Gallows Ascending continues the saga of tracker and pyschic visionary Luke Stone in Book Two of the Stone Quest Series.It has been thirteen years since Luke's confrontation in the desert with his nemesis, black magician Armand Jacobi. Luke's wife Consuelo, whom he met at Eppie Falco's Desert Inn and Café has died, and Luke has placed himself once again in exile. This time, his wanderings have brought him to the seaside village of New Camen, New Hampshire.Into his self-imposed solitude drops Dr. Bethany Rutledge. Accused of the murder of her eight year old daughter, stripped of her license to practice medicine, her marriage to politician Adrian Mountzaire in tatters, Beth Rutledge is haunted nightly by the chilling vision of a young woman's brutal death by hanging.Adding to this mix is the disappearance of an adolescent boy that appears to be centered in the tiny hamlet of New Camen. Then, Adrian Mountzaire turns up dead with his estranged wife Beth Rutledge lying in the sand beside him.Despite his best efforts to resist the temptation, Luke is falling in love with Beth Rutledge, and she with him. Beth has unlocked the frozen reaches of his heart--the heart that was frozen when his beloved Consuelo was taken by breast cancer several years before and he could do nothing to save her.Now, Luke must not only find the lost boy, but find the real killer of Adrian Mountzaire in order to save his beloved from the same fate that haunts her restless dreams.
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