DEADLY SECRETS FROM POND ISLAND

In Raymond’s crime thriller, an ex-lawyer digs into an old murder case in a small town.

Forty-eight-year-old Vanessa Hutchins had a promising career as a criminal defense attorney at one of Pittsburgh’s top law firms. Then, on impulse, she quit her job, left the city, and purchased a home—sight unseen—on Pond Island Drive in the small, rural town of Port Logan, Ohio. She knew the house would require a bit of work, but she wasn’t prepared to discover it filled to the brim with the possessions of its previous owner: “All she could see were piles of trash, boxes, clothes, ramshackle furniture, and nonsensical clutter.” Just as she begins to worry that she’s made a massive mistake, Vanessa discovers a trove of documents related to a local murder trial that happened more than 30 years ago. She also learns from her new neighbors that the previous resident of her home, a retired purchasing agent for the local police department, underwent a strange personality change following the death of his wife. Can these two things be connected? As Vanessa begins to dig into the evidence, she discovers things about the crime that she feels compelled to investigate. It looks like Vanessa’s days of cracking criminal cases haven’t ended; she’s just entered a less-formal next chapter. Although Vanessa’s reasons for moving away from the big city aren’t entirely convincing, however, and readers will find themselves caught up in the mélange of Port Logan locals and their secrets as her investigation proceeds at a slow, deliberate pace. Over the course of the novel, Raymond’s confident prose also ably captures the oppressiveness of small-town life, as when Vanessa gets an unwholesome vibe from a local diner as she searches for clues: “To her, no number of celebratory pictures, memorabilia, or burning sage bundles could dispel the negative energy oozing from this place.”

An engaging slow-burn investigation of a suburban crime.