First Chapter, First Paragraph - The Serpents Trail

Title: Serpents Trail
Author: Sue Henry
Publisher: Onxy, Pg 288
Publication Date: March 1, 2005
Format: Audio
Genre: Mystery
Source: Library
Series: Maxie and Stretch #1



Hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea

Chapter 1

A PARTIALLY OPEN DOOR ALWAYS HAS A QUESTION IN IT.

At the end of a four-thousand-mile road trip, I stood in the back porch of Sarah Nunamaker’s large Victoria house in the center of Grand Junction, Colorado, uneasily considering the half-open door that swung ever so slightly as the curious fingers of a drying breeze reached in under the sheltering roof to give it a tentative nudge. After a robust and extended use of the heavy brass knocker on the front door had resulted in nothing but echoes and silence from within, I had made my way through a side garden and around to the backyard, glancing up at each window that I passed for evidence of occupation within. AT well after eight o’clock in the dark of the mid-September evening, all of them showed nothing but the mottled reflection of a streetlight that filtered in between the curbside trees. Only one, a rear second-story pane, held a soft hint of illumination that crept through the lace curtains of a room I knew from past visits was Sarah’s bedroom.

Book Description:
At sixty-three, Maxie McNabb is cruising down the Alaska Highway in her brand-new Winnebago. With her mini-dachshund at her side and the open road ahead, she's never been happier. But before her exploration of the Lower Forty-eight gets underway, Maxie needs to figure out who burgled her friend's Colorado home-and why. And the closer Maxie gets to solving the puzzle, the more it becomes chillingly clear that her friend's life isn't the only one on the line.