[Susan Wren 02] • Consider the Crows

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.