See Also Murder: A Marjorie Trumaine Mystery

Set in 1964, this terrific first in a projected series opener from Sweazy (The Devil’s Bones) introduces Marjorie Trumaine, a farm wife and book indexer in Dickinson, N.Dak. Indexing keeps Marjorie’s life afloat. A voracious reader and list maker, she also provides care for her beloved husband, Hank, after a hunting accident left him blind and paralyzed. Noting that “Mother and Father were stiff-upper-lip kind of people,” she shoulders her burdens and struggles to suppress her occasional lustful thoughts about a local deputy. She’s horrified when Sheriff Hilo Jenkins tells her that someone has slit the throats of her neighbors Erik and Lida Knudsen, and she’s not happy when Hilo asks her to research a strange copper amulet found in Erik’s dead hand. As more people die, Marjorie becomes increasingly convinced she’ll never feel safe again. The characters are superbly drawn, and the prairie—its flatness, winds, and critters—is an evocative character in its own right. Sweazy is also an author of western fiction and has won the WWA Spur Award for best short fiction. [em]Agent: Cherry Weiner, Cherry Weiner Literary Agency. (May)[/em]