The Book

Second in the Shirley Foster Southern Shadow Mysteries is 'A Stone's Throw To Murder'. Sixteen-year-old Martha Ann Lovett is missing again. Deep in the woods lies the body of a young girl. Strange letters, a month before appeared, riddled with the voice of a spirit. Is history repeating itself? A diary from 1898 described children skipping rope to a rhyme, "A redhead goes missing and nobody cries," around the time an Indian brave was put to death by the men in town. Dark secrets will not stay buried.

The Story

Sixteen-year-old Martha Ann Lovett is missing and no one is the least bit concerned. Everyone in Purity, NC knows Martha Ann has hot pants. She’s hooked up with boys before and disappeared for a time.
But deep in the woods, lies the body of a young girl. If someone doesn’t find her soon, a gator might drag the body into the swamp and it’ll just be like it never happened.

Shirley Foster, Social Worker, teams up with Martha Ann’s grandpa and together face one obstacle after another: mysterious letters appeared on Nash’s doorstep one month before the disappearance. Nash claims: “There’s a spirit trapped in those letters. Stretched across time… forwards and backwards. Trying to take back what was his. Instead, he’s takin’ what’s ours.”

A diary reveals that back in 1898, the men of Purity hung an Indian brave for showing interest in a girl named Glory. In a few weeks time, Glory disappeared. Soon the children of the town began skipping rope to the
rhyme: A redhead goes missing and nobody cries. Look in the closet, you’ll find their lies. Tell what you saw and everybody dies. The murdered Indian ’s last words spoken were: From moon to moon, find me or find death.

Shirley uncovers a blood feud. And with the fate of Martha Ann still unknown, her young cousin, Lizzie, will be the next to disappear, unless the descendants of the men who murdered the Indian make atonement by honoring
the young brave who lost his life for daring to love a white girl.
Shirley hatches a plan, but Lizzie disappears and Shirley winds up facing charges of kidnapping with time running out to save Martha Ann.