Saturday, October 9, 2010

67. Dead for the Winter - Betsy Thornton

#4 Chloe Newcombe/Bisbee, Arizona
For: Adults
Worldwide Mystery & St. Martin's Press, 2004
285 pages
Rating: 4.5 (I was able to figure out a tiny bit too much a little too early)

Good story. Great setting. Well defined characters. This would made a great movie.

When Craig, Chloe's "love interest" from the previous book, leaves for South America, she is once again unattached. She hires Terry Barnett, a local custom furniture maker, to make a bookshelf for her. From the instant he enters her home to take measurements they are attracted to each other, and she accompanies him to Mexico for dinner one evening. Well, lo and behold, the guy's married, so she cuts it off immediately. But they are spotted together. And she still likes him a lot.

But then, Terry is murdered and his workshop is set aflame. Chole is sent as the victim advocate to help and console Terry's wife, Heather. And of course, she is pulled into the sleuthing of the murder. She is even hired by Terry's brother-from-Ohio to continue investigating the case, which she does, because she's been put on a leave of absence - because she was known to have been seeing the dead man, she is a suspect!

Back and forth to Tucson, to Sierra Vista, to the tiny hamlet of Prophecy. I love all the traveling around Cochise County. My trip to Bisbee two weeks ago made the area really come alive for me. I really enjoy this series. Number five takes place in Bisbee, then the newest, just out, is a prequel that takes Chloe back to her pre-Arizona life, to the two brothers; one dead, one in a Buddhist colony in Vermont, that are always on her mind, woven into all the books.

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