Eleven Little Piggies

February 4, 2013
In Gunn’s solid ninth Jake Hines mystery (after 2010’s The Ten Mile Trials), Det. Jake Hines and his Rutherford, Minn., police team find themselves busier than ever, despite the approaching Thanksgiving holiday, after a murdered man turns out to be none other than Owen Kester, Minnesotan farming royalty. Jake must juggle his personal life with the family feud that appears to be brewing over at the Kesters’ farm. While the Kesters aren’t entirely forthcoming to the police, Jake tries to ingratiate himself and learn more about the farm dispute. In opposition to some of his brothers, Owen objected to selling the farm to sand miners, even though the lucrative sale would have earned the family millions. To make matters worse, Owen’s death marks the beginning of more violence. Gunn’s fast-paced, workmanlike plot will please fans of her earlier works, and Jake’s wry insights bring warmth to the frigid, if generic, Minnesota setting. Agent: Jane Chelius, Jane Chelius Literary Agency.

February 15, 2013
Murder resolves the Kester brothers' disagreement over whether to continue farming or become millionaires by selling their acreage. Owen, devoted to the land his family began cultivating eons ago, opts to keep the dairy going, the corn growing and his wife's riding school in business. Snobbish Ethan, now a lawyer in town, wants to hold off for the highest bidder. Black sheep Matt, recently returned to the vast holding from a career in rodeo and with a penchant for wooing the ladies, says he'll do whatever Owen wants. Owen is firm: You'll sell this land over my dead body. That's easily arranged by whoever left his carcass with a gun blast to the gut at the edge of the goose-hunting field abutting the property, where Jake Hines, chief of detectives for Rutherford, Minn., happens to be enjoying an afternoon off shooting fowl from a blind. Owen's death is not the only Kester farm mishap, just the most recent. A roof has fallen on an outbuilding; wire fences have been cut, letting the horses get out and run into a truck; and Maynard, a gossipy field hand, winds up dead in Ethan's car. Soon, everyone is quitting, leaving Owen's widow, his aging dad and an old retainer to manage. There'll be a little early Saturday morning trysting, a foiled attempt to waylay Owen's autistic son and--despite all the work put in by Jake and his department--another fatality before the horrible results of sand mining and fracking are exposed. Jake (The Ten-Mile Trials, 2010, etc.) is his usual proficient self, whether passing spoons to his almost 1-year-old son to bang around, helping wife Trudy get Thanksgiving dinner to the table or dealing with his underpaid, overworked staff.

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March 1, 2013

Thanksgiving plans are put on hold when a local farmer dies, perhaps because of a land dispute. This is the ninth case for the Minnesota police detective (after The Ten-Mile Trials). [See Prepub Alert, 10/08/12.]

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2013
Jake Hines, chief of detectives in Rutherford, Minnesota, is just trying to get through his day off: he was roped into going goose hunting, but he'd rather be warm at home. The discovery of a dead body nearby is not the way Jake wants to end his day, especially when it turns out the dead man is a local farmer who had been embroiled in a battle with other members of his family over the potential sale of some of their land. But was he murdered by a member of his own family, or by someone else entirely? Jake is a likable narrator, a guy with a good head on his shoulders and a no-nonsense approach to his job, and Gunn's latest is plenty intricate enough to keep Jake and the reader guessing. Perhaps not as well known as it ought to be, the Jake Hines series has been around since 1997's Triple Play and always delivers a satisfying mystery built around an engaging protagonist. Fans of Steven F. Havill's Bill Gastner novels will want to meet Jake.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)