Patricia Stoltey, The Prairie Grass Murderers

The Prairie Grass Murderers

Patricia Stoltey

Five Star, Jan 2007, $25.95

ISBN: 1594145415

Palm Beach County, Florida, Circuit Judge Sylvia Thorn takes a leave of absence when her brother Willie Grisseljon informs her that he has been incarcerated in an Illinois psychiatric ward. Willie, a Vietnam vet who came home from the war with some mental issues, was vacationing by walking around where he and his sister grew up when Deputy Sheriff Morris took him to the hospital while keeping his identification.

Willie tells his sister upon her arrival that he found a corpse while hiking before he was busted. Sylvia and Willie go to the locale only to have Morris send them away. This time they visit Sheriff Trace Parker, Sylvia's high school sweetheart, who they take to the crime scene where the body of farm manager Clay Taylor is found. As Willie does his odd investigation based on people observations and Trace does the official inquiry, Sylvia is caught in between both as she is in the wrong place at the wrong time when a second homicide occurs.

Willie is a unique protagonist whose way of seeing things turns the PRAIRIE GRASS MURDERERS into a wonderful whodunit. Sylvia serves as the solid lead player who along with Clay works the crime from a more standard procedure. The murder mystery is clever and the second chance romance deftly handled, but the freshness resides with fascinating Willie.

Harriet Klausner