Dead Whales Tell No Tales — Ron Lovell

It is 1987 and college professor Thomas Martindale is teaching a summer writing seminar at the university's marine center on the rugged Oregon coast. A marine biologist dies under bizarre circumstances and his assistant, Tom's former lover, is arrested for his murder. The death occurs during a conference of the International Whaling Commission at the center. In Martindale's mind, there are more likely suspects than his friend: the Japanese fisheries minister, an Eskimo whaling commissioner, and several radical environmentalists. Soon Tom's investigation uncovers the murdered man's involvement in a graduate student's drowning at sea and his collaboration with the Japanese to alter whale population statistics. It also puts him in danger from unknown pursuers who keep following him in his car. At the same time, a large Gray whale has beached herself near his house, adding yet another twist to this perplexing mystery. RON LOVELL had a career as a magazine writer in New York, Houston, Denver, and Los Angeles before joining the journalism staff at Oregon State University. The author of 13 textbooks, he writes full-time in Gleneden Beach, Oregon. His first novel in the Thomas Martindale mystery series, MURDER AT YAQUINA HEAD, was also published by Sunstone Press.