Mystery in the Tussock

by Shirley Ayers

Mystery in the Tussock follows on from the end of Wild Tussock. When horse-loving teen Melanie Chambers vowed to find out what happened to her father’s valuable thoroughbred stallion after it disappeared during a violent storm, she unearthed a chain of deceptions that she would never have dreamt of being involved in.Three years passed before she could even begin to act on that vow. For those years, there were no leads, nothing that would prove her right and her father wrong. His mind became closed to the tragic disaster and he was convinced the horse had perished in the storm. Melanie’s deep love and understanding of the stallion kept her convinced he was out there somewhere. She had no explanation for her feelings, just her gut instincts. Then her natural persistent curiosity started a chain of events that led her ever onwards, following her suspicions in spite of, for a very long time, nobody believing her. Tom, her lifelong friend and soul mate from the farm next door, thought her imagination had gone wild, and her Aunt Hillary, who was to become engaged to Tom’s father, tried to guide her back into the ‘real world’. When Melanie finally proved her instincts were true, the stallion Gallant was returned to his rightful place on the Chambers farm and Tom realised her suspicions about the sleek bay mare and beautiful chestnut colt mingling with the wild horses out on the tussock below the wild Kaimanawa Ranges were also well founded. In Mystery in the Tussock, the story continues. When the mare and colt are brought home from the tussock, everything seems to fall into place and life looks like returning to normal. This turns out to be far from the case and the now nearly seventeen-year-old Melanie faces a tough final year at college while struggling with strange events and threats to her safety, a confusing rift in her long term association with Tom, a new boy on the block vying for her attentions and an unpleasant episode with a previously trusted school friend. Her family watch almost helplessly as Melanie struggles to deal with the problems being thrown at her.When Melanie Chambers discovered what happened to her father’s valuable thoroughbred stallion after it disappeared during a violent storm, she unearthed a chain of deceptions that she would never have dreamt of being involved in.Three years later when the stallion’s mare and colt are brought home from the tussock, life looks like returning to normal. But now Melanie, nearly seventeen, faces a tough final year at college while struggling with strange events and threats to her safety, a confusing rift in her long-term association with Tom, a new boy on the block vying for her attentions, and an unpleasant episode with a previously trusted school friend. Her family watch almost helplessly as Melanie struggles to deal with the problems being thrown at her.

ebook

First published August 5, 2015