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Denise Swanson just keeps getting better. The third Skye Denison novel is surely the best yet. School psychologist Skye Denison left Scumble River, Illinois, after antagonizing the citizenry when, in her valedictory address, she accused them of being people with "small minds." Skye was forced to return to Scumble River, tail between legs, when she was fired from her post in New Orleans and abandoned by her fiancé. In this book we finally learn why she had to leave New Orleans. She accused the father of one of her students, a man from a very prominent family, of abusing his daughter. Even when the daughter recanted her charges, Skye knew them to be true. Instead of standing by her, her fiancé, Luc St. Amant, also from a wealthy and prominent family, sided with his aristocratic friends. As the book opens, Scumble River is celebrating its bicentennial with all sorts of events -- a parade, a pancake race, bingo, and an appearance of the last descendant of the town's founder, Pierre Scumble. Gabriel Scumble, last of the line, is coming to town from Montreal. The town anxiously awaits Pierre's arrival, and when the limousine finally comes, the mayor and townspeople embrace him with open arms. Instead of a key to the city, he's given a silver pickax. Unfortunately, the pickax is the weapon used to do in Pierre, whose body is found by two of Skye's students. To complicate matters, the police soon discover that the body was not that of Pierre Scumble but of Snake Iazetto, a member of the New Orleans crime family. As it turns out, Skye's former fiancé owes gambling debts to Snake. Luc appears on Skye's doorstep, telling her that he has changed and wants her back. He has, he says, seen the error of his ways and promises even further reformation. Skye has, for some time, been seeing the town coroner and mortuary owner, Simon Reid. The two men square off for Skye's affections. She is tempted to return to New Orleans and a life of wealth and luxury with Luc. The residents of Scumble River tolerate her only because her Uncle Charlie is one of the town's most prominent residents. However, Luc once again betrays her when Skye learns that the "innocuous" documents he was trying to get her to sign without reading them are actually deeds to a property worth a million dollars, money he plans to use to satisfy his gambling debts to Snake. Despite her estrangement from Luc, Skye feels obliged to investigate the murder to exonerate him and get him out of her life for good. In doing so, she uncovers Scumble River's own gambling scandal. A thread running through the story is that of Skye's relationship as school psychologist with Grady Nelson, a sociopathic student, who is a prime suspect in the murder. When Skye is to meet his parents, she mulls over her wardrobe. "What do you wear," she muses, "to tell parents that they have raised the spawn of Satan?" The characters all jump off the page, each one with a distinctive voice and individual quirks. A little more of Skye's eccentric family would have been nice, since they are always good for a laugh or three, but the standoff between the two lovers fills the gap. One small quibble: the fate of the "real" Gabriel Scumble is a bit too pat.
Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Devine, May 2003
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