Minding Spot: Fair Wind to Bahia, Darmon Mysteries, Book Four by Thomas Thorpe Review & Giveaway

William and Elizabeth received news that their uncle had died, they decided to go to Brazil and help save the coffee farm. The bank was about to foreclose on their manor and they weren't sure what else to do. Elizabeth's sister Victoria and her husband decide to tag-along and have a grand vacation at Rio de Janeiro. On their journey though, most of the passengers and crew come down with Cholera, a deadly disease. After a brutal journey, they approach land but are turned away because of the Cholera. Eventually, they are stopped by pirates and their boat sunk. They wash up ashore on a Brazilian beach.

However, William looks far and wide for his wife and his companions and fortunately finds Charles. Charles informs William that the women have been taken. Looking for help, they come upon a plantation but after drinking something the owner gave them, they pass out. When William comes to, he finds the owner dead, with William's own knife in his back. He knows they need help desperately, and it comes but not without a price.

The young prince, Dom Pedro II, has acquired the dreaded Cholera. Although many would like the eight year old dead, many would like him to live. To grant William immunity for the death of the plantation owner, he and his family will have to succumb to medical testing and see if any of their blood carries immunity for Cholera. If it does, they will try and transfuse the prince to save him. But there are risks, namely being that they could come down with the deadly disease.

But only one has the immunity and he will have to choose between his life, his wife’s and the prince. But there are landowners, Indians and escaped slaves who would rather see the prince dead and conspire to assassinate him, and will bring down the State of Bahia. Anyone who stands in their way is just a nuisance easily dismantled.

Fair Wind to Bahia is the fourth in a mystery series about a couple from Kent who solve international crimes. This is the first book in the series I have read, but I was pleasantly surprised that it read as a stand-alone. I did not feel I was missing much backstory as the author filled everything in wonderfully. A passionate, fascinating story packed with action, history and suspense! I really enjoyed it!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thomas Thorpe was the Project Manager of NASA's highly successful Mars Global Surveyor Mission- a spacecraft that orbited Mars for nine years, returning two hundred thousand images of the planet and relaying pictures from the Mars Rovers. Mr. Thorpe has published six historical mystery thrillers of the Darmon Mystery series about a couple from Kent that solves international crimes during the 1830's. These novels include: Message of the Pendant, The Fourth Contention, Patriote Peril, Fair Wind to Bahia, Desperate Crossing and Without Redemption.

http://www.thomasthorpe.com/

GIVEAWAY

One lucky reader will win their own copy of Fair Wind to Bahia!

MANDATORY ENTRY