Molly MacRae, Wilder Rumors

Wilder Rumors

Molly MacRae

Five Star, May 2007, $25.95

ISBN: 1594145555

Lewis Wilder is elated with being the curator of the Nolichucky Jack History Museum in the Tennessee side of the Blue Ridge Mountains because the job allows him to do what he enjoys most: researching old documents and artifacts. Meanwhile three things complicate Lewis' sedate lifestyle. First a burglar called the Fox is stealing antiques from the townsfolk; monthly, anonymous envelopes with $200 inside for the museum keep arriving; and finally, there is Marilyn Wooten of Blue Iris Books & Crafts. All three converge on Lewis because Marilyn, who he likes, is the niece of Sheriff Glaser who believes the WILDER RUMORS that Lewis is stealing and selling the antiques which in turn is where the $200 comes from.

However, his situation turns bleak after meeting Don Sherrill who donates to the museum a nineteenth-century bird pipe just before he was murdered. With only Marilyn and his estranged Aunt Katherine who raised him in nearby Stonewall, Kentucky, believing he is innocent, Lewis has his work cut out for him because the evidence, including a public argument with Sherrill, and the pipe hangs Lewis.

Lewis makes this a fun, regional, police procedural as his need to keep his past secret and his love of historical artifacts get him into deep trouble as the townsfolk assume he is a foxy thief when the evidence points towards him as a murderer too. His estrangement with his Aunt does not quite come across as lucid as the audience might like, but his trouble with the law does. Fans of a fun, Blue Ridge Mountains cozy will enjoy hiking along the Wilder side of the investigative trail.

Harriet Klausner