Author Description

A phone call announcing murder rudely interrupts a quiet Sunday morning for chief of police Susan Wren. The body of Lynelle Hames, a quiet young woman newly arrived in Hampstead, Kansas, has been found near the isolated old house where she was living. Susan herself is a recent arrival in the small town. A former San Francisco cop, she chose to stay on as chief after solving the murder of her new husband one year before (The Winter Widow, SMP, 1992). With cold determination, Susan begins her investigation, but matters are soon complicated by the disappearance of a prominent citizen. As the vice-chancellor of Emerson College, Hilary Kalazar knew Lynnelle, who worked as a clerk-typist at the local school. Is Hilary's failure to arrive at the Dallas convention where she was scheduled to speak a coincidence, or is it somehow connected to Lynnelle's murder? The town begins to panic, with the mayor dogging Susan's every step and the townspeople arming themselves against a faceless danger. Hampered by treacherous weather, tangled lies, and small-town secrets, Susan investigates with street-smart persistence, knowing that unless she moves fast, the killer will strike again. Both poignant and wry, Consider the Crows is also a thoroughly entertaining puzzler of a mystery novel.