Cuenca expat writer Jean McCord publishes two novels and is hard at work on a third

By Jeremiah Reardon

Some of you may remember Jean McCord due to fund raising efforts for her hip joint replacement surgeries. The expat community is to be commended for how it rallied a couple of years ago to help her. Her progress has improved to where she now gets around with a walker. And she couldn’t have done it without the fulltime support of her caretaker, Leonor “Noshy” Pinos.

Cuenca expat novelist Jean McCord

Jean arrived in Cuenca in 2015 on a scouting visit. She stayed two months and joined Cuenca Writers Collective. We critiqued her writing before she returned to Tacoma, Washington where she had a business as a planned giving consultant for several charities. She wrapped up her affairs to move permanently back to Cuenca.

Over the years our group critiqued chapters of her two books. Helping to bring Jean’s books to completion were John Keeble, Mike Casto, and Jeanne McCafferty. In 2024 at the age of eighty-one, Jean published both Home Free and The Eagle Murders.

Home Free is an historical fiction novel that follows Nell as she grows up in a small Georgia town in the 1940s and 1950s. Her family is both poor and dysfunctional as Nell seeks to find what she wants in life.

She searches for worthiness and belonging, trying to find comfort in friends and even in God, but without success. It is a moving account of one girl’s decisions as she tries to understand her world and where she fits. The reader comes to admire Nell on the very first page and cheer her on as, in the last chapter, she finally realizes that her family—which has pulled itself together at last—is where she can find what she needs.

Readers’ comments on the book’s Amazon page have praised it as a book to enjoy and remember. One reader, George, commented, “For many, growing up in the south in the 1950s was confusing and difficult. Home Free defines this period very well. You come to better understand and care for the characters who inhabit the complexities of this time.”

Another reader, Lexijon, also gave it a positive review. “A beautifully detailed and described journey through a young girl’s life, her dreams and her challenges, until finally she is happily home free. Jean McCord’s evocative prose brings alive the girl, her family, her culture, and her environment. Home Free is a book to read, to enjoy, to remember.”

Jean’s other book, a novel titled The Eagle Murders, takes place in her former home, the State of Washington. In the murder mystery novel, we meet Sarah Tierney. When her friend backs out of an eagle-watching trip on the Skagit River, Sarah decides to go ahead, solo. The evening before the rafting trip, Sarah meets a young homeless woman in an abandoned church who reminds her of her deceased sister, Marilu. The next day, she encounters the girl again, but this time, the girl is as dead as Marilu.

The modus operandi seems familiar! Has the Skagit River Killer returned? When two other passengers who were on the rafting trip also end up murdered, Sarah finds herself under the wing of Harold Workman, a no-nonsense lawman who has come out of retirement to protect her. Sarah is attracted to him but feels confused. She senses he’s interested in her, too–but is it because she is a woman? Or because she is a suspect?

Published just a few months ago, the book’s Amazon page features praise from Gary who wrote, “One of the best murder mysteries that I’ve read, kudos, Jean McCord. This is one of the most well-crafted books that I’ve read in a long time. It has an exquisitely twisted ending that I did not anticipate! If I had 3 thumbs I would give it 3 thumbs up. A definite must-read book. I read it in 2 days because I couldn’t put it down. This author is so good that I am reading her previous work.”

Lexijon, again, contributed a comment, “A must read. An engaging, mystifying story that jolts the reader along from twist to turn to a final satisfying resolution. A warning – it’s hard to put down when you start caring for the characters who slip from hunters to hunted.”

Like myself, Jean has contributed to CuencaHighLife. She wrote a gripping story about her day with a tour group in the Cajas. Also, she featured in Cuenca Dispatch a woman occupying a family home on Calle Larga filled with antiques and memories.

Do yourself a favor and find Jean’s books at Amazon.com. She may have been laid up with her surgeries, but she applied herself and reached her goal of publication. And now she’s working on an Eagle Murders sequel called Death of a Sea Otter that she hopes to finish and publish before long.  You’ll admire her creativity and insights into character and setting just like our writer group does. And Jean will appreciate any comment you can add to the others if so moved!