Death at Monksrest

By Alan Cook

Liz Reid is persuaded to fly to London when Charlie Ebersole, her fellow worker in Los Angeles, sends her a poem from England about an ancient curse put on the estate of Monksrest by a monk, and tells her that the sister of his English friend, Reggie, has been murdered. It is the 1960s and Liz doesn't believe in curses, but she is interested in history and has been looking for a reason to go to England. When she arrives at Monksrest, beside the English Channel, it appears at first that members of the family may be in denial about what happened. But then Liz bonds with Lord Wheatley, Reggie's father, and agrees to get involved with finding the killer. What she doesn't know is, curse or no curse, showing too much interest in the murder investigation could get her killed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alan Cook
• Release date: Aug 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9780463182161

Alan Cook

After spending more than a quarter of a century as a pioneer in the computer industry, Alan Cook is well into his second career as a writer.ROCKY ROAD TO DENVERThe death of Roger McAllister’s wife in 1984 prompts him to take a break from his accounting firm and join a walk from Los Angeles to Denver, sponsored by Zeus Shoes. The people he encounters will shake him out of his comfort zone, providing comedy, peril and sexual temptation. In addition, his dead wife appears to be keeping an eye on him. Roger’s life will never be the same.DEATH AT MONKSREST--Charlie and Liz No. 3Liz Reid flies to England in the 1960s because of a poem about an ancient curse that her coworker, Charlie Ebersole, has sent her, which may have led to the murder of the sister of Charlie’s English friend, Reggie, whose father is the owner of the hereditary estate of Monksrest. Liz works with Lord Wheatley to find clues in spite of the risks involved.EAST OF THE WALL--Charlie and Liz No. 2Charlie Ebersole and Liz Reid are recruited by the CIA to go into East Germany in June 1963, to attempt to obtain intelligence about a secret project of the Germans during World War II, about which information has been lost. The Berlin Wall and the Stasi (East German secret police) make this a perilous mission, but the two suspect that they are the most appropriate people for the job.TRUST ME IF YOU DARE--Charlie and Liz No. 1Charlie Ebersole is good at his job as a securities analyst for International Industries in Los Angeles in the year 1962, but he is also somewhat bored at being tied to a desk most of the time. He jumps at the chance to join the fraud section of II, and is immediately put on a case that will take him and another employee, Elizabeth Reid, to Buffalo, Fort Lauderdale, and possibly to Fidel Castro’s Cuba, although the Bay of Pigs fiasco is a recent memory, and relations between Cuba and the United States are not good. Charlie and Liz find out that uncovering a Ponzi scheme isn’t all just fun and games, but it can be dangerous too, especially when somebody is intent on them not discovering the truth. Before they are through they may wish they were back at their nice safe desks in Los Angeles.YOUR MOVE--CAROL GOLDEN NO. 7Carol looks for a serial killer who likes to play games. As she attempts to figure out the game and its significance for the killer she realizes that events occurring when she was a college student but are lost to her because of her amnesia may be significant in tracking down the killer. Does the killer want something from her? If so, what? This is becoming too personal for comfort.FOOL ME TWICE--CAROL GOLDEN NO. 6Carol Golden is asked to help Peter Griffenham recover a chunk of money he's lost in a scam, but he doesn't want to go to the police, and by the time she gets involved the prime suspect, a dazzling redhead named Amy, has disappeared along with the money. Or has she? Perhaps that was only the first chapter, to be followed by a much larger scam. Can Carol help prevent chapter two?GOOD TO THE LAST DEATH--CAROL GOLDEN NO. 5When Carol Golden's husband, Rigo, disappears, she not only has to look for him, but elude the FBI at the same time, because there is evidence that she was involved in his disappearance. She doggedly follows a faint trail, keeping her location a secret from everybody except her friend, Jennifer, a spy-in-training, who takes time off from her top-secret job to help Carol.HIT THAT BLOT--CAROL GOLDEN NO. 4The fourth Carol Golden novel takes Carol into the exciting and dangerous world of tournament backgammon. She listens to a caller who calls himself Danny on the crisis hotline Carol volunteers for say he is afraid he'll be murdered. A backgammon player, herself, Carol, disobeys the hotline rules and sets out to find and help Danny. She needs all her experience with spies and detective work to survive this adventure.DANGEROUS WIND--CAROL GOLDEN NO. 3In the third Carol Golden novel, Carol is abducted by a shady government group and required to help find an old boyfriend of hers she doesn't remember (because of her amnesia) who is trying to bring about the "downfall of the western world." She will travel to all seven continents before she can figure out what's going on.RELATIVELY DEAD--CAROL GOLDEN NO. 2Having recovered her identity (lost in FORGET TO REMEMBER) if not her memory, Carol Golden seeks out some of her cousins in the second Carol Golden novel, only to find out they appear to be targeted for murder. While trying to figure out what's going on, Carol encounters the Grandparent Scam and a Ponzi Scheme, and finds out that she may be one of the targets of the murderer.FORGET TO REMEMBER--CAROL GOLDEN NO. 1Carol Golden isn't her real name. She doesn't remember her real name or anything that happened before she was found, naked and unconscious, in a Dumpster on the beautiful Palos Verdes Peninsula in Southern California. After some initial medical assistance, government at all levels declares her a non-person. She can't work because she doesn't have a Social Security number, which she can't get because she doesn't have a birth certificate. She can't even legally drive a car or fly on an airplane. This is the first Carol Golden novel.Alan's Lillian Morgan mysteries, CATCH A FALLING KNIFE and THIRTEEN DIAMONDS, explore the secrets of retirement communities. They feature Lillian, a retired mathematics professor from North Carolina, who is smart, opinionated, and skeptical of authority. She loves to solve puzzles, even when they involve murder.RUN INTO TROUBLESilver Quill Award from American Authors Association and named Best Pacific West Book by Reader Views. Drake and Melody are teamed up to run a race along the California Coast for a prize of a million dollars—in 1969 when a million is worth something. Neither knows the other is in the race before it starts. They once did undercover work together in England, but this information is supposed to be top secret. The nine other pairs of runners entered in the race are world-classmarathoners, including a winner of the Boston Marathon. If this competition isn’t enough, somebody tries to knock Drake out of the race before it begins. But Drake and Melody also receive threats calculated to keep them from dropping out. What’s going on? The stakes increase when startling events produce fatalities and impact the race, leading them to ask whether the Cold War with the USSR is about to heat up.HONEYMOON FOR THREE--GARY BLANCHARD NO. 2Silver Quill Award from American Authors Association and named Best Mountain West Book by Reader Views. Suspense takes a thrill ride. It is 1964, 10 years after Gary Blanchard’s high school adventures in The Hayloft. He and his love, Penny, are going on the trip of their lives, and, oh yes, they’re getting married along the way. What they don’t know is that they’re being stalked by Alfred, a high school classmate of Penny who has a bellybutton fetish. The suspense crackles amid some of the most scenic spots in the western United States, including Lake Tahoe, Reno, Crater Lake, Seattle, and in Glacier, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton National Parks, as well as the redwood trees and rocky cliffs of the northern California coast.THE HAYLOFT--GARY BLANCHARD NO. 1This 1950s mystery, takes us back to bobby sox, slow dancing, bomb shelters—and murder. Within two weeks after starting his senior year of high school in the 1950s, Gary Blanchard finds himself kicked out of one school and attending another—the school where his cousin, Ralph, mysteriously died six months before. Ralph’s death was labeled an accident, but when Gary talks to people about it, he gets suspicious. Did Ralph fall from the auditorium balcony, or was he pushed? Had he found a diamond necklace, talked about by cousins newly arrived from England, that was supposedly stolen from Dutch royalty by a common ancestor and lost for generations? What about the principal with an abnormal liking for boys? And are Ralph’s ex-girlfriends telling everything they know?HOTLINE TO MURDER, his California mystery, takes place at a listening hotline in beautiful Bonita Beach, California. Tony Schmidt and Shahla Lawton don't know what they're getting into when they sign up as volunteer listeners. But when Shahla's best friend is murdered, it's too late for them to back out. They suspect that one of the hotline's inappropriate callers may be the murderer, and they know more about them than the police do.ACES AND KNAVES is a California mystery for gamblers and baseball card collectors. Karl Patterson deals in baseball cards and may be a compulsive gambler, so he's surprised when his father, Richard, CEO of a software company, engages him to check up on the activities of his second in command. It doesn't hurt that Richard assigns his executive assistant, Arrow, an exotic and ambitious young woman, to help Karl, but none of them expects to get involved in murder.PICTURELANDThe second Matthew and Mason adventure finds the boys going into a picture in their family room with the help of Amy, a girl in the picture. The dystopian world they find there with everyone's movements tracked, leads the three to attempt to bring personal freedom to the inhabitants at great risk to themselves.DANCING WITH BULLSIn Alan's first children's book, Matthew and Mason are on vacation on the Greek island of Crete when they are whisked back in time 4,000 to the Minoan civilization at Knossos Palace. Captured, they escape death by becoming bull dancers on a team with other slaves. Beautifully illustrated by Janelle Carbajal.FREEDOM'S LIGHT contains quotations from 38 of history's champions of freedom, from Aristotle to Zlata Filipovic, from George Washington to Martin Luther King, Jr. Included are Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Anne Frank and many more.Alan splits his time between writing and walking, another passion. His inspirational book,WALKING THE WORLD: MEMORIES AND ADVENTURES, has information and adventure in equal parts. It has been named one of the Top 10 Walking Memoirs and Tales of Long Walks by the walking website, Walking.About.Com.Alan lives with his wife, Bonny, on a hill in Southern California.

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DEATH AT MONKSREST

by Alan Cook

Death at Monksrest Copyright 2022 Alan Cook

Published by Alan L. Cook at Smashwords. This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Cover by Janelle Carbajal Instagram: yeahnelle

BOOKS BY ALAN COOK

Charlie and Liz Novels:

East of the Wall

Trust Me if You Dare

Death at Monksrest

Carol Golden Novels:

Your Move

Fool Me Twice

Good to the Last Death

Hit that Blot

Dangerous Wind

Relatively Dead

Forget to Remember

Matthew and Mason Adventures:

Pictureland

Dancing with Bulls

California Mysteries:

Run into Trouble

Hotline to Murder

Aces and Knaves

Gary Blanchard Mysteries:

Honeymoon for Three

The Hayloft: a 1950s mystery

Lillian Morgan Mysteries:

Catch a Falling Knife

Thirteen Diamonds

Other Fiction:

Walking to Denver

Nonfiction:

Walking the World: Memories and Adventures

History:

Freedom’s Light: Quotations from History’s Champions of Freedom

Poetry:

The Saga of Bill the Hermit

DEDICATION

To my English ancestors who went from being in service in the UK to being generals and presidential advisors in the USA.

THE LEGEND OF MONKSREST

Five monks set forth upon a pilgrimage,

To make their way to Canterbury town.

Five monks in all, each one a sage,

Well dressed in monkish hood and monkish gown.

They stopped to rest beside a flowing spring,

And drank their fill of bubbling water pure,

And as they sat they fell to arguing

On point of scripture that each one was sure

He owned the truth, and heated was their talk.

From neath his cloak one pulled an evil knife,

And flashed the blade, nor did he even balk

Until he’d ended every monkish life

Of four companions. Seeing what he’d done

He felt remorse and dug in rain-soft earth

A grave, and placed the bodies, one by one

Beneath the ground, despite their generous girth.

He covered them with dirt and sticks and stones,

And scratched these warning words upon a rock:

"A curse on you who move these holy bones,

As sure as just at sunrise crows the cock."

I read the poem a second time and wonder why Charlie Ebersole faxed it all the way from somewhere in England to Los Angeles, which must have cost a fortune. My name is Elizabeth Reid and I am sitting in my office at International Investments in LA. We have just acquired a fax machine, which is a new technology in the 1960s.

The fax is somewhat blurry and hard to read. There are smudges and lines on the paper. The original that Charlie used to send the fax from must be in bad shape. I wonder again why in the world he has sent this to me? Is it some kind of a joke?

Charlie and I have worked together for several years. He is smart and level-headed, and I have never known him to take an interest in poetry. However, what he is doing at the moment, taking a leave of absence from his job to walk something called the End-to-end in Great Britain, doesn’t exactly fit in with the character of the Charlie I know, either—someone who throws quarters around as if they are manhole covers. Maybe all the walking is affecting his brain.

My telephone rings. I pick up the receiver and say, Good morning; this is Liz Reid.

Hi Liz, it’s Charlie.

This is a bigger surprise. I haven’t spoken to Charlie since he left on his trip. The time difference is what? Eight hours? So, it must be late afternoon wherever he is.

Charlie, where are you?

I’m at the ancestral home of my friend, Reggie.

I know the story. Charlie and Reggie were classmates at UCLA when they were studying for their MBA degrees. Before I can say anything, Charlie speaks again.

Did you get my fax?

The poem? Yes, I just read it.

Charlie speaks before I can say anything more. Monksrest is the name of Reggie’s family’s estate. The legend is about something that supposedly happened in Chaucer’s time. Some people think the curse is real.

I’m not sure what to say. I don’t believe in curses.

Liz, Reggie’s sister, Emma, has just been murdered.

That sucks the air out of the room. I still don’t know what to say. I manage, That’s terrible.

Charlie says, The police are baffled. Reggie and his father are heart broken. That’s why I’m here at their house. I thought of you because I know you studied Chaucer and poets like him in college. You might be able to shed some light on the legend. You said you were looking for a place to go for a vacation. I talked to Reggie’s father and he said you can stay here at Monksrest as long as you want.

Whoa. Slow down. You’re going too fast. You want me to go to England?

You told me you’d like to go to England and you have ancestors who came from here. You can visit places where they lived.

Yes, I have a vacation coming, and yes, I want to go to England,