Author: Ronald Webber

Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-5107-1924-5

Ronald Weber, author of Riverwatcher, has penned and published many books. (2017, back cover) He is a huge fan of fly fishing. Weber is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame, American studies. He and his family reside in Valparaiso, Indiana.

Main characters for this murder mystery are Mercy, who works for the DNR; her boyfriend and lottery winner Fitzgearald; Mercy’s ex-husband, Verlyn; her son, Kit, and a few regular fly fishing instructors who teach and work from her ex-husbands fishing Inn in the town of Ossning, Michigan on the Borchard River. Ossning has been a pretty sleepy town with the exception of a few groups of rowdy teenagers who sneak into the park and drink of shoot off fireworks. Whenever anyone does anything everyone in town knows in a very short span of time.

Mercy was caught totally by surprise when the Sheriff office called her to come to the camp site in the nearby state campground to find out that one of her ex-husband’s prized fly fishing guides, Charlie, has been murdered in cold blood and there were no witnesses. His tent door flap was undisturbed. The two shots that ended Charlie’s life came from the back side of the tent which had been lit by his lamp. Naturally, the town is sad to hear this and rapidly gets a till out to collect money for a reward for anyone who knows anything about this unjust killing.

During the course of witness interviews Mercy learns that Charlie has a wife who resides in town a couple of hours away. She talks to the Sheriff who decides she ought to go up to give the untimely news to Charlie’s widow in person. When she does the widow shows no emotion or sadness, but instead a disinterest which strikes Mercy as odd. However, she quickly rules her out as a suspect due to her age and fragility.

The Sheriff closes off the campground and begins his search for potential suspects even though nobody can come up with a reason for Charlie to be murdered. The husband and wife team who oversee the campground during the summer are at a loss for what to do with themselves since their regular routine is disrupted. Are they suspects? Do they have any inkling of who might have done this?

As the search expands there is one man who eludes the Sheriff. He is a writer who later turns himself in to be cleared. He tells the Sheriff that he got a letter from Charlie inviting him to come investigate poaching of trout on the river. Most find this incredible, but Mercy contends that Charlie has complained to her about this issue in the past which helps to lend credence to this claim.

Will they catch the killer? Who knows what? Are there more secrets besides Charlie’s wife? Read it. Enjoy it. I did.