Sue Henry, The Refuge

The Refuge

Sue Henry

NAL, April 2007, $23.95, 272 pp.

ISBN: 0451220471

After being away from her Alaskan abode for the past nine months, sixty-four-year-old Maxie McNabb yearns for her home in Homer. She has spent time with her mini-dachshund in the lower forty-eight states around the Four Corners region of the Southwest. When she arrives at her home, she has less than a week to enjoy it before a friendly acquaintance calls her from Hilo, Hawaii, asking for her help. In a fall she tripped, hurting an arm and a leg and is out of commission. She needs Maxie to help her sort, point, sells and more to Alaska.

Maxie reluctantly heads to the fiftieth state to help Karen out, even knowing that before Karen was injured, she was helpless and always needing someone to tell her what to do and how to do it. Needing a break from her friend, she goes sightseeing and meets the plumber's helper Jerry who has worked on Karen's house. They put Karen on a plane and get to work packing and then they plan to do some sight-seeing. However, men want something from Maxie and they will kill them if necessary to get it it. Maxie doesn't know what they want or where it is but is determined to get the best of the men that stalked her and kidnapped Jerry.

Sue Henry has written an exciting mystery focusing on a protagonist who has more energy at sixty-four than people do in their twenties. She certainly shows that life can be fulfilling as a senior while she appreciates the beauty of the things around us like Maxie does in Hawaii. There is lots of action, no blood or gore and a great cast. Readers will immediately take to the heroine and Jerry who is not quite what he seems.

Harriet Klausner