montgomery County. But many of the roads were still the same as they were drawn on platt maps from a hundred years before.
“There are only two ways into that subdivision,” Sharyn told Ernie on the phone. “Let’s make sure they can’t get out either way.”
“You got it, Sheriff.”
“Marvella and Cari are on their way too.”
“Great,” he said. “Annie will be thrilled.”
“I’m sorry, Ernie.”
“Part of the job.”
Sharyn closed her cell phone and concentrated on the narrow road as they flew past cell phone towers that mingled with eerie tree shapes and farm buildings. “I’ll be glad when this wedding is over.”
“More tension than a murder investigation?”
“A lot more.” She reconsidered. “Well, not more than this thing with Sam.”
“Did you meet with Jefferson Two Rivers?” Nick asked.
“Yeah.” She explained about his strange behavior. “I think he’s worn out with worrying about what’s going to happen. His brain isn’t working anymore.”
“I’m not superstitious,” Nick replied, negotiating a turn. “But there are some things that can’t be explained.”
“Like a knife that makes otherwise good men kill women?”
“I don’t know. I’m just saying you shouldn’t dismiss evil out of hand.”
Sharyn checked her grandfather’s service revolver and put it back in her shoulder holster. She pinned her badge on her jacket. “I don’t dismiss it. But so far the only evil I’ve seen hasn’t been supernatural. It’s been people.”
