The Singing Stones
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Rock formations appearing out of the deep past begin Ria’s adventure in The Singing Stones, Book 3 of the Ria Quinn Mystery Series!
A consciousness-raising group is holding their retreat at the Merlyn Inn. Their plan for a fire ceremony in the meadow across Druid Lane makes innkeeper Deidre frantic, until Ria agrees to help.
When a lute-player she meets at the retreat persuades Ria to join him in exploring an ancient boulder field behind the inn, he tells her about the singing stones that ring in bell-like tones when tapped with a hammer. Clambering over the field, they are shocked to discover the bludgeoned body of a man in a business suit, a hammer beside him that has been used for much more than tapping on the stones.
Amateur archaeologist that she is, Ria wants to know why he was digging in that field. Is it possible the River Writers club staying at the inn knows what is going on? She has never met a quirkier group of people. What about their leader, who knows too much about Ria? There’s no chance to find out. After the fire ceremony, amidst celebrations inside the inn, he is found murdered.
The fire ceremony itself haunts her. Ria joins the drumming circle, surrounded by high posts topped with flaming torches, the dark woods behind as a backdrop. It is mesmerizing. So often while exploring archaeological digs, she had imagined living in the prehistoric times the digs revealed. With the drumming, she feels suddenly as if she has come close.
Seeing a phone video of a hooded figure digging through the boulder field, Ria and friends go there and witness the same figure, only to end up scaring him away. Yet her presence and her constant questions have awakened someone else’s curiosity. Whoever it is wants whatever the stones are hiding, and Ria knows he is not done yet. She feels safe in her home with her precious golden retriever Hailey at her side—but is she?
Excerpt from The Singing Stones…
He began to climb over the field and Ria decided she may as well do the same. If the rocks did emanate sounds, she’d like to hear them. She could imagine a giant’s hand casting down the small sea of boulders from above and started to say so out loud, but thought better of it.
“Not all of them will make sounds,” Hal said, “but there should be enough to make the point.” At that moment a stone he had hit let out a bell-like tone and he looked over at her, elated. “How about that! Here, take this hammer and try it for yourself,” he said, handing one to her.
“What do you use the one that’s covered for?”
“I probably won’t use it at all. They did that at Stonehenge so as not to leave marks on the stones, but that doesn’t really matter here.”
Ria began striking gently on some of the larger stones as she clambered over the rock field. When one of them responded with a distinct musical note she was delighted and went from stone to stone, creating an array of sounds so distinct she wondered if they could be arranged into a melody.
“One thing they’ve found out,” Hal said, as he was moving some stones aside a few feet away, “is that the stones often ring in the tone of B flat. Which just happens to be what a supermassive black hole sounds like.”
Ria was sitting down, tapping on the stones around her, and couldn’t help laughing. “How on earth—or rather, in space, did they decide what a black hole sounds like? And prove it?”
“It’s what they tell us, anyway. Back in 2003 NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory detected a humming sound wave in B flat from a black hole 250 million light years away. I tell no lies!”
“Now you’re going to add that everything is connected, like Aletha is always telling me. Deidre’s sister,” she added. “She owns the crystal shop in town and she’s on the retreat, too.”
“More food for your skepticism, I wager,” Hal said. “I like the atmosphere in stores that sell crystals. What’s her last name?”
“How strange—you know, I have no idea. Deidre is a widow and uses her married name, Summers, but for Aletha, everyone just uses the one name.”
“Like Prince, or Jewel, or Adele.”
“Yes! I must ask her when I next see her. What I do know is this is an unexpected and entertaining way to spend my first day at the retreat,” Ria said, “though with the wind it feels much colder out here now.”
“It’s strange–I feel since we’ve been talking as if I’ve known you for a much longer time. More of that kindred spirit stuff, I guess.”
The same thought had occurred to Ria. It was unusual for her to talk so much to a stranger about the things that mattered to her. It had been much the same when she met Kyle, the open-endedness and lack of any hidden agenda.
“We should probably get back, anyway,” he went on. “I’m sure Deidre is wondering where we’ve absconded. There’s plenty of time to find more of the singing stones—oh, my!”
Ria looked up. Hal was standing up and looking down at something. His eyes were wide with shock. Ria stepped across the stones until she was beside him.
“Whatever is the matter?” she said, worried by his pallor.
In answer, he pointed to the small space between the boulder field and the creek, where the wind had pushed aside some brush and tall grass.
It was unmistakably the body of a man, wearing a business suit.
Read more of The Singing Stones to follow Ria’s search for both ancient wisdom and a murderer in this third volume of the series.
Book categories: Cozy Mystery