Book description
From an author described by Kirkus as “lively, surprising” comes Five
O'Clock Shadow with its puzzler of a plot tied to colorful New Mexico.
As the great balloon bearing the image of a clock swoops across the
River Grande, Pauly Caton watches her husband of four days fall from the
sky. Who is the naked child who scrambles from the gondola when it
strikes a sandbar and flees? Did she just imagine it? Why would he have
been up with Randy and the pilot on the honeymoon ride she was too
chicken to join? Who, in fact, was meant to die? And meant to die it was
- her hastily snapped photos of the scene show a masked sharpshooter
stationed high up in a tree. As Pauly tries to put her shattered life
together, she discovers the lies. The first in the morgue. How else had
Randy deceived her? Had he told her anything that was the truth? Were
his partners in their get-rich company any more honest? Pauly knows she
hadn't signed any of the documents the lawyer presents to her. Maybe
she'll insist on becoming an active partner. Pauly's flamboyant Grams,
the much-married carnival queen, offers her only grandchild a place to
recover, a retreat on Albuquerque's west side that's home to fifty odd
folks complete with clowns, a handsome tattoo man - and the snakes. And
then Pauly finds out she's rich - money that she swears could not have
been Randy's. Where did he get it? Who was the son he apparently
adopted? A trip to El Paso uncovers more mysterious acts and points her
towards the truth. But will she live long enough to find it? Susan
Slater reveals the same sharp offbeat plotting skills, the zest for
language, and colorful scenes that marked her caper Flash Flood where
“troubles buildlike thunderheads over New Mexico skies.” [Publishers
Weekly] The plot of Slater's gripping follow-up to last year's Flash
Flood moves as fast and as unpredictably as the New Mexico weather,
which can go from sun to blizzard in a moment. Newlywed Pauly Caton
watches in horror as the hot air balloon holding her husband, Randy
McIntyre, crashes into a sand bar in the middle of the Rio Grande. A
small, otherwise naked boy wearing Randy's jean jacket flees the
gondola, leaving behind two dead men, Randy with a broken neck, the
pilot with a bullet through his forehead. When the medical examiner
discovers that Randy had had an irreversible vasectomy. Pauly is
shattered and confused. The children they both seemingly had looked
forward to before their marriage were never a possibility. the more she
learns of Randy's secret past, the more Paul becomes suspicious of
everyone around her, even her carnival-queen grandmother with whom she
takes refuge in Albuquerque. With her blonde hair, heave make-up, breast
implants and growing list of ex-husbands, Grams stands out in an unusual
supporting cast that includes tattooed men and lethal snakes. From the
book's devastating opening to its chilling climax, readers will he
captivated by Slater's fresh, gutsy heroine. Susan Slater is the
author of six mysteries, four in the highly acclaimed Ben Pecos Indian
series Pumpkin Seed Massacre, Yellow Lies, Thunderbird and a novella, A
Way to the Manger plus two standalones, Flash Flood and Five O'clock
Shadow. Pumpkin Seed Massacre was her first international success
becoming a best-seller in Germany (2001). 0 to 60 is Susan's debut
womens fiction novel. A long-time college instructor of writing, she now
lives thirty miles west of Taos, New Mexico and writes full-time.
