Published by Poisoned Pen Press, ISBN: 978-1-4642-0226-1
Rachel Goddard is the vet in a
small, rural community in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia. Although Rachel is a relative
newcomer, her new husband, Tom Bridger, who has been recently elected Sheriff,
is a native of Mason
County and has close ties
to the community. The Packard development company decide that they wish to
create a luxury leisure resort in the area, but it will only go ahead if all
the landowners are willing to sell. This divides the community. Many people are
desperate for the employment and income the development would bring, even
though Rachel's researches reveal that the Packard company is an unscrupulous
and ruthless employer. Some landowners are eager to accept Packard's offer,
others are undecided and Joanna MacKendrick, Rachel's closest friend, is
determined not to sell her flourishing stables. Another couple who have been
unwilling to sell are Lincoln and Marie Kelly, despite the temptation to
acquire the money to move to a place where it would be easier for Marie to get
care for Lincoln, who is suffering from Alzheimer's and growing increasingly
irrational. When Marie and Lincoln are murdered, it is a shock to the whole
community and a grief to Tom, because his late mother had been one of Marie's
closest friends.
As Tom and his deputies
struggle to solve the murder and contain the hostility the opposing sides are
exhibiting, more violence, arson and vandalism occurs and Rachel is threatened
by an unknown adversary. The close community has many bitter secrets that have
lain dormant for years and now, under the pressure of the disruption and
division caused by Packard's proposal, the evil of the past erupts into fresh
violence.
This is the sixth Rachel
Goddard mystery and I very much regretted not having read the previous books.
It is an intriguing story, filled with beautifully drawn characters. It
intrigued me that some of the people and situations were comparable to rural England when I first moved into the country from
London, forty
years ago, (although fortunately with a lot less firearms.) Rachel and Tom are thoroughly appealing
protagonists and I was totally on their side and hoping that everything would
work out for them and Tom's orphaned nephew, Simon. It is especially refreshing
to have a female protagonist who, while helping her husband investigate in any
way she can, does not recklessly put herself in harm's way.
Poisoned Ground is an
excellent read. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it wholeheartedly.
I certainly plan to read others in the series.
------
Reviewer: Carol Westron
Sandra
Parshall was born and raised
in South Carolina.
Her first job that paid her for writing
was that of weekend obituary columnist on her hometown paper, The
Spartanburg Herald. Eventually she became a reporter. From there I went to
jobs on newspapers in West Virginia
and The Baltimore Evening Sun. Sandra had written fiction since childhood, but I didn't
find the genre comfortable in -- mystery/suspense -- until a few years ago. The
Heat of the Moon was her first attempt at psychological suspense. With its
publication, she set off on a new phase of life.
She lived for many years in the Washington,
DC, area, and currently share a house in McLean, Virginia, with my
husband, a long-time Washington
journalist, and two unbelievably spoiled cats. (See below. They demanded their
own bios.)
Carol Westron is a successful short story writer and a Creative
Writing teacher. She is the moderator
for the cosy/historical crime panel, The Deadly Dames. Her crime novels are set both in contemporary
and Victorian times. The Terminal
Velocity of Cats is the first in her Scene of Crimes novels, was published
July 2013, About the Children is to
be published March 2014.
www.carolwestron.com
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