Joseph Redden

Love's a Crime Joseph Redden

Joseph Redden's "Love's A Crime" is an intricately woven mystery set at a private boarding school in the country. When two boys fight for the love of a girl, the love triangle turns deadly, and students lives unravel. Broad Meadow's star basketball player Phillip Bishop had everything to live for. He was good looking and a gifted athlete. His hard work not only paid off on the court, but he also scored academically. He was a leader. People respected him.



Chad McAlpin had always gotten by on his looks, and probably would for years to come. His parents had enough money to send him to the prestigious old college prep school near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He had always gotten his way. People had never said "no" to him. It came as a major shock when his girlfriend, Susan Williams, broke up with him and started dating his best friend, Phillip.



Not only was Phillip a physical threat, athletically, he took the one person who meant the world to him. Phillip outscored, outmaneuvered and wound up with Susan.



It was no secret that the boys were mad at each other. Witnesses had seen them arguing. One winter night, students go to a dance. The weather has been unusually warm for several days, prompting some kids to go to the woods near campus. Susan is tired of being the source of all the tension between Chad and Phillip. She urges them to patch things up, and goes back to campus with the girls.



Chad and Phillip get into a fist fight. Chad panics when Phillip falls and hits his head on a rock. He gets his friends Andy Winchester and Rudy Preston to help him push Phillip's car off an embankment.



Detective Frank Logan is a workaholic who has spent too many nights eating dinner at his desk lately. He is so obsessed with putting criminals behind bars, his social life is lacking. His ex-girl friend, Penny, wanders in and out of his life and gets upset that he chooses a case over her. He spends so much time dealing with criminals and life threatening situations, his grandfather says he is too afraid to call her.



Logan has just moved to the rural community of Townsend. It is a small town where everybody knows everybody's business. In Philadelphia, he dealt with homicides on a daily basis. No one has been murdered in Townsend in quite a while. Handing out parking tickets is usually the only source of excitement. That is about to change, when someone discovers a red sports car half submerged in a stream.



It doesn't take Logan long to figure out that it wasn't an accident. The car was in neutral. He also finds a bloody rock and evidence that a struggle had occurred in the woods. Students and faculty have many reasons for lying to him.



When Logan learns that Phillip was hit on the head with a blunt object, he goes back to the woods and finds a bloody rock under a bush. DNA evidence links Chad to the crime. Fingerprints could not be obtained, however. Chad's lawyer says Logan only has evidence to prove the boys got into the fist fight. Frustration sets in when Logan realizes that any number of people could have committed the murder. His detection skills are put to the test, as he tries to figure out what really happened in the woods. It is up to him to uncover the truth before tragedy strikes again.