Sheila Simonson, Buffalo Bill’s Defunct

Buffalo Bill's Defunct

Sheila Simonson

Perseverance Press, Sep 2008, $14.95

ISBN: 9781880284964

After her daughter leaves the nest to attend Stanford, Meg McLean decides to make a few life changes starting with moving to the Pacific Northwest town of Klalo to become the head librarian. Her next door neighbor is Rob Neill, the sheriff's investigator still seeking to solve his first case that occurred a decade ago. Artifacts sacred to the local Native American tribe were stolen and the cop and the tribe believes it is in the hands of a private collector.

Meg finds a piece of a petroglyph that was part of the lost collection that somehow ended up in her empty garage. When she shows it to Rob, he goes into the garage and smells death. He looks closely at that artifact's location and the body of a dead person is found; the corpse is identified as a Kleo who searched for the purloined treasure at the behest of his Chief. Meg and Rich team up seeking to catch the killer and the booty, but more deaths make the cop wonder how many people are involved and how to keep his new neighbor safe.

This combo police procedural amateur sleuth mystery is entertaining even though readers will doubt the hero would welcome a civilian into the investigation. Ironically it is the pairing that makes the storyline fun as each is attracted to one another and have a deep need to solve the cold case. For that matter so will fans who will try to solve the identity of the killer(s) as Sheila Simonson provides a difficult but interesting whodunit.

Harriet Klausne