Top Of The World Scene Of New Highway Mystery

June 2, 2015 - PRLog -- The fourth novel in a mystery series featuring a former RCMP homicide investigator who drives an eighteen wheeler has just been released. Author R.E. (Ruth) Donald worked in the transportation industry for over twenty years and names each novel after a highway that her hero travels during the story. The new release is called Sundown on Top of the World, after the Top of the World highway that runs between Dawson City, Yukon and the town of Tok in eastern Alaska.

“I wanted to write traditional mysteries – sometimes called whodunits – with a uniquely North American setting,” says author Donald. “What’s more North American than a big rig rolling down the interstate? With a hero who’s always on the road, I can use various locations. Much of my second novel, Ice on the Grapevine, is set in and around Los Angeles. The other two are set in British Columbia and Washington State. Using new locations for each book takes a lot of research, but it keeps the scenarios fresh and interesting for readers.”

The novel that launched the series is Slow Curve on the Coquihalla. Donald was surprised by a big spike in sales of the book earlier this year and says, “I hadn’t run an ad that week, but finally figured out that my book got a mention on the Facebook page for Discovery Channel’s Highway Thru Hell reality show, which takes place on the Coquihalla Highway. It was great publicity.” As one of the new breed of independent author-publishers, Donald looks after her own advertising and promotion, and mainly targets the growing market of ebook readers, although all her books are available in paperback editions as well.

“I get messages from fans all over North America, and even in England. It’s very gratifying to have complete strangers contact me to say they love my books and can’t wait for the next one. I’m not getting rich, but my fan base grows with each new book,” says Donald. Recently she was contacted by a freelance translator from the U.S., Ingrid Könemann-Yarnell, who has successfully translated several novels into German and liked Donald’s books so much she said she would like to translate two of them for German readers. Sea to Sky, the third book in the series, and Sundown on Top of the World, the most recent novel, should be released in a German translation by Könemann-Yarnell later this year. “Alaska, the Yukon and British Columbia are favorite destinations for European travelers,” says Donald. “I think the German editions will do well.”

In addition to trucker hero Hunter Rayne, the stories feature a sidekick of sorts who is a garrulous biker with problems in impulse control, as well as Hunter’s boss and dispatcher, Elspeth Watson, who has earned the sobriquet of Big Mother Trucker by keeping the male drivers who work for her in line. Donald is at work on a fifth novel in the series and hopes to have it completed by the end of this year. Which North American highway is it named for? “It’s a mystery,” says the author with an enigmatic smile.

More from the author's website at http://redonald.com