Beth Groundwater

This is the first book in the Claire Hanover series and I am looking forward to the rest of them. In this book, Claire and her husband Roger are having difficulties. Roger has become a workaholic trying to get ahead. Claire is lonely (her children are grown and gone) and she wants her husband to cut back on work and rekindle the romance they had years ago. When her friend Ellen invites her to attend aerobics classes with her, Claire agrees. The instructor, Enrique, is a handsome gigolo who tries to latch onto Claire with Ellen's encouragement. Claire agrees to a massage, and while that is happening in her master bedroom, someone breaks in and shoots and kills Enrique. When Claire gets the dead body off herself, she sees her husband standing there holding a gun. He is promptly arrested and charged with murder. Claire believes his when he says he did not do it and spends the rest of the book investigating the crime because the police think they have the guilty party and are not looking elsewhere. She ends up in all sorts of trouble. A great story with lots of surprises.… (mais)

Claire Hanover, her husband Roger and daughter Judy are in Breckinridge skiing. Judy's boyfriend Nick Contino and his family are also there. Judy and Stephanie (Nick's sister) are skiing together when she is bumped by another skier or person a snowboard and hits a tree and dies. Everyone thinks it is an accident except Claire. As she investigates on her own other deaths pile up. Claire tries to protect Judy and is rebuffed by her daughter who keeps telling her she is an adult and to leave her alone to make her own decisions. The mob is involved, Leon (her drug kingpin from the first novel) makes a cameo appearance and all their lives are put in danger. Even though the police want Claire to butt out, "mama bear" continues to investigate in order to keep her family safe. Her gift baskets also make an appearance and the descriptions of them are gorgeous. Another good read.… (mais)

Midnight Ink, ISBN 9780738727035, November 2013

Claire Hanover is thrilled to be attending the official opening of her brother's riding stable, now relocated from Durango to Colorado Springs. She's also hoping that, with her younger brother close by now, she'll be able to grow closer to him, and heal some of the wounds from their childhood, when she was held up as the shining example he could never quite live up to.

What she's not expecting is that the day will be marred by the death of one of Charley's trusted wranglers, apparently kicked to death by one of his most valued horses.

It's the first of a series of frightening events that will threaten the survival of Charley's business, and test the relationship between the siblings as never before.

Groundwater skillfully develops the relationship between brother and sister, as well as between Charley and his wife, Jessica, while planting the clues and building the tension in the murder mystery. Claire's own husband, Roger seems almost an afterthought, though I gather he figured much more prominently in an earlier volume. The rivalries between Charley and his competitors, as well as Jessica's hippotherapy non-profit and the other hippotherapy provider in the area, Nancy Schwartz, are also well-developed. And Claire turns out to have some really interesting friends, frenemies, and occasional allies who make the whole texture of the novel richer.

It does bother me a bit, given the large role played by issues of illegal immigration and undocumented workers in the plot, that Groundwater did not do a little research and take into account the fact that E-Verify does, indeed, make it possible to verify workers' Social Security numbers and other relevant documents. However, many will regard this as an unreasonable complaint, since this is a very entertaining mystery with likable and engaging characters.

Recommended.

I received a free electronic galley from the publisher via NetGalley.

Update Beth Groundwater contacted me to say that the E-Verify inconsistency I noted is fixed in the text that will be published in the fall.… (mais)