A Reluctant Saint

Fields’s excellent seventh Josie Gray mystery (after 2021’s The Drummers) finds the Artemis, Tex., police chief entangled in politics and personally unsettled. First, there’s mayoral candidate Mike Stryker, who’s buying up land in the area to build a greyhound racetrack. Few people in Artemis are enthusiastic about Mike’s plan, except Jezebel Black, who sees greyhound breeding as a new career choice. But trouble follows Jezebel, whose name change can’t erase her dubious past or prevent controversy when her new kennel is vandalized. The violence escalates until Josie has two shocking deaths to investigate. Meanwhile, an intruder has been entering her house and moving things around. As Josie tries to figure out who’s taunting her and whether it’s related to a case, someone near and dear to her is viciously attacked, and she knows there’s far more at stake than a dog track in the desert. Fields does a masterly job evoking the dry, dusty Lone Star landscape, and the well-wrought, intricate plot matches the distinctive characters, especially the indelible Josie. Readers will hope she has a long run. (Sept.)