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Catherine Winn

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Beyond Suspicion (Whispering Spring Mysteries Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Catherine Winn (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.6 22 ratings

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Her mom's remarriage has been hard on fifteen-year-old Shelby. Step-dad Roger is strict and treats her like a child. At least they're letting her go to her first boy-girl party. That is until she gets home from school and finds that Roger has changed his mind—he wants Shelby to babysit her year-old brother Josh. It's so unfair! Fuming, Shelby takes Josh in his stroller to the park. After all, it's not his fault. Someone sets off fireworks, distracting Shelby. When she turns around—Josh is gone.

Shelby tells the police she's seen a white van cruising the neighborhood lately, and she thinks she saw it at the park as well. But to her horror, the police are not interested: Pointing to angry texts to her girlfriends about getting back at Roger, they accuse her of causing Josh's disappearance! The police focus on the woods around the park, driving Shelby wild with fear and anger that the kidnappers will get away. With TV reporters all over the front yard, Shelby sneaks out the back to find her brother, any way she can.

So begins Shelby's race against time—and against a world that has turned on her. And yet she finds help along the way. There's mysterious Matt, who says he wants to help, but doesn't seem to want anyone to know it. And there's Jess, who watches out for Shelby as, against the odds, she tracks down the kidnappers just as they are leaving town.

Editorial Reviews

Review

When someone kidnaps her baby brother, the police accuse 15-year-old Shelby of his murder, and the national media run with it.Shelby gets hate email and death threats, and the press besieges the family, but nothing can stop Shelby from slipping out the unwatched back way to do her own investigation at the park where the kidnapping occurred. There, she gets into more trouble with the police but meets Matt, who may or may not become a romantic interest. Offering to help, Matt takes her out to look for the white van Shelby insists was involved in the crime. (Why is it always a white van?) Events finally take some pressure off Shelby, but she's determined to solve the crime. She thinks ahead of the police at every step, possibly at her own peril. Winn's writing moves along nicely, although she relies on more than one credulity-straining incident to solve major problems. Her initial portrayal of the police detectives comes across as outrageous with their over-the-top persecution of Shelby, but she later redeems them with words if not with their actions. Her characterization of Shelby's parents is equally one-dimensional, initially portraying them as selfish and uncaring and then instantly switching their portrayals to sympathetic after the kidnapping. Still, if the plot and characterizations don't make much sense, the story has enough suspense to satisfy undemanding mystery fans. (Kirkus Reviews)

About the Author

Catherine A. Winn, a former art and elementary school teacher, lives and writes in Texas. An avid reader of all types of mysteries from cozies to thrillers, she’s found writing them to be equally thrilling. She is currently working on her next Whispering Springs mystery.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07VLBQRN3
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Poisoned Pen Press; 1st edition (May 5, 2015)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 5, 2015
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1230 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 242 pages

Customer Reviews:
4.6 22 ratings

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Catherine Winn

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Catherine A. Winn, a former art and elementary school teacher, lives and writes in Texas. An avid reader of all types of mysteries from cozies to thrillers, she's found writing them to be equally thrilling. She is currently working on her next mystery.

http://www.poisonedpenpress.com/

http://www.catherineawinnbooks.com

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4.6 out of 5

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Fabulous Teen Mystery!

Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2015

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The main character, Shelby, finds herself in a horrible situation when her baby brother is kidnapped while in her care. Everyone turns on her when they all think she has something to do with it but all Shelby can think about is trying to find the real kidnappers. This story is heart wrenching at times for what Shelby has to go through, not only with all the emotions of being accused but also worrying about what happened to her little brother. This book kept me on the edge of my seat until the very end. It's a fabulous mystery for any reader and I'm hoping it's the first in a series.

Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2015

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not read yet but looks like will be a good read.

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Bookgirl

) to find the missing youngster against great odds. This story heavily deals with inevitable conflicts ...

Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2015

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Saving Josh, her baby half-brother, is Shelby Palmer’s battle cry. The fifteen-year-old heroine uses her wits and often reckless and perilous behavior (what cozy-mystery amateur sleuth whatever the age isn’t reckless?) to find the missing youngster against great odds. This story heavily deals with inevitable conflicts of an adolescent teen and her newly remarried mother and strict disciplinarian stepfather.
While babysitting Josh on a park outing, Shelby is distracted by fireworks resulting in the boy’s abduction. Devastated by guilt, this event follows her texting angry messages about having to babysit instead of going to a boy-girl party. Her angry communications come back to haunt her as they cause police to view Shelby as a person-of-interest in the boy’s disappearance. Social media trashes her and even her close friends believe the worst. Overwhelmed, she turns to the aid of a new boy in town but even he has a secret agenda and dupes her. Trust in others becomes an elusive commodity for the girl teen.
After discovering who is behind the abduction, Shelby reaches out to others but after days of being condemned by police, hounded by relentless media, seeing her too-often selfish mother wither by grief and worry, and fearing time is running out for Josh, she sets off alone to save Josh putting both of them in one dangerous predicament after another. The folly of her good-intentioned but misguided choices leads to extreme violence at the hands of psychotic adversaries.
Even Shelby takes extremes measures as she battles but cannot control horrific circumstances causing the reader to ponder: Does Shelby overcome overwhelming odds, the betrayal of friends? Does she save Josh? Can she do great physical injury and harm to another person, albeit an evil one? Does the new boy turn from manipulative disbeliever to hero?
Both the innocent and guilty suffer by knife wounds, gunshot wounds and in loss of life. This early-on slow-moving story turns fast-paced when Shelby, an untrained, unarmed but determined youth, refuses to sit back and let trained, armed law-enforcement handle the crime and criminals. This story begins as the tale of a young girl who daydreams about dates and boys and blames adults for unfair and disappointing binds on her social life. The story progresses to a tale about a young woman caught in chaotic violence who must own-up to and live with the consequences of her and others’ actions.

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Janell

Thoroughly Enjoyed this Book!

Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2019

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I had this book in my wish lists for a few years Waiting for the price to come down. Well it finally did and now I’m sorry I waited so long to purchase it, it was really good! I thought I wasn’t going to like the step-father or her mother but I was viewing them the way the daughter was When she was upset with them. I really enjoyed the surprises throughout the book and the main character at times acted like a teenager and other times she had to grow up fast. If you have doubts about reading this book. Do yourself a favor and read it, you won’t be disappointed.

Helpful

D. Coto

from FictionZeal.com re: Beyond Suspicion (A Whispering Springs Mystery #1) by Catherine A. Winn

Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2015

Shelby is close to her mom, Marianne, and she loves her baby brother, Josh. It’s her step-father, Roger, she doesn’t care for. She feels abandoned by her own father. The party she has been planning to go to for a month is now off – she has to babysit Josh. Still mad and hurt, she makes the best of the situation and takes Josh to the park. She hears fireworks and takes a look. Now Josh is gone and she’s frantic. Her story about having seen a white van is all but ignored and the police consider her their number one suspect. Even her classmates are now saying the most hurtful things imaginable on social media. Then Matt, a senior in her high school, befriends her. She begins to feel like he is the only friend she has. And, bonus plus, her mom and step-father like him.

Sometimes I see a movie and I think ‘over-dramatic’. In a couple of instances that is what I thought when I read this story. First, Shelby’s parents took advantage of her. Her mom was well aware that she’d been planning for a month to attend a party and her mom was onboard with it. But when she came home from school on the day of the party, all of a sudden she needed to babysit her brother and just get over it. Also, it’s not impossible, but I felt it was very unlikely that the police would actually come right out and accuse a fifteen year old girl of murdering and hiding the body of her baby brother. She had absolutely no run-ins with the police in her past, so it was just over the top to me. And yet, my rating remains rather high because the novel is very well-written and immediately grabbed my interest. The story stayed engaging throughout. This is a Young Adult novel and I’d say it is appropriate for 14 and up. Rating: 4 out of 5.

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JackieA.

This engaging mystery will hold your interest to the end!

Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2015

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Wish I could give ten stars. I can't think of anything I didn't like about this really entertaining mystery. Shelby, the main character, is so real and you feel that you know her personally. You share her wild emotions, her fears, and her heart. The author adds enough details to put you right in the plot. She is a GREAT storyteller. You simply will not want to put the book down until you reach the last page. I was kept engaged to the end and the book really touched me! I look so forward to reading others the author might release in the future.

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Beyond Suspicion (Whispering Spring Mysteries Book 1) Kindle Edition

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