In Blind Malice, first in a series of 10 murder mysteries set along the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, Annis Ward Jackson introduces Rachel Myers, a native of the area who has come home from Arizona for her father's funeral. The service is barely over when questions surrounding his death and his financial affairs begin to pile up.Old friends help Myers in her quest but in the final act, she must go it alone against an opponent who has had decades to hone his desire for vengeance.Myers is not a professional detective but her natural ability for solving intricate puzzles, her tenacity, and her faith in that little spark that says she's on the right track, enable her to uncover shocking secrets from her father's past and come face to face with the menace that led to his death.Some praise for this series: CleanReadingMimi.com says: "This is a great series for mystery buffs! The author is really good at weaving the story and setting up the characters so you care deeply about each of them."Readmedeadly.com says: "For nature lovers, Annis Ward Jackson's Rachel Myers series, set in the Blue Ridge mountains of Appalachia, can be as addictive as popcorn!"
About the Author: Having written for various purposes such as curricula and other more technical creations, and having published only short stories and magazine articles, I took advantage of retirement to make a stab at writing in one of the genres that I've always loved, the murder mystery. Besides my Rachel Myers and Ellis Crawford murder mystery series, I have published a novel about Abe Lincoln's North Carolina origins, a novel set in the mountains of eastern Tennessee during the 1940's when the TVA took thousands of acres of land to build Watauga Lake, a gardening book, and a book on the herbs in Shakespeare's HAMLET. Patchwork contains previously published short stories and articles, mostly about Appalachian culture. Gardening (perennials, hostas, herbs, vegetables) and horses are an inescapable and vastly enjoyable part of my life so they figure prominently in the Rachel Myers series but less so in the Ellis Crawford. After many years in distant places, I now live with my husband, horses, dogs, and gardens not far from where I grew up in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina.