Stillwater

August 31, 2015
Fans of romantic mysteries will appreciate Lenhardt's sentimental debut, the first in a series starring Jack McBride, a former FBI agent. Having left the Bureau under a cloud, Jack has moved to Stillwater, Tex., with his 13-year-old son, Ethan, to become the small town's police chief. On Jack's first day on the job, he must deal with the murder/suicide of a married couple. Or are the killings actually a disguised double murder? Meanwhile, Ethan suffers through his first day at school while pained from not knowing why his mother didn't also relocate to Stillwater. When Jack later flirts with Ellie Martin, the bank manager he meets about his financial arrangements, Ellie is initially alarmed, but then she flirts back, as Jack ponders how soft and silky her hair appears. Ethan's difficulties in making new friends, assorted domestic tensions between Ethan and Jack, and Jack's dogged wooing of Ellie overshadow Jack's crime-solving efforts.

Starred review from November 1, 2015

Seeking to get away from his soon-to-be-ex-wife and his disintegrating career with the FBI, Jack McBride moves to the small east Texas town of Stillwater with his son, Ethan. Unfortunately, on his first day as the new police chief, there is a double homicide at a trailer park; Rosa and Gilberto were hardworking but undocumented laborers who may or may not have uncovered something worth killing for. Then another body is uncovered, buried for more than 50 years under a tree down by the creek. Something is definitely rotten in Stillwater. VERDICT A finalist for the 2014 Whidbey Writers' MFA Alumni Emerging Writers Contest, this debut crime novel, spanning decades of Stillwater's history, features an ingenious plot and a complicated protagonist with inner depths worth plumbing. Readers who miss Donald Harstad will appreciate this well-done police procedural, which is also a good choice for fans of Terry Shames's "Samuel Craddock" mysteries, Lee Martin's "Deb Ralston" series, or Tricia Fields's "Josie Gray" novels.

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