Indigo ChristmasA Hilda Johansson Mystery
Jeanne Dams
ISBN 978-1-880284-95-7
256 pages, Trade Paperback Original, $14.95
Publication Date: September 2008
MOOD INDIGO FOR CHRISTMAS
The secret to Damss success is in the details.... We learn, without realizing were being taught anything at all, about social customs, class divisions, even the day-to-day operations of a wealthy turn-of-the-century household. Great characters, fascinating history, compelling mystery: this series could go on forever.
Booklist (starred review)
If youre a classic mystery lover, youre sure to enjoy the books of Jeanne M. Dams. Her characters, setting, and stories have a depth not often seen in this subgenre.
Mystery News
Once housemaid to the wealthy Studebaker family in South Bend, Indiana, Hilda Johansson is now married and living a well-to-do life with her new husband. But her Swedish family doesnt get along with his Irish relations. Shes having trouble finding friends, since she no longer fits into her old world and isnt accepted in the new one. Just before Christmas, when the husband of her sole remaining friend is accused of theft, arson, and murder, Hilda has to find new ways of investigating a crime that seems to make no sense.
In the hard times of 1904 with bank failures weekly, Hilda tries to help the unemployed youth of South Bend by helping to form a Boys Club (modeled after Hull House founded in Chicago).. And she also enlists some of them as Baker Street Irregulars in her mystery investigation, giving the reader a vivid sense of the city and street life of the times.
Visit Jeanne M. Dams's website!
Buffalo Bills DefunctA Latouche County Mystery
Sheila Simonson
ISBN 978-1-880284-96-0
280 pages, Trade Paperback Original, $14.95
Publication Date: September 2008
COLUMBIA RIVER CRIME
Sheila Simonson can always be relied on for appealing, intelligent protagonists, witty dialogue, a great sense of place, and suspense galore.
Carola Dunn, author of the Daisy Dalrymple mysteries
Sheila Simonsons Buffalo Bills Defunct had me from the title. Meg McLean just wants to escape to western Washington and work as a librarian. She didnt count on the stolen petroglyphs or the body in her garage. The books plot, characters, setting, and theme all click together just right to make for highly entertaining reading.
Bill Crider, author of the Sheriff Dan Rhodes mysteries
Sheriffs investigator Rob Neill made a mess of his first case, the theft of sacred artifacts belonging to the Klalo, a Native American tribe from the western end of the Columbia River Gorge. Ten years later, a stolen petroglyph emergesalong with a body buried in a garage. Neill sees a chance to redeem himself, with the help of his new neighbor, librarian Meg McLean. Her information-retrieval skills work together with the police investigationbut the partnership threatens to turn unprofessionally romantic. Meanwhile, two more people are murdered, and the Klalos feisty chief, Madeline Thomas, has her own agenda that seems to hinder as much as help. Can a kind of justice finally come to Latouche County?
Visit Sheila Simonson's website!