Jennifer Skully Fool’s Gold

Fool's Gold

Jennifer Skully

Harlequin HQN, Oct 2005, $5.99, 384 pp.

ISBN: 0373770812

Cottonmouth, California Sheriff Tyler Blaxton, takes leave to assist his upset sister Maggie Felman in Goldstone, Nevada. Maggie believes her spouse Carl, an outhouse excavator, is having an affair with some bimbo. Tyler takes Carl to a bar for drinks and a talk, but learns nothing, but meets beautiful Simone Chandler, author of erotica romances on the net.

While Tyler and Simone are attracted to one another, he also finds Carl behaving mysteriously and strangely, but believes he is not having an affair with anyone. As Tyler digs deeper, he observes his brother-in-law acting especially belligerent with odious developer Jason LaFoote. Still, in spite of his efforts to learn the truth behind Carl's recent actions, Tyler fails to uncover anything of note, until an unknown third party raises the ante with murder.

With references to the witch sisters of the Wizard of Oz, and an intriguing love at first sight romance, FOOL'S GOLD starts off as a family drama that about half way into the plot, switches into a murder mystery. The audience will treasure and reread the subplot when the focus is on Tyler and Simone; when the storyline concentrates on the estrangement between Maggie and Carl, fans will wonder why they do not communicate, what he hides in his trailer, and what caused the split (explained too late). The who-done-it is cleverly devised, leaving fans with a truly golden tale.