Mary Logue Poison Heart

Poison Heart

Mary Logue

Ballantine, Aug 2005, $23.95, 240 pp.

ISBN: 0345462246

Sixty years old Patty Jo Tilde looks forward to when her husband octogenarian ranch owner Walter finally succumbs to a stroke. She recently married the eighty years old to gain control of his Pepin County, Wisconsin property so that she can sell it to Daniel Reiner and flee the rural community for the bright lights of the Twin Cities. When Daniel suffers his inevitable latest stroke, instead of calling 911 she waits because his doctor told her the first three hours are critical; somehow he survives, but is not the same. His daughter Margaret and her husband Mark are concerned that the evil step mom will kill her dad through neglect, but cannot prove their assertion.

Meanwhile Pepin County Deputy Sheriff Claire Watkins investigates recent deaths that haunt Fort St. Antoine, population 142 and dropping. She soon finds a link to Patty Jo whose previous spouse died under mysterious circumstances under her care. Claire also sees a connection through Daniel though that is more nebulous with webs of deceit making it difficult to prove. Still the former Minneapolis cop refuses to back down as she plans to stop an amoral killer before someone else is dead.

POISON HEART is a fabulous police procedural starring a dedicated cop who struggles to balance her work, her personal needs with Rich and raising her preadolescent daughter who has turned away from her to others for "adult supervision". Patty Jo is something else as she is upbeat evil looking forward to him dying. Readers of the series and newcomers will appreciate this intriguing rural investigative tale that contains the usual Mary Logue twists to compel her audience into a one sitting read.

Harriet Klausner