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DEAD MADONNA
by Victoria Houston
Bleak House Books, April 2007
224 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 1932557393


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Loon Lake, Wisconsin, is a sleepy little town undergoing some growing pains as the idyllic nature of the area is being discovered by urbanites looking for green. Unfortunately for Doc Osborne and his main squeeze Chief Lew Ferris, there is a lot of unpleasantness going on right now.

A local girl, DeeDee Kurlander, has been found dead under a pontoon boat. It's not pretty; something to do with a marlin gaff to the face doesn't make for nice pictures. And it gives the fish something to hone in on. She's a party girl with an eye for the main chance, which comes as a shock to her mother.

Another woman, the newly widowed Nora Loomis, is also dead. She's in her own home but the marlin gaff found its way there, too. While there is no obvious connection between the two women, the same weapon was used, which would seem to indicate an unseen connection.

In the meantime, the bankers are distraught. Someone is opening accounts, depositing counterfeit checks for amounts just below the limit which would trigger a closer look, and then closing the accounts when those checks clear. We are talking thousands and thousands of dollars here, which makes those bean counters a trifle perturbed. Not so much Lew and Doc, at first, but their interest is piqued when Nora Loomis's name is on one of those accounts.

There are some interesting sub-plots. Local 'character' Ray has another bizarre business idea: attaching cameras to the necks of fawns to see what they see. Doc's daughter Mallory has had a crush on Ray for years; will his obvious attraction to Gwen the gun saleswoman be a problem? Will this business idea of Ray's be a bad investment for Mallory?

This is the eighth Loon Lake mystery. While it certainly isn't necessary to have read the entire series, it does help a little with some of the relatively minor characters. True aficionados will have been waiting anxiously for this entry in the series. and their wait will not have been in vain; Houston maintains the tension between Lew and Doc while solving the mystery.

The plot isn't one of her strongest, but with Houston it's much more about place and people. Doc continues to grow as a person, and it's a pleasure to watch that happen. He's not perfect, but he doesn't claim to be. He's a lot less irritating in terms of his griping about women and how he doesn't understand them; his awareness of the flaws in his marriage are more relevant and less whiney than in previous works. All in all, it's a very pleasant and enjoyable book.

Reviewed by P. J. Coldren, April 2007

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