Fatal Scores

January 18, 2021
Decades-old environmental sins and their modern legacy drive de Castrique’s solid eighth mystery set in Asheville, N.C. (after 2019’s Murder in Rat Alley). During opening day at the local baseball stadium, PI Sam Blackman and Nakayla Robertson, his no-nonsense partner in love and detective work, hear an argument between Ken Stokes, a volunteer environmental activist, and Luke Kirkgate, son of the CEO of a paper mill, whose toxic runoff in the 1950s fouled a nearby river and caused cancer deaths. Stokes calls for public recognition of real-life environmentalist Wilma Dykeman in the 2020 Asheville Luminaries Festival, a move Kirkgate opposes. When Stokes is found dead near a water-sample collection site, it’s unclear whether it’s an accident or a murder. The subsequent killing of prime suspect Kirkgate leads Sam and Nakayla into investigating infidelity, embezzlement, fraudulent sports memorabilia, and even musical rivalries. The frequent, consumer-oriented regional references can make the narrative sound like a tourist brochure at times, but the complex plot builds to a satisfying conclusion. Series fans will be pleased.

January 15, 2021
Could music be the key to the mystery of a young activist's murder? At the season opener for the Asheville Tourists baseball team, private investigator Sam Blackman and attorney Hewitt Donaldson witness a bitter confrontation between contractor Ken Stokes and Luke Kirkpatrick of the Kirkgate Paper company. Ken accuses Luke of excluding Wilma Dykeman, beloved local author and conservationist, from the upcoming Asheville Luminaries Festival, which is sponsored by Kirkgate Paper--the same company Wilma accused of polluting the Pigeon River. A few days later, Nakayla Robertson, Sam's partner in life and work, gets a worried phone call from Ken's pregnant wife, Lynne; Ken hasn't come home, and Lynne thinks he might have been collecting water samples for the River Watchers, for whom he monitors toxin levels. Sam and Nakayla head down to the river to look for Ken only to find his dead body. Soon after Sam tells Lynne he'll investigate Ken's death, he gets a visit from Ted Kirkpatrick, Luke's father, who wants Sam to probe the crime in order to clear the Kirkpatrick family of suspicion. Paul Clarkson, a Moog synthesizer expert and fellow River Watcher, provides info about both pollution and the Luminaries Festival, whose headliner, temperamental musician William Ormandy, happens to be Ted's alibi. Through seven previous cases, the author has developed an easy rapport between recurring characters. Though his front-loading of suspects and incidents causes the story to sag a bit in the middle, a death threat and a suspicious package complicate the case smartly. An amiable cozy that should delight the Asheville Visitors Bureau.

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