Alafair, Shaw and Blanche travel to Arizona to visit Alafair's sister, for Blanche's health. Immigration is much on the minds of the residents, and of course Alafair discovers a body.

I was in the mood for a light mystery, and the Alafair Tucker series usually does the trick, but I made the choice to listen to this one, and that was a mistake. There's nothing wrong with the narration, but the book is fairly didactic and too long to listen to, at least for the type of book it is. Too bad. ( )

I really enjoy this series. It is always lovely to get back in touch with Alafair Tucker and her huge family. I'm never disappointed, and it's the best way I know to get rid of a book hangover. In this outing, Alafair and Shaw and their 10-year-old daughter Blanche have made the trip to Arizona to visit Alafair's younger sister, Elizabeth, and to give Blanche a respite from the wet, cold weather in Arkansas. The book is set in early 1916, and already there are rumours of war in Europe that have reached all the way to Arizona. While taking the morning air at her sister's house, Alafair finds the body of a man in the ditch close by. Shaw wonders how these things seem to follow her around. . But Alafair, with her usual good sense, determines to find out what happened to the young man. Working with her sister and her sister's neighbour Cindy, they uncover a whole bunch of things about the man, which only widens the list of suspects and uncovers many community secrets. Things get dicey for awhile, but the search is so much fun for me to read as I loved the change in scenery--a little away from the hubbub of Alafair and Shaw's busy household in Arkansas. This is number 6 in the series, and I can't wait to go onto #7. I highly recommend this series. It's well-written and the mysteries are always tricky with lots of real characters to sink your teeth into with each book. ( )

Alafair and her husband Shaw Tucker travel from Oklahoma to Tempe, AZ with thir sick daughter. The doctor has said that the dry heat may be just the thing to help Blanche's lung condition. They stay with Alafair's youngest sister Elizabeth and husband Web. Elizabeth has a p the ot luck complete with a Mariachi band to welcome them. Tensions were high among some of the guests, as Pancho Villa had just raided Columbus NM, a town that Alaifair had just recently traveled through on the train. The next morning, while collecting breakfast eggs, Alafair was enjoying the scent of orange blossoms and checking out the view, which was so different from home. She chanced upon a body in a drainage ditch on her sister's property. The law was called and the search for a murderer was begun by a US Marshall, rather than the local law enforcement. Things weren't what they seemed in the small town of Tempe. I didn't enjoy this as much as the previous Alafair Tucker mysteries. I didn't particularly like the residents of Tempe, including Elizabeth. There were interesting bits of local history thrown in, but not enough to make me totally thrilled with the story. ( )

Hoping to find a better climate to combat their daughter’s chronic illness, Alafair and her husband Shaw visit her sister Elizabeth in sunny Arizona. But Alafair has hardly arrived before she discovers a body in a ditch. This just the beginning of many things that go wrong during this visit. Secrets abound, and Elizabeth and her close friend are smack dab in the middle of it. An intricate tale of mystery, murder and more, this novel is but one book in a wonderful series. ( )

Still loving this series. In this book Alafair, Shaw and 10-year-old Blanche have journeyed to Tempe Arizona to visit Alafair's sister and to give Blanche some time in a dry climate to try and get her over a cough that continued most of the winter. The year is 1916 and Panco Villa is conducting raids into the U.S. to try and regain land lost by the Mexican government. The story revolves around some Spanish people being sympathetic to the Mexicans and Indians who have been displaced out of Mexico or want to escape to the U.S. There is a lot of history, some mix of "good women" and the evil motion picture people and the decisions that people make in life and how they affect the people around them. Marvelous story, I'll be looking for more in this series. ( )