Widow's Might

June 18, 2012
The relationship between limestone miner Liv Bergen and FBI agent Streeter Pierce, explored in In the Belly of Jonah and Lot’s Return to Sodom, undergoes significant changes in Brannan’s overly complex third contemporary mystery set in South Dakota’s Black Hills. Liv gets some unofficial on-the-job training while boyfriend Streeter and fellow FBI agents Stewart Blysdorf, Jack Linwood, and Jenna Tate investigate a series of killings known as the Crooked Man case. The murder of Ernif Hanson bears all the marks of the earlier killings, but why is someone apparently trying to kill Hanson’s terminally ill widow? A combination of techniques (forensics, archives, and a bloodhound’s trailing skills) leads to a strange series of connections with General Custer’s 1874 Black Hills expedition and a conservation group, Nature’s Way. Missed, mixed, and misinterpreted romantic signals among Liv, Streeter, Jenna, and Jack provide a sexual frisson as the case progresses to an unlikely ending.

August 1, 2012
Gutsy investigator Liv Bergen is still battered and bruised from her last case when she becomes involved in the search for a serial killer known as the Crooked Man. This particular murderer kills widowers, leaving their broken, crooked bodies outdoors for someone to find. To add to Liv's problems, her sister, Elizabeth, has taken an elderly woman, Helma Hanson, out of the hospital without permission and hidden her because someone is trying to kill her. Helma's husband was the latest victim of the Crooked Man, and until she finally succumbs, Helma represents a dangerous loose end. Brannan also gives Liv a love triangle to contend with. FBI agent Streeter Pierce is falling for her, but she might like agent Jack Linwood better. This is the third book in Brannan's exciting Liv Bergen mystery series (In the Belly of Jonah, 2010; Lot's Return to Sodom, 2011), in which the Black Hills of South Dakota are home to life, death, danger, and love. Watch for number four, Noah's Rainy Day.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)