THREE MARYS

A small-town reporter in a vibrant mountain town investigates a young girl’s death in Somers’ mystery sequel, following Eleven Stolen Horses (2024).

Somers returns to her Wild Horses Mystery series with a new case unfolding in Gold Strike, California, where reporter Eleanor Wooley works for the Gold Strike Tribune newspaper and lives with her dog, Granite. She’s called after a discovery of a dead body and a fire in the forest, a combination that immediately raises suspicions of foul play. The victim is a young woman, Marisol Teresa Rodriguez, and evidence soon mounts that she was indeed murdered. The case comes nearly one year after Eleanor’s close friend Rette disappeared, leaving trauma that still lingers as she reports on another violent mystery. As Eleanor digs deeper, she grows closer to her boyfriend, Easton Jode, a local rancher who helps her process a past toxic relationship; the two find connection in their mutual love of horses and shared outrage over “kill buyers” hauling horses to Mexico or Canada for slaughter, which previously led them to illegally free Bureau of Land Management mustangs from a kill pen. Eleanor also befriends McKenzie Wilson, a local barista whom the reporter describes as “a Western cowgirl goddess.” Meanwhile, unease spreads through Gold Strike as a development threatens to put “yet another perfect natural landscape…on the cusp of obliteration,” and locals fear Marisol’s murder may be the first of many. Somers excels at balancing the allure of nature and its uneasy dangers, as when a bear chases Eleanor and Granite moments after the reporter admires dogwoods blooming “like fairy lanterns” in the forest. She also weaves in the community’s shifting politics, setting Eleanor’s progressive values against those of an increasingly paranoid population. The protagonist’s romance with Easton is also tender and compelling, but the central mystery sometimes becomes secondary to accounts of daily mountain life—an imbalance that may frustrate readers seeking more suspense, even though the protagonist remains engaging throughout.

An appealing main character and a richly observed setting enliven a slow-paced whodunit.