"A Lonesome Place for Dying"

Nolan Chase lives and works in the Pacific Northwest.

A Lonesome Place for Dying is his first book featuring Ethan Brand.

Chase applied the Page 69 Test to A Lonesome Place for Dying and reported the following:

A Lonesome Place for Dying is about the new chief of police of the small border town of Blaine, Washington. Someone is trying to kill Ethan Brand; at the same time, the small force must investigate the murder of Laura Dill, a young woman found stabbed by the train tracks.

On page 69, Ethan shows Laura’s father and aunt the body to get an identification. He knows this is necessary to help find Laura’s killer, but he’s attuned to the family’s grief.

Robert Dill stared at the face and shook his head. For a beat, Ethan thought not her, and felt a blast of relief. But then Lorrie Dill touched her brother’s arm, and Robert let out a sob.

“It’s,” he gasped for a breath. “Yes, it’s her.”

“You’re positive?” Ethan asked.

“Yes, sir.”

He nodded to Sandra through the window to cover the face. Lorrie wrapped her arms around the grieving father, tilting her own head up as if gravity would help hold back her tears…

Robert Dill looked like a gate battered off its hinges.

A Lonesome Place for Dying is a small-town mystery with a compelling lead character: solving the case matters to Ethan, and so does survival, but he’s a different kind of detective, interested in human nature as well. If a reader checks out this, and maybe the opening chapter, they’ll have a good sense of what Ethan is about.

Visit Nolan Chase's website.

Writers Read: Nolan Chase.

--Marshal Zeringue