The Shelby McDougall YA Mysteries
Shelby McDougall is a surrogate mother. Diane and Jackson Entwistle are paying her big bucks for her twins. When brother Dexter’s wife, Jessica, asks Shelby to leave their home because Jessica feels Shelby’s pregnancy will adversely affect her 3-year-old, Ashley, Shelby has no choice but to accept Diane’s offer to live in the guest house on their estate.
Once Shelby moves into her new home, author Nancy Wood lets loose in her exciting mystery, Due Date. The author does a marvelous job describing scenic Santa Cruz, California and the surrounding area as well as developing believable characters. Though I thought the plot development was slow at times, the wait for exciting and unexpected revelations during the course of Shelby’s pregnancy kept this reader riveted until the final climax as Shelby barely survives her due date.
Don’t even think about reading The Stork, book 2 in Nancy Wood’s McDougall mysteries, without reading Due Date.The first book is a gem, the second a sapphire.
The Stork opens up more than five years after Shelby became an unwitting victim of a baby-brokering ring in Northern California. She gave birth to twins Justin and Justine, whom she put up for adoption. (Both children are off the chart geniuses making Einstein look mentally deficient. Now, what’s that all about?)
Shelby is now studying to become a private investigator working for Kathleen Bennett, PI.
Shelby has a love interest, Sheriff’s Deputy Cody Wilson. The woman whose life she saved in Due Date, Megan, has grown to become Shelby’s best friend. And Shelby’s now divorced brother, has become Megan’s new boyfriend. So things have changed, but not entirely.
Shelby get’s a late night call from Ryan and Lisa Boyd, the twins’ adoptive parents. Justin has been kidnapped and the police haven’t yet discovered his whereabouts. Would Shelby help?
Sure she will, and does that get her in trouble! Shelby goes out for a run and is assaulted by a truck. Megan is kidnapped and almost killed. Slowly, Shelby puts the pieces together and decides that the baby-brokering ring has a leader still at large continuing his or her nasty business whom Shelby calls “The Stork.”
Nancy Wood writes her novels with clear description so that readers feel as if they are there watching the exciting events unfold. Her characters are realistic with each one having a unique voice. Finally, her plot is constantly unfolding, albeit at times a bit slow, with a mind boggling climax that will keep readers thinking long after they have closed the book.
About the Author
Nancy Wood spent the first years of her career as a technical writer, translating engineer-speak into words and sentences. Once retired, she spent a year travelling with her husband of 30 years. They wandered from Spain to Sri Lanka to New Zealand; ending up in the delightful city of Ghent, Belgium for three months.
Solstice Publishing published the first book in the Shelby McDougall trilogy, Due Date, in 2012. The second book, The Stork, was released by Solstice earlier this year. Wood says she’s working now on the last book in the Shelby McDougall Mysteries and hopes to complete it soon.
These stories focus on the alternate family arrangements that are becoming more common.