Crime Fiction Collective: small towns

Showing posts with label small towns. Show all posts

Monday, October 21, 2013

'Tis the season...

A few weeks ago, I shared some books I'm looking forward to this fall. Here's the first book on my list, being released tomorrow.

Duck the Halls (Meg Lanslow #16) by Donna Andrews (Minotaur hardcover, 22 October 2013).

reviewed by Marlyn Beebe.

As usual, Meg and her husband Michael have a lot on their plates. Not only do they now have twin four-year-old boys, Michael has signed up to be a volunteer fireman, and it's almost Christmas.
A few days before the holiday, they are awakened in the middle of the night by an emergency call summoning Michael to the New Life Baptist Church.

Luckily, there's no fire. However, the choir loft has a cage full of angry skunks in it, who have done what angry skunks do. As a result, even after the skunks have been removed, it will be impossible to use the church for any Christmas events. Trinity Episcopal, which Meg's mother attends, offers to let the Baptists use their sanctuary for their Christmas concert. Meg is conscripted to create a schedule for the other events planned at the Baptist church, but there are complications.

At the concert itself, a boa constrictor slithers out of the Christmas tree, and the next morning, the parishioners of the Catholic church arrive to find it filled with hundreds of ducks. Meg's task is becoming more complex by the minute.

So far, the pranks have been harmless, but then there is a fire at Trinity Episcopal, and an elderly vestryman is killed. Obviously, this is not the work of the original pranksters, but Meg doesn't know how to prove it.

This story is vintage Andrews. Meg's family and the residents of Caerphilly are, as usual, just eccentric enough to be believable. This is bound to become a classic Christmas mystery.

FTC Full Disclosure: Many thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for the e-galley.

Duck the Halls (Meg Lanslow #16) by Donna Andrews (Minotaur hardcover, 22 October 2013).
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Monday, May 13, 2013

In the Bleak Midwinter

Cover of Snow by Jenny Milchman (Ballantine hardcover, 15 January 2013).

Reviewed by Marlyn Beebe.

Nora Hamilton wakes up one morning and almost instantly can feel that something is wrong. Searching the house for her husband Brendan, she finally finds him in the attic. He's committed suicide. Her immediate reaction, of course, is that he would never have done such a thing, and despite the assurances of his colleagues on the police force in the tiny town of Wedeskyull, New York, that there could be no other possibility, she remains unconvinced.

After the funeral, she finds herself unable to continue her day-to-day life without confirming her suspicions, but she finds herself stymied at every turn by the police chief, the other officers, or the local townspeople. Despite the fact that she's lived in the small Adirondack community since she married Brendan six years earlier, she's still perceived as an outsider. She gets support from very few people, including a local journalist (also a "newcomer"), her family, and Brendan's aunt (who really only helps by not hindering her).

Despite the fact that her search leads her into some remote parts of the mountains in the middle of winter, and at times she even fears for her life. Milchman describes the frigid winter surroundings so well that I found myself shivering often while I read this (which may make it the ideal book for a sweltering summer afternoon).

The story is suspenseful and creepy, but gripping and difficult to put down. It's an exceptionally written first novel, and will likely be enjoyed by fans of Julia Spencer-Fleming and Louise Penny.

Many thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for the e-galley of the book.

Monday, November 28, 2011

The Case of the Missing Babysitter

In Search of the Rose Notes by Emily Arsenault.*

A review by Marlyn Beebe.

When best friends Nora and Charotte were eleven, they shared a sixteen-year-old babysitter by the name of Rose. The small, idyllic town of Waverly, Connecticut was considered fairly safe even in 1990, and Rose often walked home alone at dusk. One day, she walked Nora to her house, then continued to her own home. She never arrived, though, and most people assumed that Rose had run away.

Nora never believed that, however. She always knew, somehow, that Rose was dead. Her feeling was proven true sixteen years later when she receives a call from Charlotte telling her that Rose has been found.

Nora, who had left Waverly as soon as she possibly could, at first believes that Rose is still alive. That thought is quickly quashed by Charlotte, who explains that Rose's remains had been found near the local pound, stuffed into a wicker trunk. Although Nora has always been certain that Rose was dead, she is shocked by this, and feels the need to go back to Waverly.

Telling her husband only that she's visiting her old friend Charlotte, Nora drives from her home in D.C. to Waverly, where Charlotte still lives in the house she grew up in. Once she gets there, she finds that for some unknown rason she really needs to know what happened to Rose, and starts asking questions of everyone she can find who used to know her.

As the reader might anticipate, there was much more to Rose's life than eleven-year-old Nora could possibly imagine. Although the adult Nora expects this, the reality completely stuns her.

The characters are believable, though not all likeable, and the story keeps the reader eager to learn what happened to Rose. Although this reviewer found the eventual revelation something of a disappointment, many will probably think it perfectly satisfactory. In any case, the prose is a delight to read and the relationships between the younger characters ring true, as do their perceptions of adult behavior.

*FTC Full Disclosure: Many thanks to the publisher, who sent me a copy of the book for review purposes.