Terry Shaw The Way Life Should Be

The Way Life Should Be

Terry Shaw

Touchstone, Sept 2007, $14.00, 284 pp.

ISBN: 9781416563129

After a long absence, Josh Quinn, his wife Maria and his son return to his home town of Stone Harbor, Maine where he intends to run the family owned newspaper The Stone Harbor Pilot. The town is not as he remembers it as condos and mini-mansions for the yuppie set are everywhere and the regulars feel that they are being squeezed out. The murder count is at zero since the last one was in the 1960's but that changes when Paul Stanwood is murdered at Sullivan Park, a place where gays in the closet congregate.

Paul was John's best friend and he knows that Paul was concerned that Police Chief Al Sears was cracking down on the gays; John feels some guilt and culpability as he exposed the names of the men in the newspaper. John doesn't trust Sears to reliability investigate so he is determined to find out who killed his best friend. That investigation will expose unethical land deals, insider information, and put he and his family in danger from a killer who knows that John eventually will learn the truth if he keeps digging.

This is Terry Shaw's first whodunit and in is this reviewer's opinion he will prove a star in the mystery galaxy. The storyline is exciting with the dark secrets of a small town slowly peeled away and the characters are so well developed readers will feel as if they know them. John is Don Quixote who prints the truth in his paper, but in matters close to his heart he is innocent as he judges people by what they say and looks no further.

Harriet Klausner