A twisty whodunit that’s crafted with care and saturated with down-home Southern charm.
The shocking homicide of a local woman turns a small Texas town into a hotbed of suspicion in this mystery.
The setting is quiet, bucolic Lantz, where the body of Veda “Miss Belle” Tackett, wife of local cattle rancher Blake, is discovered. Foul play is immediately suspected, partly because of the suspicious sediment left in a juice pitcher, not to mention the victim’s reputation as being both beloved and loathed. Belle “had a way of messing with people.” The crime is recounted in intimate detail by the story’s affable narrator, Ray Crawford Osborne, a Lantz native and the local sheriff. Over the course of the novel, he patiently sorts through an eclectic bunch of small-town locals with plenty of resentments and alibis. Included in the presumed innocent but with a possible ax to grind category are scorned cafe waitress Sara Evans; the “Three-B’s” (Blake; Robert Wayne “Bobby” Seville Sr., a wealthy landowner; and Buster McCombs, an alcoholic Vietnam veteran); and Blake’s firebrand daughter and business partner, Lilly, as well as Buster’s nephew, Ed. In informal, spontaneous interviews conducted behind barns and sheds, the sheriff collects clues and whittles down suspects. Along the way, readers are treated to the inner workings of a memorable small Southern town churning with the heady gossip of seasoned busybodies and the histrionics of missed opportunities, longtime regrets, and lost loves. Retired journalist Evatt’s sense of place is exacting and instantly cozy, with homespun nuances, nosy locals, and classically authentic small-town locales, all carefully embedded in a story that’s as smoothly delivered as a Southern drawl. When the cause of death is pinpointed as asphyxiation, Osborne’s investigation shifts into high gear to catch the coldblooded killer, but not before several accusatory misfires. Whodunit? Only Lantz’s resident 15-pound feline, Twizy, knows for sure. Osborne is an entertainingly reliable narrator—and not just because he’s a widowed Lantz native. In his late 70s when he’s recounting the decades-old mystery, he’s seen his share of small-time crooks and recalls this particularly challenging ordeal with immense personality. The author draws from the anecdotes of her own life and the tales of others to fashion the mystery and give its characters and storylines authenticity and charisma.
A twisty whodunit that’s crafted with care and saturated with down-home Southern charm.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-9992233-4-5
Page Count: 246
Publisher: September Pages
Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.
Stephanie Plum’s 31st adventure shows that Trenton’s preeminent fugitive-apprehension agent still has plenty of tricks up her sleeve, and needs every one of them.
The current caseload for Stephanie and Lula—the ex-prostitute file clerk at her cousin Vincent Plum’s bail bonds company, who serves as her unflappable sidekick—begins with two “failures to appear.” Eugene Fleck is suspected of being Robin Hoodie, who robs from the rich and, yes, distributes the proceeds to the poor. Racketeer Bruno Jug, who’s missed his court date on charges of tax evasion, is also suspected of drugging and raping a 14-year-old. But neither of these fugitives can hold a candle to Zoran Djordjevic, aka Fang, a self-proclaimed vampire wanted in connection with the gruesome fate of his late wife and three other missing women. As usual, Stephanie’s personal life is just as helter-skelter as her professional life as a bounty hunter. She’s managed to get herself engaged both to Det. Joe Morelli, of the Trenton PD, and Ranger, a former Special Forces agent who runs a private security firm; she thinks she may be pregnant; and she’s willing to marry the father, whichever of her fiances that turns out to be. On top of it all, her nothingburger schoolmate Herbert Slovinski suddenly pops up at one of the funerals she ferries her Grandma Mazur to, hitting on her relentlessly and gilding his importunities by cleaning and painting her shabby apartment and laying new carpet. Luckily, Lula’s on hand to offer cupcakes that stave off the worst disasters, and whenever this hodgepodge threatens to slow down, another FTA appears, or fails to appear.
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781668003138
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
Fast-moving excitement with a satisfying finish.
The feds must protect an accused criminal and an orphaned girl.
Maybe you’ve met him before as protagonist of The 6:20 Man (2022): Ex-Army Ranger Travis Devine, who’d had the dubious fortune to tangle with “the girl on the train,” is now assigned by his homeland security boss to protect Danny Glass, who's awaiting trial on multiple RICO charges in Washington state. Devine has what it takes: He “was a closer, snooper, fixer, investigator,” and, when necessary, a killer. These skills are on full display as the deaths of three key witnesses grind justice to a temporary halt. Glass has a 12-year-old niece, Betsy Odom, and each is the other’s only living relative—her parents recently died of an apparent drug overdose. The FBI has temporary guardianship of Betsy, who's a handful. She tells Travis that though she’s not yet 13, she's 28 in “life-shit years.” The financially well-heeled Glass wants to be her legal guardian with an eye to eventual adoption, but what are his real motives? And what happens to her if he's convicted? Meanwhile, Betsy insists that her parents never touched drugs, and she begs Travis to find out how they really died. This becomes part of a mission that oozes danger. The small town of Ricketts has a woman mayor who’s full of charm on the surface, but deeply corrupt and deadly when crossed. She may be linked to a subversive group called "12/24/65," as in 1865, when the Ku Klux Klan beast was born. Blood flows, bombs explode, and people perish, both good guys and not-so-good guys. Readers might ponder why in fiction as well as in life, it sometimes seems necessary for many to die so one may live. And what about the girl on the train? She's not necessary to the plot, but she's a fun addition as she pops in and out of the pages, occasionally leaving notes for Travis. Maybe she still wants him dead.
Fast-moving excitement with a satisfying finish.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781538757901
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
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