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We all have our secrets, some of them bigger or darker or more shameful than others. Nobody in Killdeer, New York, much cares what secrets Morgan Mason has; he's just the weird old guy who wears a skirt when he drives his old tractor into town. When he's found dead, burned to a crisp along with the ancient easy chair he's found in, his secrets are among the last to be discovered. For a quiet man, who stutters so much he talks very little, the Skirt Man has his share of enemies. He embarrasses his sister. The new in town, pushy preservationist is incensed about the large satellite dish on the edge of the Skirt Man's property. A neighbor who throws weekly Woodstock-esque parties resents the Skirt Man's interference. Amy Bly is temporarily editor-in-chief for the local paper; her former boss is having a classic mid-life crisis and wants to "find himself" before his time runs out. Amy is not the type to want to be in charge, so she is not happy with this turn of events. Her husband is a state trooper, and is investigating the death of Morgan Mason. Her uncle is a fire marshal, and is helping Sebastian Bly. Amy is a marvelous behind-the-scenes manipulator, not so much of her family (although she certainly has that down pat) but of the rest of the people in town. She knows whom to ask, whom to bully, whom to charm. She does it all to accomplish two ends: find out who killed the Skirt Man and get her boss back at the helm. Shelly Reuben picks up the family we met in TABULA RASA and gives us another installment in their interesting lives. THE SKIRT MAN doesn't give us much more about Amy or Sebastian or uncle Billy Nightingale, but we do learn more about Meredith and her life, and about the people in the Skirt Man's life. We learn the most about the Skirt Man in the very last chapters, and those chapters give a whole new meaning to his life. Shelly Reuben has written another entertaining and compelling mystery.
Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, September 2006
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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