Beneath the many mysteries of Barnard’s character-driven debut are enduring questions about the complexities of life and the...
A former Royal Canadian Mounted Police corporal tackles a mystery that may help her gather together the remnants of her shattered life.
Now that she’s quit her job and the husband she thinks tried to kill her, Lacey McCrae works as a gofer for another former Mountie who’s setting up security for a new museum near Bragg Creek, a small town close to Calgary. Nearly broke, she gets lucky when her former college roommate, realtor Dee Phillips, president of the museum’s building committee, invites her to stay in her home nestled in the wooded foothills of the Rocky Mountains, a stone’s throw from mansions owned by wealthy hockey fans. Ever since Dee was nearly run down and one of her dogs killed by a hockey player driving carelessly, she’s been slow to recover and thinks she’s being stalked. Projecting her own problems onto her friend, Lacey wonders if the stalker is Dee’s ex-husband, Neil. Then Dee’s nearly run down again by three hockey players driving a car belonging to her neighbor, much-married millionaire Jake Wyman, and Lacey’s almost crushed to death by a malfunctioning picture rack in the museum’s vault. Lacey gets off on the wrong foot with Dee’s closest neighbors, Terry and Jan, when she assumes that Jan is a drug addict only to learn that she has an unusual disease which often leaves her unable to function. When Dee is run down once more and this time badly hurt, Jan and Rob, the museum manager, offer Lacey help in the search for Dee’s stalker. Jarrad Fitch, who originally ran Dee into a ditch, is the protégé of former hockey great Mick Hardy, whose wife he’s been romantically linked with. He’s only one of the people who might have it in for Dee, but he moves to the top of the list when he vanishes.
Beneath the many mysteries of Barnard’s character-driven debut are enduring questions about the complexities of life and the choices people make.Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4597-4121-8
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Dundurn
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018
More of a western than a mystery, like most of Joe’s adventures, and all the better for the open physical clashes that...
Wyoming Game and Fish Warden Joe Pickett (Free Fire, 2007, etc.), once again at the governor’s behest, stalks the wraithlike figure who’s targeting elk hunters for death.
Frank Urman was taken down by a single rifle shot, field-dressed, beheaded and hung upside-down to bleed out. (You won’t believe where his head eventually turns up.) The poker chip found near his body confirms that he’s the third victim of the Wolverine, a killer whose animus against hunters is evidently being whipped up by anti-hunting activist Klamath Moore. The potential effects on the state’s hunting revenues are so calamitous that Governor Spencer Rulon pulls out all the stops, and Pickett is forced to work directly with Wyoming Game and Fish Director Randy Pope, the boss who fired him from his regular job in Saddlestring District. Three more victims will die in rapid succession before Joe is given a more congenial colleague: Nate Romanowski, the outlaw falconer who pledged to protect Joe’s family before he was taken into federal custody. As usual in this acclaimed series, the mystery is slight and its solution eminently guessable long before it’s confirmed by testimony from an unlikely source. But the people and scenes and enduring conflicts that lead up to that solution will stick with you for a long time.
More of a western than a mystery, like most of Joe’s adventures, and all the better for the open physical clashes that periodically release the tension between the scheming adversaries.Pub Date: May 20, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-399-15488-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2008
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.
Too much free time leads a New Hampshire bookseller into yet another case of murder.
Now that Tricia Miles has Pixie Poe and Mr. Everett practically running her bookstore, Haven’t Got a Clue, she finds herself at loose ends. Her wealthy sister, Angelica, who in the guise of Nigela Ricita has invested heavily in making Stoneham a bookish tourist attraction, is entering the amateur competition for the Great Booktown Bake-Off. So Tricia, who’s recently taken up baking as a hobby, decides to join her and spends a lot of time looking for the perfect cupcake recipe. A visit to another bookstore leaves Tricia witnessing a nasty argument between owner Joyce Widman and next-door neighbor Vera Olson over the trimming of tree branches that hang over Joyce’s yard—also overheard by new town police officer Cindy Pearson. After Tricia accepts Joyce’s offer of some produce from her garden, they find Vera skewered by a pitchfork, and when Police Chief Grant Baker arrives, Joyce is his obvious suspect. Ever since Tricia moved to Stoneham, the homicide rate has skyrocketed (Poisoned Pages, 2018, etc.), and her history with Baker is fraught. She’s also become suspicious about the activities at Pets-A-Plenty, the animal shelter where Vera was a dedicated volunteer. Tricia’s offered her expertise to the board, but president Toby Kingston has been less than welcoming. With nothing but baking on her calendar, Tricia has plenty of time to investigate both the murder and her vague suspicions about the shelter. Plenty of small-town friendships and rivalries emerge in her quest for the truth.
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0272-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
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