Marcia Talley This Enemy Town

This Enemy Town

Marcia Talley

Avon, Sept 2005, $6.94, 272 pp.

ISBN 0060587393

Hannah Ives is a survivor. She survived breast cancer and is coming on the five year mark of being free of the disease. She also survived the pain and media spotlight that shined on her husband Paul when one of his students Jennifer Goodall claimed sexual harassment. Eventually she dropped the charges and moved away from the Naval Academy. Paul and Hannah put their marriage back together.

When Hannah's new friend Dorothy Hart asks Hannah to help her with the set designs for the Glee Club musical, she agrees knowing the woman battles breast cancer. While working on the set she sees Jennifer who has been reassigned to work at the Naval Academy. The two women argue in front of the cast. Not long afterward, Jennifer's murdered body is found in a trunk that is used on the set. Hannah is arrested for murder because the weapon has her fingerprints on it and was wrapped around Hannah's bloody sweatshirt. A witness also put her at the scene even though she was nowhere near the place. Not content to let the FBI handle the case, Hannah decides to investigate on her own which puts her on a collision course with the killer.

Anyone who has never read a Hannah Ives mystery is missing a special treat. The heroine is a strong, determined and kind-hearted woman, who is determined to find out who the killer is even though her lawyer, husband and daughter advise against it. There are plenty of suspects who hated the victim enough to want to see her dead and readers will not be able to figure out who the culprit is until the author chooses to reveal it. Award winning author Marcia Talley has written an exciting amateur sleuth novel, a bit darker in tone than other books in this series.

Harriet Klausner