STOLEN MOUNTAIN

When a shady land developer starts stiffing local contractors, it’s up to EMS captain / amateur sleuth Brighid Doran to expose the scheme.

Aiken’s slow-burning crime drama—part of the author’s Trowbridge Vermont series—is wrought with a careful precision that makes every mundane occurrence somehow feel foreboding. Why, readers might wonder, is the protagonist/narrator offering such granular observations about ancient Rome’s impact on Vermont roads and signage, or how wounds are properly treated? (“With my sterile gloves, I open the small bottle of cyanoacrylate glue. Starting at the bottom of the canyon, I lay in a small line. I pinch the tissue closed.”) All the details feel important, as though they should be noted and categorized for later reference. The hyperawareness gives readers an understanding of the way Brighid’s inquisitive mind operates; she gets an opportunity to put that brain power to work while methodically flushing out Ernie von Eberbach, a Rhode Islander with big plans to develop a ski lodge and single-handedly reverse Trent Valley’s unemployment statistics. Brighid already has a full plate as an emergency first responder and the wife of a career military officer who comes back from every uncertain deployment significantly worse for wear. Brighid should be considered one of the good guys, but she’s instead cast in the role of the outsider in her small town, a state of affairs that does more than anger—it hurts. “We are the bad guys. The local workers are the good guys.…Ernie’s generous hand is the source of all goodness and light,” she laments. Themes of perception and fraud are deeply interwoven throughout the quietly unspooling yarn. Along the way, Brighid never misses an opportunity to direct some hilarious ire at the Trent Valley Viewer, the local newspaper responsible for getting the “Ernie von Asshole” story so wrong. Brighid has only begun to sleuth—and sure enough, all those painstakingly parsed breadcrumbs pay off with a completely satisfying twist ending.

A smart and insightful little mystery that leaves a big impact.