Tricia Fields

It is mid-April in southwest Texas and far hotter than usual as A Reluctant Saint: A Josie Gray Mystery by Tricia Fields begins. Weird things are happening at her isolated house. Weird Stuff like a dog leash that was her dog’s before he died suddenly goes missing from where she had it. Then a coat that belongs to Nick Santos suddenly appears on her doorstep. It isn’t the first time somebody has messed with her at home. Her home security setup, state of the art a few years ago, is dated now and is not catching the person in the act.

Weird stuff is happening in the town of Artemis as well. A recent transplant, Mike Striker, is running to be mayor. Rumor also has it that he is planning on building a greyhound dog track. If true, such a track would bring jobs and economic development, at least initially. It could also bring crime issues. Beyond the fact that it isn’t really feasible to think that such a project is remotely sustainable in the county with only around seven thousand folks living there.

The town itself has approximately 2,500 people and Police Chief Josie Gray has her hands full with routine matters. Her department, as is the county sheriff’s department, is very short staffed. Federal grants will pay for new police vehicles, for example, so they have them, but such grants don’t pay for staff. Equipment is great, but having additional police officers on staff would really help. The current situation is made worse by the fact that folks are getting very riled over the dog track issue. Then there are the rumors of voter fraud and the fact that mayoral candidate Mike Striker might have tampered with the election voting machines.

As things heat up, somebody steals two greyhounds from Jezebel Black’s home. She is involved with the project as she is now breeding greyhounds though she has no experience with doing so. The good news is that she is working and things seem to be going well as she tries to restart her life after a horrendous incident awhile back. The theft of the two dogs and vandalism of her property that happened as the dogs were taken is a setback for her.

Then the murders begin.

This is the seventh book in the series that began long ago with The Territory: A Novel and is one that hit this reader very hard. Without causing a spoiler, one of the murder victims is a long-time character from that has routinely appeared since early in the series. A murder that came out of the blue with no warning. That murder rocks everyone in the book and could change everything in the series going forward.

Whether this will be used as some sort of watershed turning point for the series from this point, or the end, I have no idea. It has been a few days since I read the book as I write this review and I am still grasping at understanding the impact and how things will go forward. Something that I think Police Chief Josie Gray does as well at the end. I freely admit that the event colored my judgment of the rest of the book as I was so devastated by what I read.

A Reluctant Saint: A Josie Gray Mystery by Tricia Fields is a complex book that feels like it easily could be the end of the series. While I am glad (I think) I read the book, I can’t say I enjoyed it due to the shocking event as noted above. Those new to the series should absolutely not read this book, without catching up first, as a lot of material from previous books is rehashed here.

While the book is currently scheduled to be released on September 6th, I was able to read it now thanks to a digital ARC from Severn House via NetGalley.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2022… (more)

As The Drummers: A Josie Gray Mystery by Tricia Fields begins, it is January in Artemis, Texas, and cold with overcast skies. The cold snap is not something Police Chief Josie Gray or any of the other locals want as they prefer the sunshine and warmth the rugged and of southwest Texas near the Big Bend region normally provides. They want the cold and nasty weather gone. Many of the locals also want the new group known as “The Drummers” to leave.

The group recently brought the church in the heart of the small town, moved in, and made it clear they were not going to socialize much if at all. In recent days, the group has been acting stranger and stranger and the locals are getting increasingly fed up and want them gone. The memory of what happened in Waco decades ago still lingers in the minds of anyone in office and that is certainly true for Chief Gray.

A small group of a little more than twenty people, they are led by a man who now goes by the name of “Gideon.” While he claims they only want to live off the grid and want nothing to do with technology of the United States Government, the locals think they are a dangerous commune at best or a cult at worst. Not only do they have small children in the church when the windows have been painted black and all the outside door knobs and handles have been removed, they have guns. A lot of guns are being stockpiled inside the building and far more than the number of folks living there. Clearly, the group is planning for something big, but what nobody knows.

The last thing Police Chief Josie Gray wants is another Waco style siege and assault in her town. But what The Drummers want is unknown as signs indicate more and more that they might be some sort of Doomsday type group bent on creating havoc. The fact that they can identify one member who has a warrant for charges means they have that legal way to enter. Unfortunately, gunfire erupts, a member of The Drummers is killed, and what starts as a local issue quickly escalates with ramifications across our entire country.

Complicated and enjoyable as ever, this book marks a long awaited return of Police Chief Josie Gray and the good folks of Artemis, Texas. Much like author Bill Crider, Terry Shames, and Frank F. Havill did in their books, author Tricia Fields built an entire series on a fictional place that is very real to the reader. In this series, family and relationships as well as characters that evolve and change from book to book are just as important as the mystery case is in the read. It has been far too long since Midnight Crossing was published and this reader is very thankful that seven house brought readers back to the Southwest desert country of Texas via Police Chief Josie Gray. As always, a love of the land and the people that reside there comes through as does another very good mystery that packs in quiet a few surprises along the way. Highly recommended as is the series.

The Drummers: A Josie Gray Mystery
Tricia Fields
http://www.triciafields.com/
Severn House
http://severnhouse.com/
March 2021
ISBN # 978-0-7278-9247-8
Hardback (also available in audio and eBook formats)
240 Pages

My reading copy came by way of the Dunbar Branch of the Dallas Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple © 2021… (more)

I received an advanced reviewers copy of this book from Severn House Publishers and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I requested The Drummers because the cult leader vs. female sheriff premise seemed intriguing. I wondered how being a woman might impact such a scenario. This reads like a book in a series that has its best books already behind it, or perhaps has not picked up steam yet.

Josie is a sheriff whose character struck me as sort of blah. A cult takes up residence in her small Texas town and she has to figure out how to handle the cult, their guns, the other townspeople, the media, the government officials, and the fact that child abuse might be occurring behind their blacked-out windows. The cult leader, predictably, turns out to be evil. Only the cult member's first wife is remotely interesting and I felt that the problems were dispensed with pretty easily by violence and remorse. The book should have been a lot more complex. Maybe this is a cozy series and that would explain the shallowness. Modern cozies are not my favorites.

If I had been reading the series from the beginning and well acquainted with Josie already, I might have enjoyed it better. As it is, jumping in with #6 in the series, I found it very dull.… (more)

Huh. I didn't think this would be so rare on librarything.

Spoilers abound.

On the one hand the characters are pretty sympathetic and interesting. I found the book a little bit slow. The actual story maybe wasn't so interesting.

There were two things that bugged me. The whole thing with her best friend and his new romance was weird, and then after he told her he had dumped the woman because the woman didn't like her, I don't think he appeared again in the book. And also it became obvious who the murderer was.

Or maybe the other thing that bothered me was the people nagging her & her nagging herself about forgetting the boyfriend who had left her. Even after two months she missed him.... Sometimes I think we're supposed to have disposable relationships along with disposable everything else.… (more)