Painted Women: A Warbonnet Mystery

Kresge's first installment in the Warbonnet Mystery series%E2%80%94the western Murder for Greenhorns%E2%80%94was a finalist for the 2011 Bruce Alexander Award for Best Historical Mystery, and this captivating sequel is equally good. Set in the late 19th century in Warbonnet in the Wyoming Territory, Marshal Monday Malone faces a quintessential close-to-home crime when he learns that his brother, Tom, has been locked up for murder in Laramie. A young woman named Francine was stabbed with Tom's knife, making the circumstantial case against his brother very compelling. Despite family tension (Tom cheated Monday out of his share of the family ranch), the lawman agrees to look into the case, aided by the very capable Kate Shaw, a schoolteacher angling to land a spot on a geologic survey. Given that the killer sliced Francine's heart in two with one blow, Monday suspects that a second, shallow wound may be a key to the mystery. The author succeeds in incorporating deduction into the Wild West, and this series will be enjoyed by fans of Steve Hockensmith's Holmes on the Range and William L. DeAndrea's Lobo Blacke/Quinn Booker series.