RIVER OF MERCY by Susan Clayton-Goldner
Detective Winston Radhauser is called in the middle of the night to Ashland Hospital. Ten days ago, Justin Patterson, a local pediatrician, suffered a devastating brain bleed that left him paralyzed and begging for release.
When Patterson is found dead in his hospital bed, the staff assumes it was a natural death. But the victim’s son, Robbie, accuses his stepmother, Santina, of murder. Everything inside Radhauser believes she’s innocent, but when DNA supports Robbie’s claim, Radhauser is forced to arrest the woman he found lying in her husband’s hospital bed, curled around his dead body.
Phillip Mitchell, world-renowned criminal defense attorney, hears of Santina’s arrest and rushes from Tucson to Oregon. He’s driven by a love that never waned, and a belief there was no way Santina could murder anyone.
National news has the country divided. Was it a mercy killing? Or was it murder? How do we put down our suffering animals with more dignity than our fellow humans? Or is God the only one who decides when life ends?
Against a ticking clock and an unyielding DA, Radhauser and Mitchell race to expose hidden truths that could save Santina from a lethal injection.
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Author Bio:
Susan Clayton-Goldner was born in New Castle, Delaware and grew up with four brothers along the banks of the Delaware River. Susan has been writing poems and short stories since she could hold a pencil and was so in love with writing that she was a creative writing major in college.
Prior to an early retirement which enabled her to write full time, Susan worked as the Director of Corporate Relations for University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona. It was there she met her husband, Andreas, one of the deans in the University of Arizona’s Medical School. About five years after their marriage, they left Tucson to pursue their dreams—purchasing a 35-acres horse ranch in the Williams Valley in southern Oregon. They spent a decade there. Andy rode, trained, bred Arabian horses, and coached a high school equestrian team, while Susan got serious about her writing career.
Through the writing, Susan learned she must be obsessed with the reinvention of self, of finding a way back to something lost, and the processes of forgiveness and redemption. These are the recurrent themes in her work. She writes mysteries encased in heart-wrenching family dramas that invite readers to ride with Detective Winston Radhauser as he takes the road less traveled, often digging up family secrets in his quest for truth and justice. There are gifts in every aspect of life, even grief, if we take the time to look for them.
Many of Susan’s books have been finalists for the RONE Award for Best Mystery published by an independent press and the Kindle Book Award. She has also been a finalist for The Hemingway Award, the Heeken Foundation Fellowship, the Writers Foundation, and the Publishing On-line Contest. Susan won the RONE Award in 2019 for her thriller, Tormented, and her poetry was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
When she isn’t writing, Susan enjoys making quilts and stained-glass windows. She says it is a lot like writing—telling stories with fabric and glass.