Author: Mary Logue

Publisher: Tyrus Book

ISBN: 1440571511

This novel is packed with strong human emotions. It is clearly written by a woman, with details that are touchingly familiar in most family histories. The setting is a small town in northern Wisconsin. Two returning local boys, veterans of the war in Afghanistan, are at the center of the action, with a young woman whose passions are awakening to one of them, and her mother, who is struggling with her sudden promotion to sheriff. College-bound Meg knows Andrew is too experienced for her, but she is unable to resist him, even when she finds out he is working for her mother as a deputy. Meanwhile, Claire’s first, take-charge challenge is to find out why a skeleton is in the ashes of a replica Viking ship that citizens of Fort St. Antoine ceremoniously burned as a tribute to the local Nordic heritage.

Tensions mount as Andrew appears to be involved in the “Burning Boat murder” because the victim is the woman he once intended to marry. Or is the killer her jealous new fiancé? The search for truth becomes even more complicated when Andrew’s disturbed war buddy Doug comes home intending to fulfill the irrational oath the two had made in battle. The relationship Doug has with his dying grandmother is heart-rending.

Mary Logue writes in several genres, and has won several awards. This is number nine in the excellent Claire Watkins series. Her writing is clear and she moves quickly and incisively though the procedural, but not without compassion and deep appreciation of life-changing experiences. She captures the aching realities of life today in a community that is hanging on to the end of a farming economy. In this particular story, its logical heirs have been ripped from rural domesticity by savage survivalists. Whether they can survive is the burning question.

Follow Here To Purchase Lake of Tears: A Claire Watkins Mystery