"Judy's scream froze in her throat as Stan looked at her with dark baleful eyes. "
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On Wings of Pegasus by Polly McBee Hutchison Trafford Publishing
book review by Russell Roberts
When a personal relationship goes bad, Judy Evers abandons her Wyoming home for a fresh start in San Diego, California. After a discouraging start, she lands a job at a small publishing house called Pegasus where everybody is on a first-name basis. Here she meets a man named Bic, to whom she reluctantly becomes attracted. Unfortunately, after a promising start Pegasus runs into financial difficulty, and ultimately asks its employees to work without pay. Finally Hal, Pegasus's desperate owner, accepts money from a thug named Stan, who has no trouble punching Hal out in the middle of the company. One day Judy discovers that Hal has been murdered. As Judy fears for her life, everybody becomes a suspect, from business manager Fred to a demanding author to even Bic.
On Wings of Pegasus is a well-written account of a woman struggling to start over and battling temptation from former and current boyfriends. Judy's feelings of isolation, despair, and loneliness in her new surroundings are described well. The book works best as an account of how difficult it can be for a young woman starting over in a strange new place. The characters are well-drawn and interesting, and Hutchison moves them around with ease. As a murdery mystery, the killing occurs too late in the story to demand much attention, and with a paucity of realistic suspects, the crime is easily solved by even the most casual crime fan. However, On Wings of Pegasus is still an interesting read, and Hutchison displays promise as an up-and-coming novelist.