Trail of Murder

A spellbinding plot, a valiant heroine and a majestic setting make this debut hard to put down. Lee Squires, a divorced English teacher and poet who is at loose ends, signs on as cook when wealthy Cyrus Strand takes his family and his lawyer on a horseback trip through Montana's Bob Marshall Wilderness. The trip seems jinxed from the first day, when Strand's model-handsome adopted son Henry and his horse survive a 100-foot fall off the trail. Although shaken, the party continues, their squabbles increasing in proportion to their distance from civilization. After Cyrus is thrown from his horse, Lee discovers that a strap on his saddle had been cut. Then the pack mules are spooked and disperse, and Lee is left with the family while the guides undertake a search. Cyrus announces he has written a new will that leaves all his estate to his current, third wife; that afternoon he is fatally poisoned, and everyone scrambles to find the document. When another murder is committed, Lee realizes she must flush out the killer if they hope to get out of the wilderness alive. This treacherous journey offers thrills to armchair adventurers and wilderness buffs as well as mystery fans. (Nov.)