Oklahoma Winds

In Oklahoma, spring brings storms raging across the American prairie, too often spawning tornadoes that lash the land. But this spring Sydney St. John finds herself fighting for her life against another danger, one from the past. When her intern's body is discovered in the archives processing room, everyone wants to believe the girl's death was an accident or a horrible mistake. But Sydney sets out to discover whether the cruel murder of today resulted from another crime committed nearly seventy years earlier, searching for clues as only an archivist can. Her search leads her to another danger, different, in the person of Ben Bartlett, grandson of the creator of the very collection at the center of the mystery. Is he to be her lover? Or her murderer?

 Oklahoma Winds (Cozy Mystery)

A Sydney St. John Mystery #1

By Cary Osborne

Crossroad Press

ISBN # 978-1941408704

Price $12.99 (Paperback)

Price $2.99 (Kindle)

194 Pages

Rating 4-Stars

Sydney St. John is the archivist for records in Gansel, Oklahoma. It’s May of the present day, and tornado season. Everyone is watching the weather for violent storms. Arriving at work one morning she finds her university intern dead. Sydney believes her murder involves the latest material donated to the archives. While the local and state police investigate the homicide, she concentrates on the material, believing the answers lie there.

In 1938, Josiah Bartlett was a filmmaker that travelled to small towns making short films using local children. In Vernon, he wrote a play that involved a young 12-year-old girl being kidnapped, and two young boys rescue her from an old barn. But something goes wrong. The girl, Violet Parsons really disappears. At the same time, a banker is reported kidnapped and ransom of two hundred thousand dollars is asked for his return. The money was paid, but his body was later found. Sydney follows the clues in the archives and films, and a story slowly unravels making her believe that Violet Parsons is still alive, but using another name, and may have been involved in the murder of the banker. But complications arise when Josiah’s grandson, Ben Bartlett comes from California to look through the material. Sydney’s afraid she may be falling for him, and he could be the murderer. Mixed with the danger of a killer loose in Gansel, there are severe storms, as well as tornados that make life difficult in the area.

I was given a copy of the book for an honest review. This was an interesting plot, and I wanted to find out the truth about the missing girl in 1938, but like most cozy mysteries, the story moves slow, even with the storms and attempts on Sydney’s life. The story is clean, and sex is kept in the background. Highly recommended.

Tom Johnson

Author of THESE ALIEN SKIES

Reservation Ravaged

Professionalism is one thing, confidence another. A local Indian tribe, the Kanache, asks California P.I. Hermione Daggert to find the man who camped out on their reservation over a year before. Filled with confidence, her qualifying exam behind her, she sees only a find-the-man assignment. How hard can it be? However, over the past year, that section of the reservation has gone from withered and uninhabitable to aggressively hostile. When the land claims the life of a beautiful San Tobino socialite in a fiery car crash, Hermione gets a new client. Her job? Find out why.

Reservation Ravaged (Cozy Mystery)

By JoAnna Senger

ISBN #978-1937769338

NTD www.bloodredshadow.com

Price $11.66

183 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

“Entertaining And Easy Reading.”

The mythical town of San Tobino, California, and characters from “Betrothal, Betrayal, And Blood,“ return in this new mystery. Denning & Daggert Investigations is hired by the Kanache Indian tribe to investigate a possible curse on their land. The land of the reservation appears ravaged, and nothing will grow there except thorny weeds, scorpions, and rattlesnakes. A young boy falls into a ravine, losing a leg in the accident, and the land seems cursed. Newly licensed private investigator, and partner in the investigative company, Hermione Daggert is assigned the case.  Following leads, she discovers that the chief – Broken Drum – had ran a Gypsy family off the land the previous year, and since then their land has been dying, and the accident of the young boy happened. Hermione finds the family, and learns that they did, indeed, place a curse on the reservation. The Kanache accepts her findings and sell the land. The new owner sets up an Institute of Holistic Health school, but more accidents happen. The police think there may be murder involved. Again, Hermione is hired to investigate the new accidents on the land, this time by the new owner.

Hermione was a waitress at Milady’s, the setting of JoAnna’s previous novel, but now works with P.I. Emma Denning, and assisted by police detectives Karl Kelly and Vito Kostowski. The story was easy reading, and the characters interesting, but the mystery unraveled a bit too easy. To be honest there was a lack of suspense, and I’m not sure if the case was actually solved by anyone, or just by dumb luck. However, it was a good mystery, and the writing is superb. Cozy mystery lovers will find it a lot of fun. Highly recommended.

Tom Johnson

Detective Mystery Stories

The Family That Stays Together

The Family That Stays Together (Cozy Mystery)

By Deborah Plummer Bussey

ISBN #978-0615818858

Half Dozen Publications

278 Pages

Price $10.99

Rating 4-Stars

In this sequel to “They Still Call Me Sister”, blood sisters Kathy and Tina come to the aide of their friend, a television celebrity suspected of killing her ex husband. Kathy Carpenter, an ex Nun, is now called Sister Nun, a professional psychologist who gets caught up in investigating mysteries.

Readers of cozy mysteries will find the story of interest, but I felt it was a bit slow and dragged on much too long to get my interest. Tina’s language was really over the top, and I thought the author could have toned it down, and still made the point that she liked to use colorful language. On several occasions I wanted to put the book down, but hung on for the final ride. It was a good mystery, and the characters came alive, and for that I’m giving it a 4-Star rating. It just took too long to tell, and the rambling aggravated me.

Tom Johnson

Detective Mystery Stories