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DARK COULEE, A Claire Watkins Mystery
by Mary Logue
Walker & Co., October 2000
229 pages
$23.95
ISBN: 0802733514


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Mary Logue is an excellent story-teller. This mystery featuring Deputy Sheriff Claire Watkins, while not ground-breakingly original, is very well-written and you should read it.

Watkins, the widow of a cop, lives with her daughter (who is not overly-cute, not whiny and an altogether welcome novel kid) in Wisconsin (you can tell it's Wisconsin, because at church suppers and funeral and the like, every bring "hot dish" - and no, that is not the nurse from M*A*S*H.)

During a street dance, a man is stabbed. No one seems to have seen anything, which is pretty odd, since there were people all around. The man, Jed Spitzler is not very well liked. His wife died several years ago, in what some folks say was an accident, but some believe was murder. His three children - the perfect Brad, Jenny, the miserable, drugged-out middle kid and Nora, the youngest - seem shocked, but not particularly unhappy. They are more worried about being separated than they are about living without a parent.

Claire investigates the crime, coming up with several likely suspects along the way. During this, she is also weighing the risks and costs of a relationship with Rich, a local pheasant farmer. She' afraid to tell Rich that she's in therapy for some understandable trauma: Her husband was murdered. It's a very ugly story that brings trauma and panic attacks to Watkins, who's trying to hide feelings of survivor guilt and secrets.

The resolution of the crime is not going to be new to readers of mysteries, neither the reasons nor the whodunit. But Logue is such a quality writer that even if you've read a lot of mysteries, you will probably like Dark Coulee. The characters come across well-drawn, worth spending reading time with, and interesting. This is a small-town mystery; people do know everyone's business (something that often turn me away from small town mysteries, brrrr) but it's more a tale of people who care about each other. The teacher, who's fighting blindness, but who shows up to take care of the now orphaned-children, is an example of the kind of honest, straight-forward citizen you want to get to know.

Reviewed by Andi Shechter, February 2003

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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