Second Law

by Paul H. Raymer

From the author of Death at the Edge of the Diamond and Recalculating Truth, Second Law is the story of JON MEGQUIRE, an unsettled young man in search of his future. But his path is a plague of pot holes.

Paul H. Raymer is a building scientist who understands what it means to change paths in life. He has discovered that the best way to tell the tale of killer houses is through the medium of thriller fiction. Second Law is the second book in the Jon Megquire series.

The story begins with a horrific murder on a dark evening on Cape Cod during a building conference. As the tale unfolds, Jon returns to the Cape to find a new path forward in his life. His time pursuing the development of a major league baseball franchise in Fort Lauderdale has been fruitless and frustrating. His heart has not been in it. It’s clear to him he is not a sports promoter. He is convinced that his true path lies elsewhere and so he returns to the Cape to attend the conference which provides him with the opportunity to associate with experts, dabble with the passion for buildings, and to reconnect with LISA PRENCE, a former summer flame. There he can consider a future career in construction and solve the murder of the attendee who was smothered in expandable foam insulation. He only has a week to get it all done.

Paul H. Raymer continues to refine the boundaries of crime fiction, with a novel that is part murder mystery, part coming-of-age story, and part appreciation of the dangers of construction. With the compassion and dark, scientific humor of Michael Crichton and the twisted thriller plotting of Belinda Bauer’s Exit, Second Law is a novel readers will not soon forget.

280 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 18, 2022

About the author

Over forty plus years, Paul H. Raymer played a part in the birth of ten companies, developed more than twenty-five product lines, helped to raise three children, and is the author of the Residential Ventilation Handbook. He has gone back to his fiction roots by writing, RECALCULATING TRUTH a story that explores the blending of truth, technology, and the challenges of being an entrepreneur. In July of 2020 he published his second novel, DEATH AT THE EDGE OF THE DIAMOND that tells the coming of age story of Jon Megquire in the summer of 1979 in the fictional town of Tilley on Cape Cod. In July of 2022 he published SECOND LAW recounting Jon's disastrous attendance at a building science conference. And in August 2024 he will publish CONFINED SPACES telling the tale of Jon's tangle with money. Paul and his wife rattle around in an old inn on Cape Cod. Houses speak to him and tell him of their lives and loves. His wife, kids, and grandchildren tell him other tales. www.PaulHRaymer.com