A new serial starting on Friday:
LIKE THERE’S NO TOMORROW: a novel by Roger N. Taber
SYNOPSIS:
During the same two weeks in August, ANNE GATES has stayed at the same Brighton hotel, the Orion - run by MEL HARVEY and her husband JOE - from which her young daughter, Patricia, vanished without trace twenty-three years earlier..
An old friend of Anne’s, OWEN SHEPHERD, has lived with his mother all fifty-two years of his life, much of that time in Brighton. Devastated when his mother dies, he is grateful for Anne’s companionship and support.
Other guests at the hotel include CHARLEY BRIGGS and her ‘toy-boy’ companion
KIRK ‘SPENCE’ SPENCER; she and her late husband had honeymooned at the hotel at about the time Patricia Gates child disappeared. When Mel Harvey reminds her that Owen Shepherd and his mother had also been staying there then, Charley recalls a curious incident concerning Shepherd.
While taking a stroll with Owen, Anne spots a young girl - LYNETTE - with her parent, CATHY and STEVE TAYLOR. Lynette’s likeness to her missing daughter is so striking that Anne is sure the child’s mother must be her missing daughter. She makes a point of getting to know the family.
Cathy Taylor, having no memory of early childhood prior to being adopted, becomes increasingly disturbed by Anne’s presence while, at the same time, trying to save her marriage. Steve Taylor becomes unhappy about the effect Anne is having on his wife, and also becomes increasingly jealous of Lynette’s growing affection for Owen Shepherd.
Although Charley and her late husband had left the hotel some hours before the child went missing, she cannot shrug off a nagging suspicion that Owen Shepherd may have been involved in the crime. When Owen invites Anne for lunch, Charley invites herself and Spence along too. She comes across a wooden cross in the shrubbery that apparently marks the grave of the previous owners’ dog. Her suspicions concerning Owen Shepherd deepen further when a letter is discovered, written by his mother to FERN MCALLISTER, an unexpected guest at the funeral.
While dismissing Charley’s ‘hunches’ out of hand, a reluctant Spence assists her investigation into the disappearance of Patricia Gates. They discover that a young girl went missing only a few streets away from where the Shepherds once lived in Bristol.
When Charley persuades Spence to dig up the grave in Shepherd’s shrubbery, he discovers more than animal remains. Owen is arrested, and then released. In the meantime, Lynette disappears while Charley and Spence race to avert another tragedy.
In an explosive finale, Anne is left to lay her daughter’s ghost to rest.
Copyright Roger N. Taber 2011
Note: Some readers might like to get something of a feel for Brighton from my poetry reading there in December 2010 (on my 65th birthday) and May 2011 uploaded to my YouTube channel:
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The novel will be uploaded in e-format at a later date; this cover photograph shows the iconic ruins of the West Pier. Enjoy:
http://rogertaberfiction.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/like-theres-no-tomorrow-ch-1-going-back.html
