Four Murder Mysteries (ePub)

Four Murder Mysteries contains the following books, all of which can be purchased separately: Some Things Are Sweeter Than God, The Real Meaning of Life, The Road Map to the Universe, and The Murder of Nora Winters. In the space allowed, I will give brief descriptions of these novels, but if you would like more complete descriptions, you can obtain them under the separate listings for each book.

The protagonist in Some Things Are Sweeter Than God is Lorinda Rivers—she's a public defender and a highly competitive woman who doesn't like to lose...Kevin Jensen is a man who's facing the death penalty after being charged with the brutal murder of his ex-girlfriend...his fingerprints are on the murder weapon, and he's already confessed, so there isn't any real doubt as to his guilt. But when Kevin retracts his voluntary confession, refuses to consider a plea deal, and demands a jury trial, Lorinda is faced with a difficult moral dilemma. Should she ignore her conscience and defend Kevin aggressively, even if it means that he might go free?

In The Real Meaning of Life, Patrick Devlan, a twenty-seven-year-old man who has written and published a number of murder mysteries, becomes entangled in a real-life murder mystery. Neurotic, unstable, and somewhat chauvinistic, Patrick skitters around on the edge of events as Nick, his roommate and best friend, is arrested and convicted of murdering Teresa, his girlfriend. But it isn't really clear who murdered Teresa, and when Nick is sentenced to death, Patrick's world begins to crumble, and he is faced with some very difficult choices. In the end, however, despite all his evasions and pretensions, Patrick is led to the discovery of what is actually, all joking aside, the real meaning of life.

The Road Map to the Universe describes the multiple investigations into the murder of Karen Breen. Although her husband is convicted of the crime, things change when an informant tells police that her son Jeremy was the murderer. Jeremy has always been a laid-back guy who believes that none of us has any real significance in a universe of two hundred billion galaxies. Jeremy is arrested, tried, and convicted, but then, while the jury is being polled, an extraordinary revelation occurs—in fact, in the annals of courtroom history, it is probably a premiere.
Amazingly, this courtroom revelation seems to prove that Jeremy's belief system has some real potential. Because, in the end, it appears that the murder of Jeremy's mother is just one more example that everything we experience is based on the self-aggrandizing perceptions of the ego and that the belief in significance, any significance, is simply a symptom arising out of the peculiar notion that the entire universe revolves around oneself.

On Christmas morning, Nora Winters is found shot to death in her bedroom. The previous evening, she had been talking about committing suicide, and since she was shot at very close range, her family initially assumes that she took her own life. However, the police quickly discover that the gun that killed her is fifteen feet away from where her body was found. The case is baffling because it has all the elements of a classic locked-room murder mystery. The only door to the room has two sliding steel bolts that are fully engaged; the two windows are securely locked from the inside of the room; and after an extensive investigation, no hidden panels in the floor, walls, or ceiling can be found.
Detective Nick Slater is an experienced investigator who will leave no stone unturned in his search for the killer. He has five suspects—the four children of Nora Winters and Chad Winters, her husband. Eventually, Chad is arrested and brought to trial, but what happens after that will prove far more shocking than anything that has gone before