Dead Man Blues by S.D. House

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Dave Hendricks had it all: mayor of a small town on the Tennessee/Kentucky border, he was a big fish in a small pond.  He had a beautiful wife, Janet, nice house, and Victor, a best friend he loved like a brother. And then he found out Janet was cheating on him with, of all people, Victor, and the next thing he knows he’s drunkenly driven a car into the courthouse.

That pretty much ended the political career.  The friendship and the marriage were already toast.

Nowadays Dave lives on a houseboat with his dog Shorty and helps Ray out at the marina.  Then a man is murdered at a nearby fishing camp, and Victor asks Dave’s help.  Victor is the sheriff, but Dave had been sheriff previously and has had experience with homicides.  It’s an uneasy partnership, but Dave finds that the thrill of investigation gives him a purpose he’d lacked since, well, the incident.

The victim, Esau Campbell, is a local man who had been in trouble before, and there are many people who had reason to dislike him, and to dislike his family.  The Campbells are one of the wealthiest families in the area, and most feel they came by their money dishonestly—cheating people out of their property. This means there are suspects galore, and Dave has his work cut out for him finding the guilty party.

S.D. House is Silas House, an award-winning Appalachian author who has decided to try his hand at a mystery.  As expected, the book is well-written, with vivid characters and a good sense of place: a rural area where people tend to have long memories.  A dam was constructed a few years back, uprooting families and changing some ways of life, leaving a sense of loss among some residents. The 1950s setting means that a lot of investigating is done without modern technology like DNA analysis, which I find more interesting than the high tech method.

House is good at red herrings; I thought I had spotted the murderer early on and was a bit disappointed but I was pleased to be proven wrong.  I will say a couple of things troubled me as not being true to the era but again, I might be mistaken.  I did enjoy the book and I hope House will try his hand at a mystery again.

A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Famed detective Hercule Poirot is troubled when he receives a note questioning his skills and threatening crimes to come.  The author signs his name A.B.C. and challenges Poirot to stop a crime the writer is going to commit.  While the police and even his friend Hastings chalk the note up to someone playing a prank, Poirot is troubled.

It soon seems his fear is well founded as a woman with the initials A. A. is found murdered in a village whose name also starts with A. The police begin questioning her family, friends, and associates, but why an elderly shopkeeper would have been murdered and nothing stolen remains a puzzle.

When a second note arrives, followed by a second murder with location and victim having names that start with B, Poirot redoubles his efforts.  If he can’t find the murderer soon, there may be a whole alphabet of murders to contend with.

Classic fair play mysteries are my jam.  I discovered Agatha Christie in sixth or seventh grade and worked my way through most of her works. I especially loved Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, and the one book of Harley Quin stories (no, not the one from the comics!)

Later when I moved into more contemporary mysteries, I found that many just dismissed Agatha Christie.  She wasn’t literate enough or hard boiled enough or violent enough.  Other writers were held in much higher esteem.  Several decades on, many of those esteemed writers have all but vanished from the general public’s consciousness, but Dame Agatha still looms large. Why?

There are many theories but I think it’s because her  books are very entertaining and have held up well.  True, the books are now historical because of the time that has elapsed, bringing changes to attitudes, customs, and especially technology, but the clever plots, deft character sketches, and inviting the reader to follow the clues still makes for pleasurable reading.

Reading the books as an adult, I find many things that went over my head as a child but now have new meaning.  I find the era in which she wrote to be very intriguing. Things that were ordinary and common at the time are now exotic.  For example, I remember that Miss Marple knew the meanings of flowers and often decoded a message from a bouquet, which baffled me at the time but now delights me.  I may have read a book or two on Victorian flower language because of this.

Most of all, I appreciate Dame Agatha’s skill at plotting and leaving clues for the reader.  In this book, I was able to pick up some of them but I didn’t have the full picture.  I cared about what happened to some of her characters while being a tad suspicious of them at the same time. The plots themselves are inventive, intriguing, and most of all, memorable. 

I’m happy to note that more of her titles are being reprinted and, I hope, are attracting new readers to the Queen of Crime.

Art of Murder by Elaine Viets

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Helen Hawthorne has held a lot of dead end jobs in her time—it’s a long story, but involves an ex-husband who wanted alimony—but she’s settled into being a private eye. This time around, she was just touring a wonderful historic home when a woman in an art group dies suddenly.  It appears to be natural causes at first, but Helen one of the woman’s friends insists Annabelle must have been poisoned and hires Helen to investigate.  Helen goes undercover as an aspiring artist to try to discover who had motive, means, and opportunity. 

Meanwhile, Helen’s new husband Phil has a case of his own, involving a thief who targets upper floor condos and who may have murdered one of the residents.

Viets has done several series, but the Dead End Jobs series in one of my favorites. As Helen takes on new temporary positions, I learn about what it takes to be a salesperson, telemarketer, etc.  And yes, Viets really did work all of these odd jobs in real life, so she knows her subjects!

I also thoroughly enjoy the south Florida setting and the strong supporting cast who all live at an older apartment building with a spritely landlady.  I love mysteries, but I also like well-developed characters who change and grow as a series progresses.  I may have figured out whodunit before the end of the book, but the journey was a pleasure—helped along, I have to say, by Phil’s hare-brained scheme to catch a thief which had me giggling as I walked on the treadmill. The mix of interesting characters, well-considered plots, good locations, and a dollop of humor is just up my alley.

Sadly, this was the last in this series so I would advise starting with an earlier book. In order:

Shop Till You Drop

Murder Between the Covers

Dying to Call You

Killer Blonde

Just Murdered

Murder Unleashed

Murder with Reservations

Clubbed to Death

Killer Cuts

Half-Price Homicide

Pumped for Murder

Final Sail

Board Stiff

Catnapped!

Checked Out

The Art of Murder

Viets is the author of several different series, so be sure to check them out!

The Body in the Kelp by Katherine Hall Page

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Faith Fairchild, her minister husband Tom, and toddler Ben are spending the summer on Sanpere, an island in Maine.  Faith finds herself enjoying her time at the beach, especially as there are two enthusiastic teenage babysitters who adore following Ben around.  Faith’s friend Pix, who encouraged the visit, has introduced her around so she’s gathered a circle of acquaintances.  There’s also very fresh seafood, including clams and lobster which caterer Faith finds most appealing.

Less appealing is finding a body on the beach, even more so when it turns out that it’s someone Faith knows.

This was my first Faith Fairchild mystery but it certainly won’t be my last!  Page writes with verve, going from marvelous descriptions of place to Faith’s somewhat cynical sense of humor.  She also keeps the action moving with disagreements about a surprising inheritance and the lure of hidden treasure, possible mythical but one can always dream. For me, the book is a delight; I enjoy the humor and the descriptions of Sanpere are so vivid that I can almost smell the sea. Looking at some of the title descriptions, this is one of the series that recognizes the passage of time: by The Body in the Web (2024) Ben is off to college.  (Body in the Kelp came out in 1991.)

Faith is neither foolhardy nor overly cautious.  She has an appealing no-nonsense attitude that bodes well for the long haul as a sleuth. The style reminds me of two of my favorite authors, Jill Churchill and Lea Wait, so I am thrilled to have a new author to add to my list. Since there are 26 books in the series, I will no doubt be entertained for quite some time!

The Merlot Murders by Ellen Crosby

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Lucie Montgomery fled to France after a crippling automobile accident, leaving behind her father, her sister and brother, and the family vineyard.  When the call comes that her father has died, Lucie returns to Virginia for the funeral.  She is shocked by the changes in two years:  not only is the family home and business in trouble, but her siblings Eli and Mia seem to have turned into people she doesn’t know any more. Even more shocking, they both seem to want to sell the land that has been in the Montgomery family for generations.  Upset, Lucie refuses to agree to the sale, angering her brother.

There’s more to come. Fitz, Lucie’s godfather, tells her of his suspicions that her father’s death was no accident and promises to support her in her decision not to sell the vineyard. This isn’t an idle gesture:  along with Lucie, Eli, and Mia, Fitz has a vote in what happens to the property.  But when Fitz turns up dead at the winery, Lucie starts asking questions that someone doesn’t want answered.

I picked this up as a Book Bingo category book; I’d heard good things about Crosby’s mysteries but just had not taken the time to read one.  I was very pleasantly surprised by the amount of history and discussion of winemaking that I found in its pages, not to mention a dandy mystery with interesting, well-developed characters.  Lucie herself is a prickly protagonist, stubborn and reluctant to trust anyone—often with good reason.  Her former boyfriend and the cause of her accident is now having an affair with her sister; her brother seems in thrall to his wife, desperately trying to win her approval at every turn. Quinn, the new vintner hired by her father, appears arrogant and dismissive of Lucie, and he has a shady past.

I thoroughly enjoyed the history. Crosby has done her research, and it shows. Thomas Jefferson is often invoked because of his determination to make splendid American wines, but I hadn’t realized how long settlers had tried for good wine in Virginia. There’s also some interesting information about making wine itself, and I found myself thinking about all the local wineries that dot the Southwest Virginia landscape these days.

The only thing I could have wished for was a bit more time spent after the dénouement. I wanted to see the reactions of some of the characters to the revelations but that’s a small quibble.  Besides, it makes me want to go to the next book!

Books in the series are:

1. The Merlot Murders

 2. The Chardonnay Charade

3. The Bordeaux Betrayal

4. The Riesling Retribution

5. The Viognier Vendetta

6. The Sauvignon Secret

7. The Champagne Conspiracy

8. The Vineyard Victims

9. Harvest of Secrets

10. The Angels' Share

11. The French Paradox

12. Bitter Roots

13. Deeds Left Undone (2025)

Play the Fool by Lina Chern

Reviewed by Jeanne

Katie True is adrift.  Unlike her siblings, she doesn’t excel at anything, doesn’t have the drive to succeed, and feels like an outcast in her family.  The only thing she’s ever done well was read Tarot cards, taught by her Aunt Rosie—who wasn’t exactly on the up and up.  It’s such a habit, though, that Katie even sees people and situations as being represented by various cards, and thanks to Aunt Rosie’s teaching, Katie can read people well enough to make a good show. 

Which is what she decides to do when the guy stumbles into Firebird Imports, the rundown shop in a rundown mall. It’s the latest in Katie’s string of dead-end jobs, and the lack of customers makes it easy for her to suggest a reading.  Hey, she can make a quick $20 and her boss doesn’t have to know.

While Katie’s very skilled at reading people, it doesn’t hurt to have a little help so when her mark—er, customer—rushes to the bathroom, leaving his unlocked phone on the counter, she takes a peek.  Just to make her reading more accurate, you understand.

What she doesn’t expect is to see a photo of her friend Marley.  Especially not when Marley looks very, very dead.

Because Marley was the one person who seemed to really see Katie and didn’t consider her to be an abject failure, Katie decides she’s going to catch Marley’s killer. Trouble is, Katie has a lot of trouble with impulse control and so she rushes into situations.  She’s helped by a sympathetic policeman and her brother Owen who seems to be somewhere on the spectrum but is still considered considerably more successful than Katie.

This was an entertaining first in series book.  I enjoyed Katie’s insight into the card reading, and while I admit I shook my head at her actions at times, I did admire her persistence.  I also admit that I started reading a second book in which the main female character is a twenty-something who drifts from job to job and is considered a failure by her family.  I hope this isn’t going to be the new trend in heroines, as I fear it will get really old really fast for me.

There’s a second book planned, and I look forward to reading it. I hope Katie will have found herself a bit more.

Nine Lives and Alibis by Cate Conte

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

It’s Halloween in Daybreak Harbor, and this year the town is trying attract some of the tourist trade that Salem, Massachusetts has enjoyed.  Of course, Daybreak doesn’t have quite the witchy history that Salem does, but they have managed to nab one of Salem’s big name draws, a psychic named Balfour Dempsey who has quite the following.  Not everyone in town is on board, though—especially not Jacob Blair, owner of the inn where Balfour will be staying doing his readings.  Maddie thinks that’s odd since it’s great publicity, especially as the inn has a few mysteries of its own—including an unsolved murder.

Maddie is hoping to attract attention for JJ’s House of Purrs, her cat café where rescue cats are up for adoption and people can enjoy delicious coffee and treats.  She’s not a believer in psychic phenomena, but she is a believer in helping the town’s merchants earn money to tide them over the winter when customers are thin on the ground.

The town is going to get attention, all right:  just as the festivities are getting under way, a body is found… and it looks like murder.

This is the seventh in the Cat Café Mysteries and for me, it’s the most satisfying one yet.  Our heroine Maddie seems to have matured a bit, which is a change for the better.  I liked the slightly supernatural flavor that this one added—it’s handled so that  a reader can believe there are other forces at work but there are also plausible explanations for most things as well. I’m looking forward to the next one!

You need not have read any of the others in the series to enjoy this one. 

Titles in order:

Cat About Town

Purrder She Wrote

The Tell Tail Heart

A Whisker of a Doubt

Claws for Alarm Gone But Not Furgotten

Nine Lives and Alibis

The Maid by Nita Prose

 

The Maid by Nita Prose

Reviewed by Jeanne

Molly is a maid.  She’s a very good maid, anxious to restore each guest’s room to a state of perfection, and she loves working at the Regency Grand Hotel.  She loves coming in each morning to her crisp maid’s uniform waiting at her locker.  Molly loves cleaning and order. She loves rules, which help her try to understand human behavior.  Nuances are not  her strong suit. Molly’s social skills are rudimentary and she has trouble understanding people. She used to talk to Gran about it, and Gran would help her understand but Gran died a few months ago.

But even Gran might have trouble explaining to Molly about finding a dead body in a hotel room—especially when that body belongs to a wealthy and powerful man.  This means the police are eagerly looking for suspects. And who is a better suspect than a maid?

This had been on my To Be Read list for quite some time and I’m really glad I finally picked it up. Molly is a wonderful character.  She’s very rigid in many ways but she’s also struggling to understand a world that that to her is chaotic and confusing.  She’s very much an innocent even as she feels she is in control. I found myself worrying over her when I know she’s misreading a situation and cheering her on when she stands up for herself. To make it even better, the whole thing is wrapped up in an intriguing mystery with some fascinating twists and turns. It says a lot for how much I cared for this character that I kept skipping ahead to make sure things turned out okay.

Besides Molly, the book is populated with a number of vivid characters. Some are wonderful, like Gran or Mr. Preston, while others are—well, not.  I’m looking at you, Cheryl. Most of all, I liked seeing the world from Molly’s point of view, even as some of her friends and co-workers watch, baffled, by what Molly sees as straightforward.

With as many mysteries as I read, it’s hard to find something that seems fresh, and this one certainly did.  In fact, I was so entranced that I rushed to find and read the sequel, The Mystery Guest, which was just as satisfying.  I’m very much looking forward to the third in the series, a novella entitled The Mistletoe Mystery due out in October.

The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

There’s a long tradition of mystery stories set at Christmas; in addition to Christmas mysteries, the British also have a tradition of ghost stories set at that festive time, and Peter Swanson quotes from arguably the most famous of these stories just before the start of this novella.  The story opens with a woman preparing to spend her usual solitary Christmas with a bit of housecleaning. She finds an old familiar diary and soon finds herself immersed in a Christmas time some thirty years earlier when she was a student.

Californian Ashley Smith is studying art in London and planning on spending Christmas alone when she is asked to be a guest at a country house in the Cotswolds. Fellow student Emma Chapman issued the invitation, knowing that Ashley wouldn’t be returning to America for the holidays.  It’s something out of a fairy tale, a wonderful English village with the manor house, Emma’s handsome brother Adam, and evenings by the fireplace.  But Ashley confides to her diary that she’s a little uneasy. Maybe instead of a fairy tale, she’s in a dark gothic tale.  After all, a girl was found murdered nearby just a few months earlier and the killer is still at large—and Emma’s brother Adam is considered a suspect.

This is a shivery tale, told from the points of view of a somewhat naïve student and then from a mature woman.  Some of the surprises come early, but there’s a twist at the end that made it memorable for me.  If you like Christmas mysteries, this is a good choice: the English setting, the dark undercurrents, and the secrets. At just over 90 pages, it makes for a relatively quick read, which is what I’m looking for at this very busy time of year.  Swanson is the winner of numerous mystery awards, and from this book I would say there are well deserved.

A Fatal Fiction by Kaitlyn Dunnett

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Mikki Lincoln is a strong willed seventy year old who supplements her retirement income by working as a freelance book editor. Passionate about grammar and the use of words, Mikki has a few choice ones for Greg Onslow, an obnoxious entrepreneur who accuses her of trying to sabotage his latest project.  Their heated public confrontation goes viral thanks to someone with a handy cell phone, which creates problems later when Onslow turns up dead.

Despite a detective’s thoughts to the contrary, Mikki isn’t the only one with a motive. There’s a whole cast of characters who had reason to wish the man ill. For example, Mikki’s cousin Luke is in love with Onslow’s widow; Sunny Feldman, whose memoir Mikki is editing, was upset that Onslow wanted to raze her family’s old resort hotel; and Giselle, the aforementioned widow, doesn’t seem to be too deeply in mourning for her departed husband.  There’s also the matter of Onslow’s less than ethical business dealings, some of which end with investors paying the price while he got away unscathed.

Mikki sets out to find the real murderer, despite family interference.

This is Dunnett’s second series, following her Liss MacCrimmon Mysteries which features a young woman who owns a Scottish-themed shop. I’d read some of those and liked them, but I felt a more immediate connection with Mikki.  I don’t think it’s totally an age thing—more of an attitude admiration society.  Mikki is very independent in the best sense of the term, so she’s not best pleased when one of her nephews is sent to check up on her—er, visit for no particular reason for an unspecified amount of time.  I like that while Mikki is aging she’s still physically vigorous but practical enough to know her limitations.  She’s level-headed (well, most of the time) and thoughtful, but not one to be pushed around.  Some of her observations made me smile; calling herself a BMW was one of them.  (Big Maine Woman, though she has now moved to New York state.)

I found this to be a very enjoyable cozy mystery, and will definitely be reading more in the series. I’ll probably back up and read the first, but I had no problem following any of the story and feel it could be read as a standalone.

The other books in the series are:

Crime and Punctuation

Clause and Effect

A Fatal Fiction

Murder, She Edited

The Cat Saw Murder by Dolores Hitchens

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

 

I have been delighted with the reissues of classic mysteries of late.  Both British and American authors have been represented.  Some are old favorites, like Ellery Queen, or some that I have heard of, such as Craig Rice; others are completely new to me.  I’ve thoroughly enjoyed most of them.  When The Cat Saw Murder by Dolores Hitchens appeared, I just had to pick it up.

First published in 1939, the introduction tells us that this was a first in series book which may be the forerunner of the many cat inspired mysteries.  It also tells me a lot of other things, more about which later.

Miss Rachel Murdock lives with her sister Jennifer and a cat named Samantha.  When their niece Lily asks Miss Rachel to come and visit her for a few days, Miss Rachel is puzzled but complies.  She packs up the cat and heads to the rather run-down boarding house where Lily is staying.  It’s populated with a number of suspicious characters and Miss Rachel is definitely ill at ease.  She knows Lily is in some sort of trouble—Lily is often in some sort of trouble—but the girl is being evasive. She owes money, that’s for sure, but how much and to whom is the mystery.

Then Lily is brutally murdered in the same room where Miss Rachel is sitting.  And by brutally, I mean bludgeoned to death.  This isn’t a squeaky clean cozy where people determinedly died off in the margins, hiding some of the gory details, but neither is it glorified.  Part of the solution hinges on blood splatter, so it’s not gratuitous. Determined to find the murderer, Miss Rachel teams up with Detective Lieutenant Stephen Mayhew, who is more than a little dubious as to what help an elderly lady can offer. He’s soon to find out that she’ll be invaluable.

I was drawn straight into this mystery.  Part of it is that I grew up reading mysteries of that era: Rex Stout, Ellery Queen, Agatha Christie, Josephine Tey, etc., so I’m familiar with the conventions.  There can be a bit of omniscient foreshadowing, there may be some stereotypes that are no longer politically correct, and so forth.  I’m not unduly bothered by them because I know they are a reflection of a particular time and place, though I will admit I was a tad nonplussed by Ellery Queen’s descriptions of his elderly and decrepit father, only to find out that Dad was younger than I am.  Mayhew is a bit of an intimidating cop, and some of the things he does certainly wouldn’t pass muster today.  Miss Rachel is no shrinking violet, nor doddering little old lady. She has no intention of being the next victim and no intention of letting Lily’s murderer get away.  Her niece may not have been the brightest or nicest person on the planet, but she didn’t deserve her violent ending.

In fact, I probably wouldn’t have noticed some of these things if the introduction by Joyce Carol Oates hadn’t pointed them out. I’m sorry to say that after reading the aforementioned introduction, I almost decided not to read the book.  One other of the classic reprints I did in fact decide not to read after the intro which, like this one, pointed out all the book’s shortcomings and made little mention of any redeeming qualities.

But I forged ahead despite all these warnings and found it was indeed an entertaining mystery.  It was like watching one of those old black and white mystery movies, the ones where you can judge a character by his or her clothes or by the clichés. 

This isn’t a mystery that will be everyone’s cup of tea, but I enjoyed it. In fact, I’d like to read more by this author.

The Chocolate Cobweb by Charlotte Armstrong

Reviewed by Jeanne

Amanda “Mandy” Garth is a charming young woman with artistic talent, something she apparently didn’t inherit from either of her parents.  While admiring one of famous artist Tobias Garrison’s paintings, Cousin Edna blurts out that Amanda was nearly given to Garrison as a newborn.  She was born at the same hospital and at about the same time as Garrison’s son, and a nurse confused the two infants.  Of course, there is really no question that that Mandy is her parents’ child, but she sees it as a chance to introduce herself to the artist. Her tactics work, and she soon finds herself at the Garrison canyon home where she is welcomed by Tobias.  His wife seems gracious, but his son Thone is definitely cool to her. 

And then Mandy sees something that makes her believe someone in the house may be about to commit a murder.  The problem will be getting anyone to believe her long enough to stop the murderer from succeeding.  The fact that she uses the tenuous excuse of being an exchanged child certainly doesn’t earn her any points from most those concerned; she comes off to them as someone who is angling for something.

First published in 1948, The Chocolate Cobweb doesn’t seem to be particularly dated, except for the lack of cell phones.  It’s also not as darkly written as the current domestic noirs (think Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn or The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins) but there is real danger here.  Mandy is one of those heroines who is determined to see a thing through, no matter how much she is dissuaded.  She knows that she is hurting people around her, but she just can’t bear to stand by and do nothing.  The lightness of the writing makes the dark deeds seem all the more surprising.

Much of the story revolves around color, and I think that’s why I enjoyed it so much.  As a would-be artist, Mandy is aware of the emotional connections color makes.  There are descriptions of Tobias’ portraits and Mandy’s own compositions that made me wish to see a photo, but alas they are just part of the author’s imagination.

Which is why I have to say the cover of this recently republished edition is a bit disappointing.  I’m probably the only one who would think that and I only thought it after I read the book; before, I thought the cover was fine.  (Also in Goodreads I saw the cover of an earlier edition which was awash with color.) It’s not a bad cover and probably more appealing to a modern audience but I really liked the other for its relationship to the content.

The murderer is quickly identified to the reader, but I still will refrain from revealing it in this review.  Suffice it to say that the person is cunning and ruthless, more so than Mandy realizes—and that is where the danger lies.

If you like the classic mysteries of the mid-twentieth century, give The Chocolate Cobweb a try.

Ranger McIntyre: Unmentionable Murders by James C. Work

Reviewed by Jeanne

Ranger Tim McIntyre, WWI vet and fishing enthusiast, is enjoying his job as ranger in the newly minted Rocky Mountain National Park.  Not that there’s much to do, except stop city folk from feeding marshmallows to chipmunks, man the entrance gate (except that there’s no gate), stop poachers, and the like.  He’s certainly enjoying a visit with Doris, the lady photographer who is visiting to take photos of some of the park’s waterfalls in hopes of selling them for picture postcards, magazine articles, or maybe even a book.  He’s not quite prepared to embark on a suspicious death investigation, but when a body of a man is found clad only in his underpants, he really doesn’t have much choice but to trek on up to the remote location, Doris in tow, to see what he can discover.

This is a promising beginning to a new series, set in the early 1920s.  Ranger McIntyre is a delight, a man who has been to war and is aware of the dark side of human nature, but hasn’t let it turn him bitter.  He takes a lively interest in his fellow human beings, and an even livelier interest in fish, but puzzles are what he likes best.  The mystery of this dead guy in his skivvies is a doozy and our ranger is dead set on figuring it out.

I was enticed to read this book by the reviews that mentioned the likeable character, amiable humor, and –oh, all right, the Publishers Weekly review said Ranger McIntyre was a smarter version of Dudley Do-Right and I was hooked.  They were right! Tim isn’t dim at all, but his laid-back personality causes people to underestimate him.  He has an eye for the pretty ladies, and an even sharper eye for good grub, but there’s a lot more going on in that brain of his.  I liked the sweet nature of the book; Ranger McIntyre isn’t naïve but he doesn’t go looking for the bad in everyone either.

I also enjoyed the setting:  not just the park, but the Prohibition period, when people are first taking to the road to search for the great outdoors.  Since the park is so new—and the whole park system is fairly new—everybody is trying to figure things out.  Questions such as, “Who has jurisdiction over a crime in the park?” need answers, but in the meantime, the rangers do the best they can.  Photography, while not new, is still a bit of a novelty as everyone rushes to get photos of places few people have seen.

A “don’t miss” part of the book for me was the glossary which gives definitions that you didn’t know you needed.   Under “Chipmunk,” for example, Work notes that scientists have spent a great deal of time and effort to find out that they are not gophers, marmots, or prairie dogs, but that tourists have been known to blur such distinctions and send children out “to give  peanuts to  the ‘chipmunks’ which turn out to be brown bears.”

Yep, next time Ranger McIntyre is on the case, I’ll be happy to ride along.