What is Jane Tesh reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Jane Tesh, author of Mixed Signals.

Her entry begins:

The Graveyard Game is one of a series of Company novels by the late Kage Baker.

The all-seeing, all-knowing Company, headed by the mysterious Dr. Zeus, has created cyborgs to go back in time to save treasures for future clients who’ll pay big bucks for a lost Van Gogh or a missing Hemingway manuscript. This concept allows Baker to set her stories in any time and on any historical subject. This story involves Facilitator Joseph’s search for his father, one of the first cyborgs, who is now a threat to the Company, and his search for his daughter, the Botanist Mendoza, whom Joseph “recruited” to the Company when she was a child, and who has been punished for killing mortals and sent way back in time.

But the true heart of the story involves Literature Preserver Lewis, a hopeless romantic, who...[read on]

About Mixed Signals, from the publisher:

It’s Christmas in Parkland, North Carolina, and PI David Randall is looking forward to his mother’s visit to 302 Grace Street, even though he knows she’ll want to talk about his daughter, Lindsey, who died in a car accident. Then he and his friend Camden find Camden’s friend Jared Hunter brutally stabbed. Cam has violent flashbacks to the crime, making him fear he’s linked with the killer. The suspects include Boyd Taylor, who hires Randall. Randall’s investigations reveal Jared served time for breaking into the Parkland Museum of History, and Bert Galvin, son of Ralph Galvin, editor of the Parkland Herald, was also involved.

Randall believes inept superhero, the Parkland Avenger, is a set up by award-hungry Herald reporter, Brooke Verner. The Super Hero Society of Parkland insists the Avenger isn’t one of them. To his dismay, Kary, wanting a more active role in his cases, joins the SHS.

Brooke tells Randall she saw a letter from Bert promising not to tell about the museum funds. By comparing museum records and newsletters, Randall discovers a collector of valuable letters was never paid the full amount and died in a car crash suspiciously soon after the sale. He realizes Galvin used the museum break in to cover up this embezzlement scheme.

A map found in Jared’s comic collection leads Randall and Cam to a series of tunnels underneath several stores that have been recently robbed. Kary, in her guise as Wonder Star, helps them trap Galvin in the tunnels and end Cam’s troubling visions.

Learn more about the book and author at Jane Tesh's website.

The Page 69 Test: Mixed Signals.

Writers Read: Jane Tesh.

--Marshal Zeringue