This image is the cover for the book Horror on the Ruby X, The Pat and Jean Abbott Mysteries

Horror on the Ruby X, The Pat and Jean Abbott Mysteries

During a blizzard, a New Mexico ranch hosts “a poisonous lady of the manor . . . a puritanical spinster, an alluring secretary, and a succession of violent deaths” (Kirkus Reviews).

While investigating a deadly automobile accident in New Mexico, Pat and Jean Abbott are trapped at the Ruby X Ranch by an unexpected snowstorm, along with the ranch owner and his family, the local sheriff, a pretty secretary, and a Navajo chauffeur. But not all of them will survive the night, and when the private investigator and his wife try to identify the killer in their midst, they find themselves frozen out . . .

Praise for the Pat and Jean Abbott Mysteries
“One of the more interesting married teams of detectives . . . A sort of globetrotting Nick and Nora.” —Thrilling Detective

“Pleasant reading.” —The New York Times

“[A] lively, well-plotted and mystifying case.” —Saturday Review

Frances Crane

Frances Crane (1890–1981) was an American author and former writer for the New Yorker. She was invited to leave Nazi Germany in the late 1930s after writing a number of unfavorable articles about Hitler. After settling in Taos, New Mexico, Crane introduced private investigator Pat Abbott and his future wife Jean in her first novel, The Turquoise Shop (1941). The Abbotts investigated crimes in a total of twenty-six volumes, each with a color in the title, with settings around the country and globe.

Open Road Media