Geoffrey Hild

The Natural Causes Of Murder Geoffrey Hild

Francis Elton, an industrial engineer, is recruited by his former wife, Alicia, to accompany her to a monastery, high in a mountain rain forest in Puerto Rico. An Arab businessman is buying the monastery property, and the Archdiocese has contracted with Alicia, an art restorer, to appraise a group of centuries-old paintings, hanging in the dining hall. When the Arab abruptly dies, while sitting in the Abbot's ornate chair with his bodyguard at his side, the Captain of Detectives uses an inconclusive autopsy report to assert "death by natural causes" and closes the case. The Detective Sergeant who led the curtailed investigation and an NCIS Special Agent involved in the case are not buying it, but because of separate constraints, neither is allowed to return to the monastery. However, as Alicia's escort, Francis can. Compelled by both a threat of arrest from the Detective Sergeant and an old debt owed to the Special Agent, Francis returns to the monastery to search for the supposed damning evidence. But when a victim officially dies of nothing, attempting to prove murder may only prove daunting.