SOME SAY DYING WELL IS THE BEST REVENGE
When did you last read a crime thriller set along atmospheric Lake Michigan? One focused on a genius-level, 18-year-old budding female scientist who, under a midnight moon, vanishes from the dunes one night just steps away from the Great Lake’s dark waters? Probably never.
Devil of the Dunes is not your ordinary crime fiction. First, it's set in what Good Morning America called "the most beautiful place in America." The story’s locale features the soaring cliffs of Empire, the towering dunes of Sleeping Bear, shimmering waters, sugar sand beaches, picturesque coastal towns like Leland and Harbor Cove, and the historic islands of Mackinac and Manitou. Second, in this twisty tale with a truly surprise ending, the victim is not the predictable female. Unlike most crime fiction in which victims are nameless, faceless, female afterthoughts, the ‘victim' in Devil of the Dunes is the calm, cool, and collected Cadie McLeod. In this story, the crimson haired Cadie is more valiant than victim.
Named Carolyn and nicknamed Cadie after pseudonym Carolyn Keene, ‘author’ of the Nancy Drew Series, the protagonist an exceptional high school senior and track star with an IQ of 160 and a singular goal: to become a forensic scientist to solve her parents’ hit and run murder. Then, Cadie disappears on the anniversary of the very night they were killed.
Six years ago, Thomas and Aileen McLeod, happy and in love, walked hand in hand down Michigan’s coastal highway M22 headed for Frosty Bar. Minutes into their walk, they were run down in cold blood. Their killer never captured. Now, years later, their daughter Cadie vanishes from an end-of-school bonfire the same night. She waves goodbye to drunken classmates huddled around the fire’s embers, enters the isolated, windswept dunes, and, like a Great Lake breeze racing across the shore, in seconds she’s gone.
The tale concludes off North Manitou Island in a raging Lake Michigan storm. On the sea-tossed mini yacht Best Revenge, a fight to the death reveals all. The killer of Thomas and Aileen and the captor of Cadie is brought to light and his dark motivations exposed. Only then do we learn the true identity of The Weirdo.
Is there a connection between Cadie's disappearance and her parents' murders? Will the mystery of their deaths finally be revealed? Will Cadie escape? Survive? You'll need to Read Devil of the Dunes to find out!
Hidden behind tufts of slender dune grass, the deep, dark waters of Lake Michigan pounding the shoreline just feet away, I stalk my prey. Black binoculars fixed on her every move. It’s midnight on the beach. A bright harvest moon allows me to observe closely. I am motionless - transfixed. I have never seen her more beautiful than she is tonight. Laughing and twirling in her flowing yellow sundress beside the crackling, dancing bonfire, she casually interacts with girlfriends – and a few young men in sporty swim trunks sprawled on yellow and blue beach blankets. In a sudden gust, the young woman joyfully tosses back her crimson hair and grins at a friend. She touches the gold necklace around her slender neck. Completely at ease. A lovely, carefree girl on an idyllic beach enjoying her end-of-school celebration.
Oh, how I despise her and her happiness.
- The Weirdo
Retired college professor Wendy Byard spent 20 years teaching her students to write creatively and get published.
Now it's her turn.
The author of Teach and Reach for Classroom Miracles has penned a crime thriller in which the female protangist is a budding scientist determined to survive by her own wits - a rarity in crime novels - and avenge her parents' deaths.
Charming - and sometimes deadly - west Michigan is the backdrop for the compelling mystery that takes readers from a deserted Lake Michigan sand dune at midnight to towering sand dunes, historic islands, and quaint coastal towns.
Byard was a college and high school writing teacher for over two decades, writer for On The Town Magazine, and is owner of the graphic design company Wordgirl Marketing. She resides in Michigan.
Below, you can read excerpts from my book: To Teach and Reach for Classroom Miracles! Lessons on Teaching with Love. With care, compassion, and relationship, we can elevate our teaching and learning to the highest level and transform lives!
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