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MURDER AT SPOUTERS POINT
by Leslie Wheeler
Five Star, November 2010
260 pages
$25.99
ISBN: 1594148864


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

In this, the third book in the Miranda Lewis series, Miranda, who writes books about American history, and her boyfriend Nate take a weekend trip to Rhode Island to visit friends. From the first, the trip doesn't go well for Miranda. Nate, an American Indian, takes Miranda to a powwow, where she commits several gaffes and feels like an outsider. Then Miranda and Nate meet up with Miranda's friend Erin, who works at the Spouters Point Maritime Museum. Another social event, awkward for both of them, ends in the announcement that Erin and her boyfriend George are engaged. But it's not a happy event — one of Erin's brothers doesn't approve of the relationship. And the next morning, George is found murdered.

While Erin's brother might seem a logical suspect, police instead focus on Nate's friend, Jimmy – and Nate is convinced this is prejudice on the part of white police. For Miranda and Nate, the events – and their take on them – shake their relationship.

The story had several elements that were interesting – life on an Indian reservation, their customs and their perspective, as well as some interesting nautical lore. There was a bit of historical background about the longstanding tension between American Indians and settlers. But, in the end, the themes weren't as fleshed out as they could have been. The author seems to fall back on chick lit conventions – a lot of steamy scenes between Miranda and Nate (Miranda, an intelligent woman, sticks by her boyfriend despite his being volatile and insensitive).

Wheeler, who like her character has authored books about American history, seems to shy away from giving us too much history – but this would have embellished a story whose plot line was thin and whose characters were sketchily drawn. The series shows promise. Let's hope that next time it will give us a bit more meat – historical meat, not beefcake.

§ Lourdes Venard is a newspaper editor in Long Island, N.Y.

Reviewed by Lourdes Venard, October 2010

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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