FireSong [Kindle Edition]

Aaron Paul Lazar (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

What would you do if your country church was hit by a rogue tornado during services? What if the shrieking winds unearthed the bones of a missing parishioner in a nearby wheat field? Now add the discovery of heroin in your elderly minister’s bloodstream. When Gus LeGarde is thrown into the middle of the mess, he knows life’s finally gone berserk in East Goodland, New York.

The Genesee Valley is in chaos. Strangers drive panel vans through the countryside at weird hours of the night. A new batch of drugs is on the street, endangering local. The local salt mine collapses due to illegal mining practices. Gas fires burn in wells. Watering holes turn to brine. Crops are dying. Tempers are short. To top it off, the new salt mine lies directly over ancient Indian burial grounds, bringing anguish to local tribes.

While Gus faces ordeals delivered by nature and man, his wife Camille discovers a hidden room in their house. She digs through historical archives to learn that the 1811 original homeowner, Mary Hill, may have had connections with the Underground Railroad. When local grave robbers begin to loot historic coffins, they find an empty coffin. Who killed Mary? How did she die? Where is her body? And where will this two-hundred-year-old mystery lead?

Join Gus as he’s lured into a bizarre network of underground tunnels to expose the most shocking discovery ever to rock the Genesee Valley.

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 493 KB
• Publisher: Twilight Times Books (April 5, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004VF698W
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #456,435 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

Aaron Paul Lazar wasn't always a mystery writer. It wasn't until eight members of his family and friends died within five years that the urge to write became overwhelming. "When my father died, I lost it. I needed an outlet, and writing provided the kind of solace I couldn't find elsewhere."

Lazar created the Gus LeGarde mystery series, with the founding novel, DOUBLE FORTÉ (2004), a chilling winter mystery set in the Genesee Valley of upstate New York. Like Lazar's father, protagonist Gus LeGarde is a classical music professor. Gus, a grandfather, gardener, chef, and nature lover, plays Chopin etudes to feed his soul and thinks of himself as a "Renaissance man caught in the 21st century."

The creation of the series lent Lazar the comfort he sought, yet in the process, a new passion was unleashed. Obsessed with his parallel universe, he now lives, breathes, and dreams about his characters, and has written ten LeGarde mysteries in eight years. (UPSTAGED - 2005; TREMOLO: CRY OF THE LOON - 2007 Twilight Times Books; MAZURKA - 2009 Twilight Times Books, FIRESONG - 2011, with more to come.) The author is currently working on his sixteenth novel.

One day while rototilling his gardens, Lazar unearthed a green cat's eye marble, which prompted the new paranormal mystery series featuring Sam Moore, retired country doctor and passionate gardener. The green marble, a powerful talisman, connects all three of the books in the series, whisking Sam back in time to uncover his brother's dreadful fate fifty years earlier. (HEALEY'S CAVE, 2010; TERROR COMES KNOCKING, 2011; FOR KEEPS, 2012) Lazar intends to continue both series.

Lazar's books feature breathless chase scenes, nasty villains, and taut suspense, but are also intensely human stories, replete with kids, dogs, horses, food, romance, and humor. The author calls them, "country mysteries," although reviewers have dubbed them "literary mysteries."

"It seems as though every image ever impressed upon my brain finds its way into my work. Whether it's the light dancing through stained-glass windows in a Parisian chapel, curly slate-green lichen covering a boulder at the edge of a pond in Maine, or hoarfrost dangling from a cherry tree branch in mid-winter, these images burrow into my memory cells. In time they bubble back, persistently itching, until they are poured out on the page."

In 2009, Kodak gave him up for grabs, and during the year off before he landed in his coveted new job with KB America, he had time to explore and reconnect with his environment. Little did he know that several trips to the Adirondack Mountains would reawaken his passion for that part of the country. Two new books were written in that timeframe, starting yet another mystery series, Tall Pines Mysteries. The first two books in the series are due out in the late 2011 early 2012 timeframe. Watch for FOR THE BIRDS and ESSENTIALLY YOURS, coming soon.

The author lives on a ridge overlooking the Genesee Valley in upstate New York with his wife, mother-in-law, two dogs, and cat. He finds grandfathering one of the most precious and important times of life, and spends as much time as possible with Julian, Gordon, Aiden, and Isabella.

Lazar maintains several websites and blogs, was the Gather Saturday Writing Essential host for three years, writes his monthly "Seedlings" columns for the Voice in the Dark literary journal and the Future Mystery Anthology Magazine. He has been published in Absolute Write as well as The Great Mystery and Suspense Magazine. See excerpts and reviews here:

www.legardemysteries.com
www.mooremysteries.com
www.murderby4.blogspot.com
www.aplazar.gather.com
www.aaronlazar.blogspot.com

Contact him at [e-mail].


LEGARDE MYSTERIES
DOUBLE FORTE' (2004)
UPSTAGED (2005)
TREMOLO: CRY OF THE LOON (2007)
MAZURKA (2009)
FIRESONG (2011)

MOORE MYSTERIES
HEALEY'S CAVE (2010)
TERROR COMES KNOCKING (2011)
FOR KEEPS (2012)

TALL PINES MYSTERIES
FOR THE BIRDS (2011)
ESSENTIALLY YOURS (2012)


Preditors & Editors Readers Choice Award - 2nd place 2011* Winner of Carolyn Howard Johnsons' 9th Annual Noble (Not Nobel!) Prize for Literature 2011 * Finalist Allbooks Editors Choice Awards 2011 * Preditors&Editors Top 10 Finalist * Yolanda Renee's Top Ten Books 2008 * MYSHELF Top Ten Reads 2008 * Writers' Digest Top 101 Website Award 2009 & 2010

www.legardemysteries.com
www.mooremysteries.com
www.murderby4.blogspot.com
www.aaronlazar.blogspot.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and captivating , Aaron a genius who possesses the true gift of intriguing expressions., May 31, 2011

By 

Autumn Blues Reviews (Pa.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: FireSong (Kindle Edition)

As a first time reader of LeGarde Mysteries I was very excited to read FIRESONG. I can tell you I was my interest was immediately drawn in the first couple pages and I was hooked. Aaron shares deep emotion in his writing and his unique characters are brought to life right before your eyes. The story takes place in the Genesee Valley a countryside in upstate New York. It's sheer beauty comes alive and you feel as if you are right in the valley with the main character Gus and his family. Gus is a gentle, affectionate, caring and devoted husband who is always ready to lend a hand and gives himself completely and fully to his family. However this picturesque quaint family life Gus leads is not without chaos and you soon learn there is a dark past. Although I would love to go back and read the past books in this series after reading FIRESONG I am more excited to find out what Aaron brings to the table next. Aaron has a smooth writing style that keeps you entertained while maintaining a comfortable balance with his narrative and characters. There is no predictability in his stories and before you know it you find yourself immersed in unforeseen tragedy, upheaval with little historic surprises thrown into the mix. Engaging and endearing FIRESONG will move you and Aaron writing style will place you under a spell only leaving you longing for more.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nonstop Action!, May 10, 2011

By 

Jean Pike (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: FireSong (Kindle Edition)

When Aaron Lazar contacted me and asked if I'd be interested in reviewing his latest book, FireSong, it didn't take long for me to say yes. Having read and enjoyed his coming-of-age mystery, Tremolo: call of the loon a couple of years back, I was eager for another sampling of this author's work. I was especially eager to read FireSong because the story is set in my own back yard, in the beautiful Genesee Valley.

The story's synopsis promised an interesting mystery with colorful characters, and that's exactly what it delivered.

A professor of music at a local University, Gus LeGarde is looking forward to his summer sabbatical -- to long, lazy days spent tending his vegetable garden and spending time with his grandchildren. But when a tornado tears through the valley one quiet Sunday morning and unearths the remains of missing townsperson, Colin Springer, Gus' plans for a relaxing summer begin to unravel.

Little does Gus know that the tornado is only the first of many strange occurrences that will plague the small town of East Goodland over the next few weeks. As controversy over the reopening of the nearby salt mine heats up, the local pastor finds himself the target of a dangerous criminal's wrath. One humid summer night, the pastor's car crashes into a tree in front of Gus' house. The pastor is taken to the hospital, his blood stream full of heroin.

While Gus works with the local police to try and sort through the chaos, his wife, Camille, discovers a secret room in their century-old farmhouse-- a discovery which leads her to believe the home's original owner, Mary Hill, may have had connections to the Underground Railroad. When local grave robbers are apprehended, Mary's coffin is found to be filled with bags of sand, rather than her skeleton, and Gus finds himself with yet another mystery on his hands.

There's something magical about Aaron Lazar's writing. A talented storyteller, he brings his characters and their worlds alive one small, telling detail at a time, much like an artist's brush moves across a canvas, knowing instinctively which details and colors will make the final product a work of art. FireSong is just such a masterpiece.

Aside from his gorgeous descriptive paragraphs, Mr. Lazar has created characters who feel like friends, indeed, like family. The LeGarde's were so real to me I felt as if I could walk into their home, pull up a chair, and enjoy a delicious Sunday dinner. Add to that a plot that is filled with surprising twists and turns and you have the magic that is FireSong.

FireSong is the fifth installment in the Gus LeGarde Mystery series. All I can say is that I have a lot of catching up to do!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Master storytelling, July 17, 2011

By 

Ron Adams (Hamburg, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: FireSong (Kindle Edition)

Aaron Paul Lazar is a wonderful writer that brings you into the village of East Goodland, NY, nestled in the pastoral Genessee Valley. His prose is dense and descriptive, his characters as familiar and well developed as any writer I've read. The reader is drawn into a multi layered mystery in such a way as to look forward to peeling back every layer. Gus LeGarde and his family are warm, wonderful, and a welcome addition to my personal library.

Ron Adams,

Author, Key Lime Squeeze