Tahoe Fear by Todd Borg

 

First Line: Kyle Fosbek felt the skin on the back of his neck prickle with fear as Bo Andrew sat down on the bench next to him.

When 90-year-old Hazel Fosbeck's grandson, Kyle, disappears, she asks private detective Owen McKenna to investigate. The elderly woman, who likes to live off the grid and drives a 1943 Willys, is afraid that Kyle has run afoul of the Andrews brothers, vicious brutes who are the latest in the Andrews family who have feuded with the Fosbecks for a hundred years.

Each time McKenna finds someone who may have information as to Kyle's whereabouts, that person dies-- tied to a concrete block and dropped into Lake Tahoe's icy water.

McKenna has to move fast. With the help of his Great Dane, Spot, and his buddy Sergeant Diamond Martinez, Owen plans a showdown with the killers. The stakes are high, but McKenna is determined to win.

~

As a long-time fan of Todd Borg's Owen McKenna books, I'm constantly amazed by his ability to work so much history of the Lake Tahoe area into his stories-- and by how he can create so many memorable characters.

In Tahoe Fear, Borg really ratchets up the adrenaline. There are two kidnappings in the book, and the first really had me biting my nails. Not that the second one didn't concern me. It did. But I knew nothing was going to happen to the person (or there would be dire consequences from readers). The first one, though, actually raised my heart rate. I'm normally not easily affected, but the feeling of danger was palpable.

90-year-old Hazel Fosbeck was an excellent addition to the cast of characters. She's a law unto herself, and although I thought my husband was the best driver of off-road vehicles, Hazel and her 1943 Willys left him in her dust.

The mystery in Tahoe Fear was multi-layered with plenty of twists and turns that kept me guessing. As always, the characters shone brightly, and the dog lovers will enjoy Spot and the added information about canine scenting abilities. 

If you haven't made Owen McKenna's acquaintance yet, you really should-- especially if you love character-driven stories with plenty of action. Normally, I would advise first-timers to begin at the beginning, but I can understand why some people would hesitate to do that with a (so far) 24-book series. The important thing is to meet these characters and to experience the Lake Tahoe setting. If you're hooked (as I'm sure you will be), you can always go back to the other books. You'll have lots of good reading waiting for you.

Tahoe Fear by Todd Borg

ISBN: 9781931296342

Thriller Press © 2026

Paperback, 320 pages

Thriller/Private Investigator, #24 Owen McKenna

Rating: A

Source: the author

A Staying Cool Weekly Link Round-up

 

With temperatures consistently in the 110°F/44°C range, I'm being sensible. I get my outside chores done quickly and get myself back inside in the air conditioning. I have noticed, however, that my outside chores have given me an interesting "farmer's tan." In looking up that phrase, I see that few mention a true farmer's tan. There's not only forearms darkly tanned from wearing short-sleeved shirts, but there's also the white forehead from wearing some sort of hat. How do I know this? I grew up in farm country, that's how!

Now my own version is a bit more esoteric. I'm developing a bit of a white mask from wearing sunglasses, and my forearms are nicely tanned down to two inches above my hand. Those tan lines are due to the gloves I always wear. The garden hose I use is metal, and I touch other metal objects in doing those outside chores, so I don't want severe burns on my hands and fingers. (My mama didn't raise an idiot.) So far, the only person who's noticed my tan lines is my home health nurse, but I don't care if everyone sees them. (And take into consideration that those outside chores only take an average of ten minutes a day. Never underestimate the desert sun!)

Other than that, inside chores, reading, watching television, and doing needlepoint, all done in the comfort of air conditioning, is the order of the day. That, and watching hummingbirds making good use of the hanging solar fountain, and two huge dragonflies chasing each other back and forth above the pool. It's too hot for the starlings, so I'm enjoying their absence. 

Want to see the wall of tissue box covers I'm building?

Five are for one friend, and I'll bet you can guess which one's Daisy's. I'm working on one for my niece, Karen, right now. The wall isn't going to get much higher-- I think-- because I don't have much canvas left. Once it's gone, I'll switch back to knitting.

I hope you're all staying cool and reading some good books. Virtual hugs to you all, and enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• The rise of the "hot literati"-- how reading became sexy.
• How the role of book cover design has changed in the age of social media.
• How owning books became everybody's business.
• The open-source software saving the internet from AI bot scrapers.
• Barbie vs. Barbie: Inside the legal battle over the world's most famous doll.
• Jeopardy!'s most controversial moment was years in the making. It took many more for the fallout to come into full view.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Mummy mask with wig: A 1,000-year-old "false head" found in Peru that was crafted with real human hair and toxic red cinnabar.
• This ship sank in the Baltic Sea with presents bound for a Romanov czar. Its cargo included champagne, luxury mineral water, and rare meteorites.
• Stone Age tombs in Scotland reveal "webs of descent" among male relatives.
• The millennium-old sacrificial altar in Mexico belonged to a civilization that thrived before the Aztecs.
• Massive Iron Age hoards discovered in England may be from the funeral of a powerful Celtic queen.
• If Mount Vesuvius erupted in August, why were Pompeii victims wearing heavy wool garments?

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Why are these whales floating upside-down? They might just be moms who need a break from feeding their babies. (Can you blame them?)
• "A forest with bonobos has never been so quiet": The most extreme case of violence in the "hippie" species recorded, with females ganging up on a male in an unprecedented attack.
• This massive web-- home to more than 100,000 spiders-- found in a cave in Europe could be the world's largest.
• Watch a wolf cleverly raid a crab trap for a snack. It might be the first evidence of a wild canid using a tool.
• Newly discovered toads skip the tadpole stage and give birth to live "toadlets."
• A closer look at the kestrels, hedgehogs, and other wild animals that inhabit Rome.

►The Wanderer◄

• This 1863 massacre was the deadliest slaughter of Native Americans in U.S. history. Now, the Shoshone are restoring the site of the attack. 
• This alligator-rich swamp in the American South just joined the UNESCO World Heritage list, along with the home of the Greek gods.
• Kale Island disappeared under rising seas in the Pacific. A new sculpture marking the spot will morph into a home for seabirds, coral, and marine life.
• Months after burglars stole crown jewels from the Louvre, the Apollo Gallery reopens, highlighting its origins as a royal reception hall.
• Hollywood's iconic Cinerama Dome, one of the world's most famous movie theaters, is set to reopen in early 2028.
• Jane Austen never loved Bath, but Bath loves Jane Austen. Now, the city is exploring why the novelist was so unhappy there.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Meet archaeobotanist Kevin Wann who's studying how ancient human migrations shaped a hotbed of avocado diversity in Central America.
• Art sleuths discovered a lost and "enormously important" portrait of an elite Indian woman by pioneering Scottish painter Katherine Read.
• Did these ancient Egyptian princesses wield weapons and train in martial arts, just like the men of their time?
• Country music legend Dolly Parton's autobiographical musical exploring her journey from East Tennessee will hit Broadway this winter.
• A scholar recognized the inscriptions in the margins of this manuscript. The scribbles turned out to be Galileo's handwritten notes.
• James Sallis: What this crime fiction master leaves behind.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Kirkus' 20 best books to read in August.
• 7 household items every British Regency family owned.
• BookBub's most anticipated historical fiction of the second half of 2026.
• Visit 24 islands in these summery novels.
• 7 of the best mysteries set in British villages.
• 5 mysteries set at literary events, conferences, and retreats.

That's all for this week! No matter how busy you may be, don't forget that quality Me Time curled up with a good book!

The Night Hunter by Natalie Moss

 

First Line: We dove headlong between the trees, red-green mopani leaves whipping our brows and thick grasses tangling under our ankles.

Estranged sisters Danielle and Grace must return to their family home located within a wild-game reserve in the South African bush to take care of their deceased mother's final wishes. To ease the pain of their loss--and the tension between them-- each sister invites two friends to come along with them and their guide on the two-day journey.

The trip begins as a safari adventure but turns into a nightmare when one of them is murdered the first morning at the campsite. In their panic, they crash their vehicle, leaving them stranded with no way to call for help.

Danielle must lead them on foot across miles of unforgiving landscape. To make it even worse, not only do they have to be vigilant because of the dangerous wildlife, but they also have to outfox someone whom they realize is trying to sabotage their escape.

~

The setting, the wildlife, the dangerous cross-country trek... all of these things enticed me to read Natalie Moss's The Night Hunter. Those parts of the book were excellent. I did feel as though I were with them as they set out on foot for safety. Is there a leopard up in that tree? Are crocodiles hiding in that stream? Did I just hear a lion cough? I wish all these bugs would stop feasting on me. I really enjoyed that part of the book.

Unfortunately, when it came to the characters, The Night Hunter fell flat. I have developed a very low tolerance for characters so filled with angst that they constantly try to second-guess themselves and everyone else. Danielle was so angst-filled that it's a wonder she could move. She and her sister, Grace, had a larger-than-life conservationist mother who was responsible for their emotional instability. Since the woman was dead, she was always seen in Danielle's memories. I think I would have had a better reaction to both Danielle and the story if the book had been structured so readers got a chance to meet this woman for themselves. To see her in action instead of always being told what she was like.

If you like survival-in-the-wild adventure stories, The Night Hunter is a good one. If, like me, you are a character-driven reader, you may have a few problems with it.

The Night Hunter by Natalie Moss

eISBN: 9798217187874

Berkley © 2026

eBook, 345 pages

Thriller

Rating: C

Source: Net Galley

A Little Dirt and Water Weekly Link Round-Up

 

As many of you already know, this week has not been unremarkable for the simple fact that I went to The Poisoned Pen for an author event. I've already posted about that, but I teased you by withholding information about my trip back home.

I waited inside the bookstore for as long as I could because I didn't want to wait outside in the heat. However, I wasn't about to keep the employees from going home, so I girded my loins and zipped outside. 

I should have been paying more attention to what was going on outside. 

Found Image. Phoenix dust storm.

As the door closed behind me, my mouth and eyes were filled with dirt from the tail end of a dust storm. (That'll teach me to keep my mouth shut!) The wind was so strong that I almost lost my pinwheel, but I managed to grab it in the nick of time. Then it began to rain, so I did manage to lose a lot of my dust coating. I sheltered as much as I could because mobility scooters can get cranky if they get too wet. By the time Paratransit arrived, the rain had stopped, a fresh breeze had mostly dried me out, and the scooter wasn't in a bad mood.

So it would appear that travels from The Poisoned Pen to Casa Kittling demand a bit of drama. I'd say that I'd take an umbrella with me when I return to the bookstore next month, but I don't have one, and the wind would probably turn it inside out anyway. Yes, there was drama, but it just made me laugh and shake my head. (I think I heard Denis laughing, too.)

Virtual hugs to you all, and enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• AI companies are buying tons of old books because they're free of AI slop.
• Stop saying kids can't read.
• Quiz: Can you name all the countries that begin with "A"?
• What comes after book bans? One school district is questioning traditional libraries.
• As book criticism disappears, the booksellers are stepping in.
• Cushty, prat, cowson... and other British terms I can no longer say in America.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Oops! DNA has revealed that an ancient Bronze Age shaman long assumed to be a man was actually a woman.
• An ancient bronze chariot has emerged among the remains of a mysterious society that burned down its own buildings and then disappeared.
• An Elamite helmet with divine figures: A warrior king's 3,500-year-old bronze armor depicting a raptor and gold-plated gods.
• Railway construction revealed a coin minted by a Roman officer who proclaimed himself "Emperor of the North" in Britain 1,700 years ago.
• How has Roman concrete lasted for millennia?
• Enslaved and free workers built Thomas Jefferson's Monticello brick by brick. Archaeologists just discovered on the of the kilns they used.

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Giraffes might be even smarter than we think.
• 15 kitten photos.
• An unusual-looking raccoon nicknamed Jimothy is winning hearts across the internet for his short, round, body.
• An orange-lipped monkey that roars and snorts deep in the Congo rainforest is a new species to science.
• Scientists are deep-freezing koala eggs and sperm to protect the species from extinction.
• Scientists are releasing the lovingly nicknamed "snot otters" into Ohio waterways in a big success for conservation.

►The Wanderer◄

• A culture of collaboration: the legacy of Lunigiana's traveling booksellers.
• Florida dumped half a million oyster shells into the Gulf of Mexico. No one expected the results to be this good.
• The Chocolate Hills: the color-changing mounds in the Philippines that inspired legends of mud-slinging giants.
• The Italian bells that survived the Nazis, fires, and even the medieval ages.
• Here's why you should set your crime novel in Boston.
• One morning in Auckland.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Maharajah Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinjhi Jadeya, ruler of the princely state of Nawanagar, opened his realm to young Poles who had been detained in Soviet labor camps as the children of the intelligentsia. (Please don't ask me to type that name again!)
• Polly Cooper walked over 200 miles in the snow to feed a starving army. The Oneida Nation has remembered her for 250 years.
• Thousands of intimate photographs reveal the everyday lives of the Romanovs, Russia's last imperial family.
• How the bicycle gave women unprecedented independence from restrictive Victorian society.
• Who, exactly, were all those girls in Renoir's paintings?
• This 19th-century diary written by enslaved Maryland man Adam Francis Plummer, is a crucial record of his life and family history-- and the only one of its kind found in the United States.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Every state's favorite type of pizza, mapped.
• BookBub's most anticipated books of the second half of 2026.
• New historical mysteries.
• 13 books to read if you're excited about The Odyssey.
• 6 cozy mysteries set in the publishing world.
• 9 memorable animal detective books.

That's all for this week! No matter how busy you may be, don't forget that quality Me Time curled up with a good book!

Back at The Poisoned Pen!

After much deliberation, I decided to throw caution to the wind and head to my favorite bookstore, The Poisoned Pen, for an author event. It had probably been three years since the last time I'd gone. That time, Denis and I wound up being stranded for two and a half hours on a cold, wet, dark street corner waiting for Paratransit to pick us up.

Since I am now flying solo, the thought of being stranded alone and in the dark had little appeal for me, but since this event was in July with warmer temperatures and longer daylight hours, I decided that enough was enough! I was going, blast it!

I am so glad I did! It was so good to chat with Patrick and Barbara and local author Deborah Ledford as well. To be honest, it was like coming home. 

One of the few good things that happened as a result of Covid is the fact that you can watch this event, too, either on The Poisoned Pen's Youtube channel, or on Facebook. I also highly recommend both of Weiden's books, Winter Counts and Wisdom Corner.

Left to Right: Patrick Millikin, David Heska Wanbli Weiden, Barbara Peters

David Heska Wanbli Weiden

Did everything go smoothly transportation-wise? Getting there was fine. The return trip home was a different story, but you'll have to wait for the next weekly link round-up to get the scoop!

A Hallelujah We're Getting Some Rain Weekly Link Round-Up

 

Another unremarkable week here at Casa Kittling. I may be becoming dull, but I've gotten to the point where I rather like unremarkable weeks, and for some strange reason, this has reminded me of a pet peeve.

I'm sick to death of being hounded to review every person I come in contact with and everything that I buy. How about you? And-- have we as humans gotten so feeble-minded that every time we make any sort of appointment, we have to be reminded by phone, by text, and by email that we do, indeed, have an appointment? For cryin' out loud, I haven't lost my mind yet! I value not only my time but the time of the people I have to deal with. If I make an appointment, I immediately put it on my calendar. I do not need to be reminded over and over again starting two weeks out that I have somewhere I have to be. And to get back to my original thought, the more businesses bug me about leaving reviews, the more I'm tempted to leave them bad ones. Not that I'm contrary or anything...

Yes, I know I have an appointment!

Now that I have that off my chest, it's time to round up some goodies. Virtual hugs to you all, and enjoy the links! (And please keep your fingers crossed that our monsoon season keeps giving us some badly needed rain. Thanks!)

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Copyright is not enough. Why writers need new strategies to stand up to AI.
• How-- and why-- to cull your book collection.
• The Terminator is about the last moments in a woman's life before she becomes a mother.
• Marriage and the maiden name.
• Researchers say the 800-year-old mystery of a lost medieval legend is solved.
• In the wake of court losses, Rhode Island codifies the Right to Read.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• 18 Egyptian tombs with dozens of gold "tongues" have been discovered along the Mediterranean Coast. More from Smithsonian Magazine.
• Take an exclusive look at three newly discovered medieval shipwrecks in Menorca's "Cove of Mysteries."
• Ancient DNA suggests that Kazakhstan's Iron Age "Golden Man" and other elite Scythians of Eurasia inherited their high social status.
• A long-lost ice-age ecosystem, including fossils of lion-size armadillos and giant ground sloths, have been discovered in a Texas "water cave." 
• Researchers have found an ancient Korean society that practiced sacrifice and high inbreeding.
• See artifacts that archaeologists discovered in this 1,600-year-old Byzantine Christian town buried in an oasis in Egypt.

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• The spiritual meaning of dragonflies.
• Are moose Colorado natives or introduced outsiders?
• The lucrative bird-singing contests that are pushing species to the brink.
• "Murder hornets" might strike terror in humans, but these frogs can eat them for lunch.
• Scientists found a rare tusked whale alive at sea for the first time.
• Lemurs are having a mysterious "baby boom" in Madagascar. Here's why that might not be a good thing.

►The Wanderer◄

• Life inside Icelandic turf houses.
• This 700-year-old English church nearly closed-- but then the vicar discovered a stash of gold coins under the altar.
• Welcome to Toronto, world capital of the urban raccoon.
• Malaria had nearly been eliminated around a giant dam in the Amazon, but then it came roaring back. Experts just discovered why.
• Ireland launches its permanent "Income for the Arts" scheme, becoming the first government committed to paying artists. 
• See 11 images of mangrove forests and their wildlife, showcasing the trees' beauty and fragility.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• The two Dolly Parton classics she wrote on the same day.
• Meet Sak Tahn Waax, a Maya math whiz who lived more than 1,000 years ago and left behind a "really elegant, complex" formula.
• The public shaming of Jonas Hanway, England's first umbrella user.
• 5 historical figures who didn't actually exist.
• DNA reveals the identity of teenager John Pumphrey who died in the Revolutionary War, cracking a nearly 250-year-old cold case.
• Rebecca Lehmann on Anne Boleyn and the fatal power of unmanageable women.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• 15 books that deserve a sequel.
• 7 fascinating Italian jobs you didn't know still exist.
• The most searched word definitions in every U.S. state.
• 6 comedic crime novels and thrillers.
• 5 suspense novels driven by female ambition and competition.
• 18 new dual-timeline novels.

That's all for this week! No matter how busy you may be, don't forget that quality Me Time curled up with a good book!

Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth

 

First Lines: It's interesting to note that there are two groups of people who are rarely, if ever, suspected of murder. These groups are elderly women and little girls.

When her neighbor turns up dead in their quiet Melbourne suburb, whispers begin to swarm around 81-year-old Elsie Fitzpatrick. Why should the neighbors be whispering about Elsie? She's grumpy, fiercely independent, never without a sarcastic comment, and minds her own business. But someone found out her secret.

Elsie hasn't always been Elsie. At one time, she was Mad Mabel Waller, Australia's youngest convicted murderer-- a secret she's kept buried for decades.

That is, until 7-year-old Persephone moves in across the street. Full of opinions, questions, and no sense of personal boundaries, she sets her sights on Mabel and refuses to be deterred. With a 7-year-old shadow, a neighbor who seems to have it in for her, the police sniffing around, and the media circling like vultures, Mabel does the only thing she can: she takes matters into her own hands. 

~

The first two sentences of Sally Hepworth's Mad Mabel told me that I was in for something special. By page five, I was in love with Mabel. Perhaps it was because I identified with her a bit, but I loved her voice and her grumpy, sarcastic wit. I lost count of the times I laughed out loud at one of Mabel's comments. 

But there's more to Mabel than being a sharp-tongued, grumpy old lady. As she told her story to two young podcasters, my heart broke for her. The more I read, the more I wanted a Happily Ever After for her. Was I under her spell? You bet.

The marvelous thing about Mad Mabel is that the entire cast of characters shines. They aren't static or cardboard. They change before our eyes, and they hold surprises for us. Not only did the characters hold surprises, but the plot did, too. One of the characters seemed a bit "off" to me, and by the book's end, I was miffed that I didn't guess the truth about the person.

If you're in the mood to be charmed by a character to the point where you'd move heaven and earth to bring her joy; if you're in the mood for a story where you have a little trouble putting all the puzzle pieces into the correct places, well, there's only one thing to do: read Mad Mabel.

Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth

eISBN: 9781250284556

St. Martin's Press © 2026

eBook, 348 pages

Standalone Thriller

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

JR Returns & I Make a Guess This Weekly Link Round-Up

 

Some of you may remember JR the raccoon who showed up here a couple of years ago to paddle in the swimming pool and eat the treats I put out for him. Well, he came back for a couple of days this week. Someone asked me how I knew it was the same raccoon. For one thing, he pulled over the same birdbath that I put his treats in, even though the birdbath is in a different place now. He also went over and checked the spot where that birdbath used to be. I waited for him to show up twice before I put out anything for him, but he hasn't been back since. I guess I wasn't fast enough, darn it.

I've also mentioned my nameless friend that I was concerned about. I may have an aversion to deerstalker caps (or hats in general), but not knowing his name has been bugging me for a long time. Persistence has paid off-- I think-- and I now believe I've identified him. All I will say is T.M., and perhaps I will find out if I'm right. (Although I do understand if he wishes to remain anonymous. I just have one of those inquiring minds.) 

I have a new pinwheel to add to my collection. It came in the mail this week. (Thank you for it and everything else. You know who you are!) It's the best spinner of them all and is now on my scooter whirring away every time I go outside. Hey, it even spins when I'm around the ceiling fans here in the house!

It's been another scorching week here in Phoenix. I've been doing my outside chores as quickly as possible to avoid the worst of the heat, then I come inside to read and work on tissue box covers.

Virtual hugs to you all, my friends! Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• The end of reading is here.
• The heat wave that made America legalize shorts.
• New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte vetoed a bill calling for increased book bans.
• Austin, Texas, could become a "Book Safe Harbor" as censorship fights escalate.
• Amazon offers AI translation for self-published Kindle books.
• Everything you need for a a reading picnic.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• A pair of 2,000-year-old gold rings, one engraved with Indian script, was discovered in an Iron Age burial ground in Thailand.
• A 2,500-year-old tomb of a "warrior prince" with a chariot and helmet was discovered on Italy's Adriatic coast. 
• Builders discovered an ancient Minoan ruin on Crete. Then, things got tense.
• 3D printing gives new life to an ancient game board discovered at a Roman fort near Hadrian's Wall in England.
• The oldest known plague victims have been found in a 5,500-year-old burial ground in Siberia-- and many of them were children.
• Hundreds of Spanish settlers died at the "Port of Famine." This newly discovered silver coin reveals where the doomed colony was founded 400 years ago.

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Sperm whales living in the eastern Mediterranean Sea seem to have developed a distinct dialect from those in the west.
• The return of Florida's wild flamingos.
• Cyborg cockroaches could help find survivors of natural disasters. New diving suits allow the insects to expand their search underwater. (Finally, a roach I can like...)
• Can a turtle tuck its head all the way inside its shell?
• Stream the beautiful highs and violent lows of albatross life with this new 24-hour camera on Midway atoll.
• How do dogs watch TV? A new study suggests that it might depend on their personalities.

►The Wanderer◄

• Crime and the City: Bari, Italy.
• Alexander Hamilton's First National Bank revolutionized the U.S. economy. After sitting shuttered for years, the Philadelphia landmark reopened as a museum.
• Vincent van Gogh adored the color yellow. A new exhibition in Amsterdam wants you to fall in love with the hue, too.
• Experience the grandeur of the Italian Alps with these 15 photographs.
• How America's industrial elite built their own palaces.
• A scenic road winding through Theodore Roosevelt National Park finally reopens after six years.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Did this duke poison his brother? A new DNA analysis may solve the centuries-old Medici mystery.
• Spanish officer Bernardo de Gálvez besieged the British during the American Revolution, giving George Washington time to plan a pivotal attack.
• Meet Julia Ward Howe, the remarkable poet who wrote the Battle Hymn of the Republic and fought for women's suffrage.
• The true story of Laura Ingalls is wilder than Little House on the Prairie.
• To finance their lifestyle, Clara and André Malraux went to Cambodia to steal antiquities. They did almost everything wrong.
• The King and I spotlights an English governess who modernized Siamese society. The real Anna Leonowens exaggerated her influence and lied about her origins.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• 8 vineyard mysteries you can savor.
• 9 great books about survival at sea.
• 21 mysteries and thrillers set at sea.
• 6 films Silvia Moreno-Garcia recommends for writers.
• July's best international crime fiction.
• 9 murder mysteries set in resorts.

That's all for this week! No matter how busy you may be, don't forget that quality Me Time curled up with a good book!

Wisdom Corner by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

 

First Line: I surveyed the wreckage around Wisdom Corner.

In a promise to his partner, Marie, who is running for a position on the tribal council, Virgil Wounded Horse has been working on putting his past behind him. No more work as a hired vigilante on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. No more smoking. No more drinking. Not everyone has been happy with his decision to stop dispensing justice, but Virgil has persevered... until a beloved member of the community is murdered.

Forced to return to the job, Virgil finds that the victim was threatened by a street gang from a neighboring reservation, and a shady politician who will stop at nothing to gain more power may have something to do with the murder, too.

With the stakes growing higher by the day, Virgil needs to find the killer as quickly as possible because the lives of those he loves are at stake.

~

Back in 2021, I highly recommended Weiden's first Virgil Wounded Horse mystery, Winter Counts, and I'm happy to say that his second, Wisdom Corner, is every bit as good. 

The author puts readers right in the heart of the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Reservations. He weaves fascinating bits of Native American history into his story, like the Carlyle Indian School football team, and shows us all how Indian boarding schools and the proven inequality of the American criminal justice system have made their marks on Native lives. Native American culture and delicious food are also part of this rich tapestry.

But any fictional tapestry is incomplete without an engaging cast of characters, and Wisdom Corner has that, too. Virgil's struggle to have a more acceptable lifestyle is real, and his partner, Marie, does everything she can to help him. Marie's fight for a seat on the tribal council is only one of the ways she shows how much she cares for the people on the reservation. Virgil's nephew, Nathan, is a high schooler trying to have a meaningful life on the reservation-- which is extremely difficult to do for any young person there. I think my favorite new character was Rose Charging Cloud, the chief of police for the Rosebud Sioux tribe. Being Black, Native, and female, she's had a tough road to her job. At first, I didn't like her, but she certainly grew on me. 

Once again, as in Winter Counts, the bad guy was very easy for me to spot, but there was some excellent misdirection steering readers toward other suspects. If you enjoy learning about other cultures in a propulsive mystery populated with vivid characters, I highly recommend Wisdom Corner, but I will say that you should really read Winter Counts first. (Why settle for one great read when you can have two?)

Wisdom Corner by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

eISBN: 9780062969002

Ecco Books © 2026

eBook, 320 pages

Native American Mystery, #2 Virgil Wounded Horse

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley