Blackwater Spirits

An excess of Native American lore and romantic complications blunt the impact of Monfredo's third historical mystery featuring Glynis Tryon, librarian in Seneca Falls, N.Y., in the mid-18th century. Glynis and the newly arrived doctor, a young Jewish woman from New York City, overhear a farmer voice fears for his life to Constable Cullen Stuart. Soon the farmer is fatally poisoned, and Cullen enlists Glynis's aid in talking to the farmer's angry widow, who suggests her husband's murder will be followed by others. Soon three more men have died. Suspicion focuses on Cullen's former deputy, Jacques Sundown, known to be present at each murder site. When he is arrested for the murder of a woman, Glynis, who has a strong attachment to the quiet, younger man now living with his mother's people on the Black Brook reservation, resolves to prove his innocence. Clearheaded Glynis's pursuit of Jacques may grate on fans who have admired her stability and judgment in North Star Conspiracy and Seneca Falls Inheritance. Like these, this novel includes a section of historical notes at the end, which provide more detail on the names, places and situations mentioned in the story. (Feb.)