THE CURIOUS POISONING OF JEWEL BARNES

A small-town Texas police chief has his hands full with problems both personal and professional.

Samuel Craddock is still reeling from his breakup with girlfriend Wendy Gleason, who recently rekindled her romance with Marshall Pritikin, an old flame from high school. But the appearance of mysterious trucks carrying loads of assorted waste and dumping them on land just outside his Jarrett Creek jurisdiction is also a concern, sending danger signals he can’t ignore, yet doesn’t have the authority to investigate. All he can do is poke around the site and ask questions the people who seem to be in charge don’t have to answer. While he’s keeping an eye on the dump site, he hears some gossip that a woman named Lily Barnes has been accusing her twin sister, Jewel, of poisoning her, so he checks in with their older sister, Hannah, to see what he can find out. Add to the mix Wendy’s daughter, Jessica, who thinks Pritikin may be scamming her mom. Samuel’s problems come to a head when Jewel, not Lily, dies by poisoning. It takes a bit of time, but Samuel is eventually able to decide where to focus his energy. In an age of unreliable narrators and conflicted narration, his straightforward approach to sleuthing is a breath of fresh air. He interviews suspects with admirable objectivity and collects evidence wherever he can find it, uncovering a plot as credible as it is complex.

Another win for patience and persistence over flash and clash.