Disrespected, unprepared, undaunted.
Book 1 in the Ada Reed Mystery Series
Available in e-book and trade paperback almost anywhere. See Coffeetown Press:
https://coffeetownpress.com/2023/07/20/always-something-sings-by-roger-lynn-howell/
Ada Reed is asked to fill in as acting sheriff when her lawman husband is recalled to duty in Korea. It would be simpler this way, the business leaders whisper, “less trouble.” When a young woman is found beaten and drowned in a dredge pond, a troubled soldier admits to the crime. But the boy could not have killed his wife from his wheelchair, nor forged the chain of gold that sank her. The trail leads through smoky taverns, muddy sloughs, and crumbling mines; a world new to Ada, who comes to see a lot of her own past in the girl’s dreams and disappointments—and too much of her own bullying husband in the volatile soldier. Now she must break the grip of the men who propped her in office and reconcile with her own hurtful past if she is to help the soldier accept his innocence and stop the killer.
...this first book in a proposed series is a good, well-written story. There are twists and turns, several plausible suspects, and a satisfying conclusion. More police procedural than cozy mystery, Howell’s novel is for fans of strong women characters, historical mysteries, and good investigative techniques.
-- Ed Goldberg, Library Journal
Available in e-book and trade paperback almost anywhere. See Coffeetown Press:
https://coffeetownpress.com/2023/07/20/always-something-sings-by-roger-lynn-howell/
Ada Reed is asked to fill in as acting sheriff when her lawman husband is recalled to duty in Korea. It would be simpler this way, the business leaders whisper, “less trouble.” When a young woman is found beaten and drowned in a dredge pond, a troubled soldier admits to the crime. But the boy could not have killed his wife from his wheelchair, nor forged the chain of gold that sank her. The trail leads through smoky taverns, muddy sloughs, and crumbling mines; a world new to Ada, who comes to see a lot of her own past in the girl’s dreams and disappointments—and too much of her own bullying husband in the volatile soldier. Now she must break the grip of the men who propped her in office and reconcile with her own hurtful past if she is to help the soldier accept his innocence and stop the killer.
...this first book in a proposed series is a good, well-written story. There are twists and turns, several plausible suspects, and a satisfying conclusion. More police procedural than cozy mystery, Howell’s novel is for fans of strong women characters, historical mysteries, and good investigative techniques.
-- Ed Goldberg, Library Journal
This is the country: the town of Stanley, the Sawtooth Mountains, and the upper Main Salmon.
It is the heart of Idaho, and at the heart of the Ada Reed stories
It is the heart of Idaho, and at the heart of the Ada Reed stories
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Thanks for the photo, Deb Carstensen