Customer Reviews
Summerkill: A killer book
Murder mystery fans, pounce. Here's a well-written puzzler that features
> crackling dialogue and interesting characters, including a most unlikely
> heroine. As a bonus, the book offers knowing insights into small-town
manners
> and a behind-the-scenes look at the world of professional horticulture.
Summerkill
Picture a small town where everybody knows everybody
else and is related somehow
and you have the setting of Summerkill. By the end of the
story you'll have most of the
characters, their interrelationships, and their feuds figured
out. Which of the various
characters are, have had or should be expected to have sex
with each other is a story in
itself. All of this makes it nearly impossible for
Accidental Sheriff Baxter to sift through the evidence and
determine who left the body in Val Wyckoff's front yard.
First a dead enemy on her front lawn and then one of her
few friends murdered in a spa.
Val has to wonder if she's to be the next victim. Baxter
doesn't go along with the frame
that puts the noose around Val's neck, but he's hampered
by the law. Val isn't. The
solution to the murders hinges on deceit and lies only Val
can unearth. And she has the
tools to do it.
Summerkill is a delightful romp down the garden path,
or--frantic escape down the
fairway, or--soak in Mariah's spa, all with intricately
landscaped settings. The well
developed characters are colorful and distinctive. Once
rooted into the tangled plot, it's
hard to put the book down, even to water the plants.
Reviewed 4/2002 by Evelyn Gale©
