Dead Man Running

This is yet another addition to one of my favorite series of cozy mysteries. As with her previous novels, Ms. MacPherson has proven once again that she is a master story teller and is able to give her readers much reading pleasure. This work was just a bit different that some of her previous works though. I found that not to be a bad thing, but did have to adjust my mood just a bit.

Torie is her busy self in this story and continues to have her fingers in just about ever in her small home town on the river. To be quite frank, her business and busybody ways reach almost a manic state in this one; between family, town projects, building a new house, running the village museum, dealing with children and pets, and of course her genealogy show more projects. Torie is asked to research the family background of the two men running for mayor. The first is her old enemy and neighbor, the current mayor, who hates Torie and hates her chickens. The second is her father-in-law, Sheriff Brooke, whose relationship with Torie is shaky, at best, at times. Colin has decided to hang his badge up and become major.

While digging into the current mayor’s past, Bill Castlereagh, she finds some disturbing facts…or are they facts? The more Mrs. O’Shea digs, the more the mystery deepens.

Three areas that I found to be a bit different in this one are that there was a bit more violence than is the norm for MacPherson’s books. This is not extreme violence, to be sure, but violence never-the-less. I also detected a slight change in Torie’s behavior. She has always been rather aggressive, but now I see signs of her using her money and position in the town to sort of push her weight around. Thirdly, there is a bit of marital strife, to the extent we have not seen before. Again, nothing big, but it is still there, like it or not.

Overall the book is well written, is a good story and a joy to read. Most of the old characters are still there and there are a few new ones thrown in for good measure. If you want a nice and relaxing read, then this is one you certainly should consider. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks show less

I enjoy this series, partly because the protagonist is a local historian and genealogist. It's nice, light reading as well. The story had a good pace, and the characters were pretty interesting as well.