FOAL PLAY

A fire chief, a sheriff and a border collie solve a murder.

Colleen McCabe is the fire chief on Corolla Island, part of the lovely Outer Banks of North Carolina, where tourists come to see the wild horses who roam free. A dead body that washes up on the beach marks the start of big trouble for Colleen and her friend Sheriff Bill Dorman, who wants her to stick to fires and butt out of his police work. Then an explosion rips through the home of Colleen’s former schoolteacher Myrtle Crepe. The body found inside is presumed to be that of Myrtle, whose tart tongue has earned her many enemies. But Myrtle, who may have seen something dangerous, turns up quite alive. She begs her old pupil to hide her, and Colleen reluctantly agrees, though she questions her decision when Myrtle uses her thespian skills to disguise herself as Colleen’s uncle and starts sleuthing on her own. In the meantime, Colleen’s border collie, Sparky, helps a little girl dig up a heroin cache on the beach. The girl works with her art teacher to sketch the man she saw nearby, but the teacher is murdered and the sketch destroyed before anyone can see it. The DEA, arriving to work the case, arrests a harmless mentally challenged man who Colleen and Bill know is innocent. They vow to use their local knowledge to track down the real killer.

O’Sullivan’s debut features pleasantly amusing characters but not a very challenging mystery.