The Final Steps

Who murdered a popular law professor on a northern Michigan college campus?

Judge Rosaline Maxwell is living the good life. Retired from the circuit court bench, she now lives in the home of her dreams, lakefront in scenic Harbor Springs, Michigan. She's written a fascinating new book and is invited to speak at a local college. But her idyllic existence is rudely interrupted by a call from her best friend, Tyler Guthrie, the college president.

A popular law professor has taken his final steps—he is found dead at the bottom of a popular outdoor staircase. The police suspect foul play. There are no witnesses, but key pieces of evidence make Tyler the number one suspect.  After his arrest, Rosaline doubts her friend's innocence but still jumps into the fray, abandoning the law, antagonizing local police, becoming an amateur sleuth with one goal and one goal only: To prove, conclusively, that Tyler Guthrie is innocent of this brutal crime.

Along the way, Rosaline receives anonymous death threats, warning her to stay away from the investigation, but the former judge will not be deterred from her quest for the truth. There is no shortage of interesting and quirky suspects as attorney/award-winning author Mark M. Bello keeps you guessing 'whodunnit' until the very end.  If not Tyler Guthrie, who killed Professor Kevin Johnstone?

Mark M. Bello is an attorney and award-winning author of eight Zachary Blake legal thriller series novels and two social justice/safety picture books for children. This is the first of a planned Harbor Springs cozy mystery series. Mark is currently hard at work on a new legal romance novel and his ninth Zachary Blake legal thriller. Mark and his wife, Tobye, live in Michigan and have four adult children and nine grand-children.