Death in Darkness - Doug Fletcher mystery #19 - by Dean Hovey

 As always, research is a big part of my preparation for writing a book. My wife and I toured Jewel Cave National Monument and were inspired by the beauty, and intrigued by the possibilities offered by the remote Black Hills location. I had conversations with Kristina Doyle, a member of the "Paha Sapa Grotto" South Dakota spelunker's group, and Natalie Lund, who worked at Mammoth Cave National Park. By piecing together bits of what I saw and heard, I came up with a story that originates as a forest fire arson investigation (thanks Brian Garvey, MN Forestry Department arson investigator).

My investigative team of Doug and Jill Fletcher are assisted by Susie Rickowski, Jill's cousin, and caretaker of Jill's parents. Susie is an unemployed arson investigator who is brought in to determine the cause of a forest fire. She quickly determines the fire's origin is inside the US Park Service property. A burnt brush pile includes human remains.

While checking out the origins of the fire, the Fletchers are summoned to Jewel Cave where a member of an underground survey team reports that a team member has been injured and his remaining crew are carrying (and pulling, and pushing) her out of the maze of narrow passages inside the cave. Because the team was several days of travel into the cave, a rescue team is called in to assist them with the transport of the injured caver, who dies during her transport.

They determine the woman's death wasn't an accident, leaving Doug and Jill with the small, closeknit team of spelunkers as the only suspects. There's no open animosity among the team members, and none have an obvious motive.

Doug and Jill struggle to investigate a murder where the murder scene is inaccessible and the only suspects don't seem like suspects until an FBI intern uncovers one suspicious tidbit in the victim's past.

Check out "Death in Darkness" on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and at your favorite bookseller next month.