She is Lois Choksy in the morning, and she is Blair McDowell in the afternoon. At least that’s the way the author was introduced at a recent book launch at her Gibsons home.
About 25 interested readers turned out on a Sunday afternoon to hear a reading from writer Blair McDowell’s fifth romantic suspense novel, Where Lemons Bloom (The Wild Rose Press).
Choksy is a professor emeritus of music. In her lengthy career, she has authored several definitive books on methods of teaching music and has studied and taught in many countries. When she retired, she approached the company that usually published her academic material to interest them in her new passion, a novel. They were not in the least interested. So she reinvented herself by her pen name of Blair McDowell, found a new publisher and launched into a new writing career that she loves.
Every one of McDowell’s five novels has a sense of place; the setting is dramatic and colourful. Her last novel, Romantic Road, was set in Europe, particularly Hungary, and was the 2015 winner of the Romance Reviews Readers’ Choice Award in the category of action/suspense/mystery.
Where Lemons Bloom is no exception. It begins in Barbados where Eve Anderson meets the handsome and mysterious Adamo de Leone who saves her from drowning. They cruise together to Lisbon, Portugal, their attraction growing in intensity. But Adamo is leaving behind a nightmare. He is a man struggling to be reborn – to change from an accused embezzler to the owner of an inn on Italy’s rugged Amalfi Coast where family members live. The scenery that Eve and Adamo pass through is dazzling, and the reader can practically taste the fresh lemons in the local liqueur or smell the fresh baked bread and sweet rolls served at the quaint inn.
Of course, all does not go smoothly for Eve and Adamo. She is emotionally fatigued after a lengthy care-giving stint. He is aware that someone is out to hurt him – he just doesn’t know who. It’s the stuff of mysteries.
Find out more about the book at www.blairmcdowell.com or shop for it online at amazon.com or the publisher’s website: thewildrosepress.com
