“This tenth in the series offers an entertaining quick read for fans of rural procedures.”
Booklist, February 15, 2005

A Sharyn Howard Mystery

Reluctantly, Sheriff Sharyn Howard has been forced to attend a training school for the local law enforcement officers. For years she’s managed to skirt around it, but now it’s time for her to take a helicopter up to Sweet Potato Mountain to attend a rigorous weekend of training at the grounds of an old mining town. The town, long abandoned by miners, is complete with an old jail and hotel.

After attending just a few classes things start to go wrong. An officer goes missing, and while searching for him one of Sheriff Howard’s men falls into an old mine breaking his leg. Things go from bad to worse when a truck explodes killing the man inside. To top things off, the radio has been broken and there is a ferocious storm brewing.

Stuck in the old town with a group of hotheaded officers, sheriffs, police chiefs, and deputies, Sharyn quickly realizes the person attempting to hunt them down must be hiding among them.

Unable to reach her office with cell phones or radios, and with the road impassable, Sharyn is worried that they may all be killed before anyone in Diamond Springs is even aware something is wrong.

Meanwhile, back in Diamond Springs, a sniper has taken a shot at Sharyn’s deputy, Ernie, and the former girlfriend of a drug dealer Ernie shot years ago has been found dead.

Ernie and Nick Thomopolis, Sharyn’s boyfriend and the medical examiner, try desperately to solve the mystery without bothering Sharyn, but get suspicious when she doesn’t check in. Not once.

With the help of Zeke Two-Rivers, nephew of Sharyn’s long time friend Jefferson Two-Rivers, they strive to catch the killer and get off the mountain alive, all while Ernie, Nick, and the entire Diamond Springs sheriff’s department desperately attempt to save them.

Joyce and Jim Lavene are a married writing team. They are active in local and national writers’ groups where they lecture and give workshops on the craft of writing. They live in North Carolina with their family.

Last One Down is the tenth book in the Sharyn Howard Mystery series and their fifteenth book for AVALON, including romances written under the pseudonym Joye Ames.

They welcome readers to their websites at:
www.joyceandjimlavene.com and www.sharynhowardmysteries.com.

Avalon Mysteries by Joyce and Jim Lavene:
The Sharyn Howard Mystery Series
THE FIRST SHALL BE LAST
BEFORE THE LAST LAP
LAST ONE DOWN
LAST RITES
GLORY'S LAST VICTIM
LAST FIRES BURNING
DREAMS DON’T LAST
FOR THE LAST TIME
UNTIL OUR LAST EMBRACE
THE LAST TO REMEMBER
ONE LAST GOOD-BYE
LAST DANCE

Avalon Romances by Joye Ames (pseudonym):
MADISON'S MIRACLES
THE DOWAGER DUCHESS
SAVE YOUR HEART FOR ME
IF NOT FOR YOU
A TIME FOR LOVE
ONLY YOU