does a terrific job of introducing her characters and setting the stage. With an admirable economy of well-chosen words and precise details, Lenhardt skillfully infuses the town of Stillwater with atmosphere and her characters with personality and complex backstories. In particular, Lenhardt writes funny, intelligent, independent women. Ellie Martin, a native of Stillwater and once bitten\u2013twice shy, is much more than McBride\u2019s love interest.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Stillwater turns noir when McBride comes face to face with Buck Pollard, the previous chief, in a convenience store, the atmosphere so strained that you can hear the proverbial dropping pin. \u201cAn avalanche of new ice fell in the icemaker. The coffee pot clicked off. Strains of country music, tinny and flat, floated from a radio on the counter behind the clerk. Breakfast taquitos and hot dogs rolled in their warmer.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Lenhardt displays comedic chops with a running joke involving McBride\u2019s footwear (city boy with fancy shoes), and when a cop wants to interview a witness in the local nursing home, a caretaker tells him that trying to understand Mrs. Dodsworth is \u201call stream of conscious type stuff. Like reading Faulkner. It\u2019s not easy to understand.\u201d Lenhardt also has a good ear for dialogue and a deft touch with the difficult relationship between McBride and Ethan.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Ethan sat up and plastered on a smile. \u201cMy day was great, Dad! Half the school hated me because I\u2019m your son. The other half tried to be my best friend because I\u2019m new and apparently have hair like some vampire dude.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cIf it makes you feel any better, some old man at the gas station made fun of my shoes.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Inspired plotting, fast pacing, sly foreshadowing, and a steady serving of plot twists keeps you turning pages. With shades of Walking Tall<\/em> (1973), long-held secrets surface and reveal the tangled motivations, intertwined lives, and political machinations of a small-town fiefdom. As McBride\u2019s personal and career fears converge, Lenhardt expertly sets the hook for the next installment. I hope she writes quickly.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jack McBride\u2019s wife, Julie, has up and disappeared, abandoning McBride and their son, Ethan (\u201cthe proof they had once been in love and happy would walk in the room, ear buds in, the musty, sour smell of puberty following him like the contrail of a jet.\u201d). Needing a fresh start, McBride has left his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12,8,17,15,111],"class_list":["post-355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-lonestarreview","tag-lonestarliterarycom","tag-mystery","tag-texasauthor","tag-texasbook"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}