Donis Casey The Drop Edge of Yonder

The Drop Edge of Yonder

Donis Casey

Poisoned Pen, Oct 2007, $24.95

ISBN 9781590584460

In 1914 Oklahoma Alafair Tucker thinks the summer so far has been quiet, dry and hot on the farm as she and her spouse Shaw raise their horde of offspring. Life can be hard as she knows having two children of the twelve she birthed die on her, but right now Alafair kicks off her shoes having a child under one year old after a seven year gap.

However, the idyll of the summer of 14 ends when someone kills her half-brother-in-law Bill McBride and attacks his fianc e Laura Ross. With them riding at the time were Alafair's daughters, twenty-one years old Mary whose head was grazed by a bullet and fifteen years old Ruth. Mary suffers from partial amnesia. The killer tries to murder Laura. Sheriff Scott Tucker officially leads the investigation, but knows his cousin by marriage Alafair will solve the case as she has done before (see HORNSWOGGLED and THE OLD BUZZARD HAD IT COMING); he needs to stay near her and keep her safe.

As with the previous Tucker tales, the atmosphere is incredible so much so that the audience will believe they are spending the summer of 1914 on the Tucker farm. The whodunit is cleverly devised as Alafair knows Mary has the truth if she can only remember. Fans of historical mysteries will appreciate this superb Sooner story as it is Oklahoma just before WWI that makes Donis Casey's saga an excellent read.

Harriet Klausner