The Reluctant Sheriff by Chris Offutt

 

First Line: The employment application had a section about alcohol consumption and Harley Bolin lied that he never drank.

Ex-Army CID officer Mick Hardin is supposed to be retired, and he certainly never wanted to be sheriff. However, when his sister, Linda, is shot in the line of duty, Mick has to step in as interim sheriff while she recovers. Now he's stuck in the east Kentucky town of Rocksalt-- a place from which he's always wanted to escape.

Weary of the petty squabbles of Rocksalt's townspeople, it's eye-rolling business as usual until the investigation into the murder of a local bar owner focuses on an unlikely suspect who threatens to stir up Mick's past. Two more bodies turn up, and although they appear to be unconnected to the first, Mick finds himself dealing with another case that's not so open-and-shut as everyone thinks.

~

Anyone who hasn't feasted upon one of Chris Offutt's Mick Hardin novels needs to rectify the situation. These lean mean books immerse readers in the world of eastern Kentucky and the ways of the people who live there. In The Reluctant Sheriff, we also watch Johnny Boy Tolliver (last seen in the previous book, Code of the Hills) adapt to life on the French island of Corsica.

The stories ring true, and they can be explosive. Moreover, Mick Hardin is a character who's always looked after everyone else while ignoring his own needs. This series of books shows Mick becoming more self-aware. Excellent, fast-paced stories, a nuanced main character, and in-depth knowledge of a culture most of us know nothing about... all these things make Offutt's series a must-read, but there is one key element that I haven't mentioned yet. What's that? The descriptions of the landscape and nature. Mick Hardin is firmly rooted in the Kentucky hills. He knows all the trees, the plants, the animals. He can gauge what's going on in the woods by which birds are singing. This inclusion of the natural world draws me right into the story. 

And another draw? Offutt's power of description. "...he was lonely as the last leaf on a tree in winter." "That woman is tough as woodpecker lips." I love those!

By reading these books, I've joined Mick Hardin in his journey to turn his back on the past and embrace the future. It's a privilege to be able to be a part of it.

The Reluctant Sheriff by Chris Offutt

eISBN: 9780802164049

Grove Press © 2025

eBook, 288 pages

Noir, #4 Mick Hardin

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley

Witness 8 by Steve Cavanagh

 

First Line: There's something wrong with Ruby Johnson.

A former member of the Manhattan upper class, Ruby Johnson now works as a maid and a nanny to the people in the types of houses she used to live in. She knows everyone's dirty secrets, and when she witnesses a murder, she has plans in mind that do not involve telling the authorities the truth.

Eddie Flynn is the only lawyer in New York City willing to take on hopeless cases, and none is more hopeless than John Jackson's: the gun that killed his neighbor was found-- with Jackson's DNA on it-- in his own home. Flynn and his team will need all their expertise to keep an innocent man from being sent to prison. However, while Eddie is trying to save his client's life, he must also protect his own loved ones. The scariest organized criminals in the city are out for his head.

~

Few authors can write absorbing legal thrillers like Steve Cavanagh. Witness 8 has it all: humor, a sympathetic yet scary witness to murder, life-and-death situations, and a roller coaster ride of a courtroom drama.

I love watching the way Eddie Flynn's mind works. He's not your usual lawyer. He's a streetwise ex-con-artist-turned-defense-attorney, and he knows all sorts of people from all walks of life. The team he has assembled is top-notch, so much so that it seems that there is nothing they cannot do.

As a witness to murder, Ruby Johnson is scary yet sympathetic. I felt for her circumstances, but she was so skilled in her manipulations that I wanted her stopped ASAP. Ruby also made me realize just how much the "hired help" knows about the families they work for. My advice to the rich? Pay your servants well, be nice, and don't anger them. They always know much more than you think.

To add to Eddie's worries, there's the danger for those near and dear to him-- not just from corrupt police officers but also from an assassin named Mr. Christmas. (Don't you love his name?)

If you love legal thrillers, by all means, acquaint yourself with Eddie Flynn. I would definitely want him defending me if I were on trial.

Witness 8 by Steve Cavanagh

eISBN: 9781668049396

Atria Books © 2025

eBook, 416 pages

Legal Thriller, #8 Eddie Flynn

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley

Time Out for Family

You probably noticed that last week was a book review marathon here on the blog. Five reviews in one week because some of the publishers decided to change the original release dates. Why the first week of March looked like the ideal time to release all those books into the wild, I don't know, but I did get them all reviewed.

You're probably wondering what's going on here at Casa Kittling. How's Denis? Has Karen arrived yet? 

Denis is doing well after the first surgery. He says that his spine "feels solid," and I've seen him working with the hospital physiotherapists to stand unaided while brushing his teeth, etc. There has been a slight hiccup in the scheduling of the second surgery, the one that will be building Denis a new vertebra to keep the shape of his spine, so plans are afoot to move him to the rehab side of the Banner medical complex. (I'm writing this on Sunday, March 9.) Denis is looking forward to getting down to work on improving his mobility, and I don't blame him one bit. I think he's been going slightly stir crazy doing little but lying in bed or sitting in a chair.

Our niece Karen will be arriving tomorrow evening, and I can't wait to see her. I'm hoping we can get out to a few places besides the hospital while she's here. It's a shame that Denis won't be able to come with us, but I know that seeing another smiling face will cheer him up even more. (After all my visits to the hospital, some of the Dial-a-Ride drivers and I are becoming good friends.)

So... I've been busy, and I'll be even busier the next two weeks so posts here will be few and far between. Before I go, I want to show you something I made for Karen. I told her to leave plenty of room in her luggage. It's a pattern I've shared with you before, and the yarn is 100% acrylic from Michael's. The yarn is so soft and warm, and I love the name of the color: Tickled Pink!

Karen's afghan

Closeup

The Four Queens of Crime by Rosanne Limoncelli

 

First Line: Detective Chief Inspector Lilian Wyles stood behind her father as he sat in his wheelchair, facing the front window of their second floor sitting room in their home on the eastside of London.

It's 1938, and the four women the media have named "The Four Queens of Crime" (Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, and Margery Allingham) have all agreed to attend a charity event at Sir Henry Heathcote's Hursley House. The elite of London society are there, and it's a brilliant success... until the next morning when Sir Henry is found dead in the library.

Now a fifth queen of crime, Detective Chief Inspector Lilian Wyles (the first woman to serve as a ranking officer in the CID at Scotland Yard) makes an appearance. Accompanied by DCI Richard Davidson, it is Wyles' task to sort through all the guests for potential suspects, and she thinks she has just the right sort of people to help her: the Four Queens of Crime.

~

In Rosanne Limoncelli's Preface, she introduces the real-life people she is portraying fictionally. I was already familiar with the four best-selling crime writers of their day-- Christie, Sayers, Marsh, and Allingham-- but I'd never heard of DCI Lilian Wyles, and I enjoyed watching these five characters work with each other. Wyles had a particularly difficult time of it because her male counterpart thought the four writers would have absolutely nothing worthwhile to add to the investigation. The five women had to learn how to work around him.

The mystery revolved around a typical British aristocratic family in a large country house just before the start of World War II. Although the whodunit was rather easily deduced, the upstairs-downstairs tension worked well. Those who are familiar with the four authors' books will also find amusing moments along the way, as in Agatha Christie getting the germ of an idea for And Then There Were None.

All in all, The Four Queens of Crime was a pleasant way to spend a few hours, but I really didn't find it to be a standout.

The Four Queens of Crime by Rosanne Limoncelli

eISBN: 9798892420617

Crooked Lane Books © 2025

eBook, 320 pages

Historical Mystery

Rating: C+

Source: Net Galley 

The Vanishing Kind by Alice Henderson

 

First Line: After the recent rash of campus burglaries, the last thing Dane Fisher wanted was to be alone in this building late at night.

Wildlife biologist Alex Carter is thrilled when she's tasked with locating jaguars on a desert preserve in New Mexico. Jaguars once roamed throughout the Southwest, but now there are only a handful left. Alex hopes some of the elusive cats have found their way to this protected piece of land.

Nearby the preserve, a team of archaeologists is excavating the gravesite of a sixteenth-century Spanish conquistador. Alex meets the team and also comes in contact with a violent group of anti-immigrant vigilantes who demand that the archaeologists leave. 

When the vigilantes learn of Alex's job, they want to stop her as well. Since jaguars are federally endangered, concessions might be made so that wildlife can cross the border wall-- and these people want nothing to cross that wall.

Alex is working right in the middle of a powder keg, and jaguars aren't the only ones whose lives are in danger.

~

I have become a big fan of Alice Henderson's Alex Carter thrillers. I love their settings, all the information I learn about wildlife, and the strong, intelligent character of Alex herself. Unfortunately, I found The Vanishing Kind to be a bit disappointing. The book was trying to be too many things to too many people. Wildlife lovers. Remote settings lovers. Archaeology lovers. Spanish treasure lovers. Wilderness survival lovers. Then there are the white supremacists, and the resident billionaire who thinks his word is law. 

I'm also a bit tired of one character repeatedly showing up just in the nick of time to save Alex's bacon. If Alex is going to get in that type of mess, I'd love to see her get herself out of it instead of relying on a deus ex machina. 

I still love Alex's character, and I liked learning more about the jaguars, especially since I keep my eyes peeled for news of El Jefe, a jaguar roaming southeastern Arizona. Henderson includes how readers can learn more about these marvelous big cats at the end of the book. There is even timely information about the work (or lack thereof) of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. I'm just hoping that Alex's next adventure is a bit more... streamlined. 

The Vanishing Kind by Alice Henderson

eISBN: 9780063223073

William Morrow © 2025

eBook, 320 pages

Thriller, #4 Alex Carter

Rating: B-

Source: Net Galley

Don't Tell Me How to Die by Marshall Karp

 

First Line: At six-feet eight, three-hundred and sixty pounds, Irv Hollingsworth was not only the biggest TV weatherman in Heartstone, New York, his larger-than-life personality and his flair for showmanship had made him the most popular in the county.

At the age of forty-three, Maggie Dunn has it all: a fantastic husband, two great kids, and an exciting career as mayor of her hometown. Then the ax falls. A rare genetic blood disease will kill her before her next birthday.

Maggie's mother also died of the same illness, and when Maggie was seventeen, her mother warned her about the women who would surround her suddenly single father. Those women did, and one of them almost destroyed him, Maggie, and her sister. 

Maggie is not about to let that happen to her family. In the three months she has left, Maggie will spend every second searching for the perfect woman to take her place, and she will do whatever it takes to find her.

~

I became a fan of Marshall Karp after reading his Lomax & Biggs books. Karp then went on to team up with James Patterson in the NYPD Red series. I was happy to see him back with a solo title, Don't Tell Me How to Die, and this fast-paced tale certainly does not disappoint.

Maggie Dunn is a woman who knows how to get things done. She knows how to succeed. She has a younger sister and friends who will support her no matter what. She's been living with the threat of a rare genetic blood disease hanging over her, so when she's told she only has three months to live, she knows what she has to do.

I love Marshall Karp's writing style. Each chapter is headed by how much time is left before Maggie's funeral, and that adds urgency to the story. There are also laugh-out-loud moments that can catch readers off guard, and if you're a fan of plot twists, you'll love the ones in in this book. 

Maggie is a force of nature, and although I ultimately did not like her, I did like her absolute honesty. I couldn't stop following her every move. If you're a fan of fast-paced books filled with twists and turns and an indomitable main character, pick up a copy of Marshall Karp's Don't Tell Me How to Die.

Don't Tell Me How to Die by Marshall Karp

ASIN: ‎ B0D7W4DZMR

Blackstone Publishing © 2025

eBook, 320 pages

Standalone Thriller

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley

The Boxcar Librarian by Brianna Labuskes

 

First Lines: Millie Lang could hear the girls gossiping through the thin walls of the boardinghouse. They were talking about her.

On the wrong side of a political scandal, Works Progress Administration (WPA) editor Millie Lang is shipped off to Montana to work on the state's American Guide Series-- travel books intended to put the nation's destitute writers to work.

Upon her arrival, staff members claim their missed deadlines are due to sabotage, possibly from the state's powerful mine owners who don't want their long and bloody history with union organizers available for the rest of the country to read. Instead, Millie suspects that the answer might lie with the town's mysterious librarian, Alice Monroe.

A decade before, Monroe created the Boxcar Library to deliver books to isolated mining towns where men craved entertainment and connection. Monroe thought miner's daughter Colette Durand would be the perfect librarian to staff the train car. Now no one in Missoula will tell Millie why Alice and Colette went out on the inaugural journey of the Boxcar Library, but only Alice returned.

What happened to Colette Durand?

~

The Boxcar Librarian pulled me right in and wouldn't turn me loose. The characters of Millie Lang, Alice Monroe, and Colette Durand were well-drawn, and they all made me care about their well-being.

While the mystery was a good one that kept me guessing, I think the setting had the strongest grip on me. The Depression-Era time period was fascinating. I loved learning about the Boxcar Library (based on Montana's Lumberman's Library-- don't miss the author's note at the end), Montana's mining history, and the Federal Writers' Project. I have a reprint of the Arizona edition of the American Guide Series, and this book made me take it off the shelf to reread sections.

Strong setting, story, and characters. I definitely recommend The Boxcar Librarian.

The Boxcar Librarian by Brianna Labuskes

eISBN: 9780063376311

William Morrow © 2025

eBook, 464 pages

Historical Fiction, Standalone

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley

Broken Fields by Marcie R. Rendon

 

First Line: Cash stepped out of the cab of her Ranchero onto the soft, black dirt of the field she was to plow under.

It's spring in the Red River Valley of 1970s Minnesota, and Cash Blackbear is out working the fields of a local farmer... until she finds him dead in a rented farmhouse on his property. The Native couple renting the house are nowhere to be found, but Cash finds their young daughter, Shawnee, hiding under a bed. Shawnee, a possible witness to the killing, is too terrified to speak.

Cash is suspicious of the farmer's grieving widow, and she spends every spare second scouring the countryside for Shawnee's parents before the little girl is put into the foster care system. When another body turns up, Cash knows she has to find out the truth of what happened in the farmhouse before the clock runs down.

~

Cash Blackbear is a young Ojibwe woman I've come to care about deeply in this series (of now) four books. Broken Fields is a tapestry tightly woven with details of Native American life in northern Minnesota, abusive farm labor practices, and women's liberation. 

Rendon's depiction of the landscape and farming aspects takes me right back to my childhood in a small farm town in central Illinois. Sights, sounds, smells-- Rendon's descriptions are incredibly vivid. 

Equally vivid are her characters. There's Sheriff Wheaton, the great rescuer, who keeps a close eye on Cash and is doing his best to further her education and work experience.  No one wants to see Cash succeed more than he does. But no character shines more brightly than Cash, battle-scarred survivor of the harsh foster system. Her fierce protectiveness of little Shawnee shows how deeply she cares-- and sometimes she cares so deeply that her anger takes control of her actions. After what happened in the previous book (Sinister Graves), Cash doesn't trust her intuition the way she used to. She sleeps with the lights on. She drinks too much. It's been a long time since I've been so invested in a character. I want this young woman to succeed. I want her to thrive. 

And I want this series to continue for a good long time. If you like good mysteries with a strong main character, a superb sense of place, and a writing style that draws you right into the heart of each book, you have to make the acquaintance of Cash Blackbear. Start with the first book, Murder on the Red River. You can thank me later.

Broken Fields by Marcie R. Rendon

eISBN: 9781641296595

Soho Press © 2025

eBook, 272 pages

Historical Mystery, #4 Cash Blackbear

Rating: A+

Source: Net Galley