Buried Road

Tallo’s entertaining third mystery featuring Augusta “Gus” Monet (after Poison Lilies) finds the sometime-investigator reluctantly returning to her hometown in Ontario, Canada, for the funeral of her missing partner, Howard Baylis. Howard, a journalist, disappeared three years earlier while reporting a story about bird migration that took an unexpected turn when he uncovered the shady past of his main source. Now, Howard’s family has finally accepted the likelihood of his death and planned a service. Gus, however, refuses to believe he’s gone, and she resumes her quest to track him down after she stumbles on his obituary in the newspaper. Though the trail is stone-cold, Gus recruits her teen daughter, Bly—the book’s narrator—to help her. Their efforts aren’t well received by Howard’s grieving parents or the police in Prince Edward County, but mother and daughter soon unearth new clues that threaten to blow the case wide open. With an intricate plot and three-dimensional characters, this marks the series’ third straight winner. Here’s hoping a fourth is on the way. Agent: David Halpern, Robbins Office. (Dec.)