Suspects – A Northwest Murder Mystery

Suspects
230 Pages
ISBN 978-0-9646506-4-0

Set in Bend, Prineville, Portland, and the Sunriver Area, "Suspects" tells the story of a widely despised man found dying on his back deck by the hero of the book, Dan Martinez, an intense young man with no training in detective work and only a limited knowledge of criminal law. To deflect suspicion from himself, the murdered man’s wife, and his own father, Dan searches out people who had reason to kill the man, meanwhile uncovering the victim’s history of fraud, bribery, and extortion. At the same time, Dan is training for an off-road triathlon and wondering where his own father – potentially a suspect – has disappeared to. Life gets even more complicated when Dan falls in love with his pretty training partner who may, in fact, be the murdered man’s long-lost daughter.

Dan narrowly escapes being murdered himself and even more narrowly escapes being locked up by the sheriff’s department detective – a man who is sometimes Dan’s ally and sometimes his enemy. Along the way we meet Dan’s artist father, sentimentally committed to communism but married to a successful local banker. We meet two of Dan’s college teammates opening a rugby themed brewpub in Bend, and a high school buddy who has fallen into unexpected wealth.

The story takes us to the Cascade Lakes for a long-distance swim, to bike trails through the forest, and to a running trail along the Deschutes River by Benham Falls. “Central Oregon is a terrific setting for fiction. All of my characters love it here, each in his own way,” says Haynes. "Suspects" will go on sale on May 15, 2017.

Ted Haynes

About Ted Haynes (Bend, Oregon Author)

Ted Haynes

Ted and his wife have loved every summer they've spent since 1996 at Vandevert Ranch on the Little Deschutes River. "Suspects" is Ted's third book set in Central Oregon.

The author is a member of the Central Oregon Writers Guild, The Deschutes County Historical Society, and Mystery Writers of America. He serves on the board of the Waterston Desert Writing Prize, awarded every year at the High Desert Museum. He swims regularly at the Juniper Swim and Fitness Center in Bend and plays golf at Sunriver and Crosswater. He has fished many of the lakes and rivers in Central Oregon, including the Deschutes, Little Deschutes, Crooked, and Fall Rivers, East Lake, and Crane Prairie.

Ted graduated from Dartmouth College and the Graduate School of Business at Stanford. He has studied writing with Lynn Stegner, Nancy Packer and Hillary Jordan at Stanford and with Tom Parker and Donna Levin at UC Berkeley.