22889910Author Larry D. Sweazy takes a break from westerns with this mystery, a Marjorie Trumaine tale. Marjorie carries on that tradition of the amateur detective. The setting here is 1964, North Dakota, and Marjorie works as a free lance book indexer and lives on a farm looking after her quadriplegic husband Hank, the result of an accident.

There’s a horrific murder on the farm next to theirs, Marjorie’s two best friends, Lida and Eric Knudsen, slain in most brutal fashion, the two teenage boys who helped her on the farm since her husband’s accident asleep upstairs and not hearing anything.

The sheriff asks for her help. An old amulet with odd markings had been found in the father’s hand and the sheriff wants her to use her research skills in hopes of finding a clue to who might do this..

Before it’s all over, several more murders occur, someone is following Marjorie and tries to knock her truck into a spin, probably killing her. Likely would have if she hadn’t run them off with the .22 rat gun she carried in the vehicle. The current publisher she works for is pressing her to complete the index for the book on headhunters. Marjorie just keeps plugging along trying to find the murderer and the reasons why.

Author Sweazy has a style easy to get pulled into, keeping things moving along as one never quite knows where he’s headed. A couple of twists along the way.

I have a sneaking suspicion Marjorie may appear again. I hope so. On sale date is May 5th.