Lies Beneath Ellicott City

About the Book

Corrosive greed, public corruption, and environmental degradation intertwine in small, historic Ellicott City, on the Patapsco River that feeds into the Chesapeake Bay. Jack Tasker is a typical thirteen-year-old, save for being the nephew of a not so typical uncle, Ben Tasker, a loving surrogate dad though an irascible newspaper man. When the skeletal remains of a young girl, over a century old, surface at the reportedly haunted Patapsco Female Institute, the police are compelled to search the grounds for more bodies. Surprisingly, they find a newly murdered John Doe. Immediately Ben and Jack are also on the case. While the two pursue clues on the Institute grounds, an apparition surreptitiously leads them to discover a backpack in the hollow of a tree. Ben and Jack realize they have opened a Pandora’s box that could jeopardize forever the health and well-being of millions who rely on the Chesapeake watershed.

About the Author

P.J. Allen has spent decades expanding on her Ph.D. in communication from Florida State University, focusing on international development in countries such as Nepal, Thailand, India, Ethiopia, Egypt, Madagascar, Ghana, Rep. of Georgia, and Russia. Allen has visited and brings experience from all seven continents to her novels, weaving in cultures, history, the environment, people, and politics into fictionalized thrillers about current events. Allen has found people worldwide to be hospitable, generous and helpful despite the daily headlines that grip our attention with misdeeds, transgression and betrayals. Her experiences have parleyed insights into how governmental policies affect our quality of life and how important information, and the media that present it, are to people making informed decisions to protect and better their lives. The author is also a licensed acupuncturist. Her other novels include Deadly Untruths, The Yeti Quotient, and Dead Reckoning in Frederick.