cover image By Evil Means

By Evil Means

Sandra West Prowell. Walker & Company, $19.95 (216pp) ISBN 978-0-8027-1248-6

Gritty realism and a modern sensibility permeate this promising debut set in Billings, Mont. Half-Jewish, half-Irish Catholic, PI Phoebe Siegel is hired by farm wife Mary Kuntz to investigate the extreme personality change that has transformed her formerly drug-abusing teenage daughter Jennifer since she began treatment with Dr. Victor Stroud at the Whispering Pines sanatorium. Initially reluctant, Phoebe takes the case when Mary discloses that a Stroud-induced complaint by Jennifer may have led to the suicide of Phoebe's beloved policeman brother, Ben, a few years earlier. Phoebe, who discovers Mary is the daughter of one of the most powerful men in the state, sneaks into Whispering Pines and finds disturbing evidence of coercion and blackmail. Another young Whispering Pines patient dies under questionable circumstances after begging for help, further galvanizing Phoebe, who has been dogged by a mysterious police car and warned off the case by her cop uncle. Siegel, a tough and charming heroine with angst, unresolved conflicts and extensive family ties, is a welcome addition to swelling ranks of female PIs. (Jan.)