Heartstone

Heartstone weaves elements of the Arthurian legend into a contemporary quest tale in which a young woman seeks the truth behind her father's disappearance and the mysterious stone he left her. Maxine Pike teaches English and folklore at a community college on Chicago’s north side where she lives with an over-sized dog and vague aspirations. Shortly after learning her archaeologist father is missing and presumed dead, she becomes custodian of the strange-colored stone he left her. Immediately she begins searching for answers: what happened to her father and what is the story behind the stone? Events are set in motion that will test her courage and faith and force her to redefine her own reality.

D.C. (Deb) Brod has written fiction most of her life, but didn’t think she had a novel in her until after she graduated from Northern Illinois University with an MA in journalism.  It was then that she decided if she could spend 120 pages discussing postal oppression of the radical press, she could write a novel.  She was right.  Her first novel, Murder in Store, featuring private detective Quint McCauley, appeared two years later in 1989.  Four more novels in that series were followed by a contemporary Arthurian thriller,Heartstone. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and several anthologies; two of these stories received Reader’s Choice Awards. She lives in St. Charles, Illinois, with her husband, Donald, and their two cats, Skye and Jura, who are possibly the world’s most aww-inspiring felines. (If you don’t believe that, check out her website: DCBrod.com.) When she’s not writing, reading, or finding excuses not to clean the house, she enjoys watercolor painting, traveling, and watching crows. And, sadly, the Cubs.