See Also Murder

Starred review from March 2, 2015
Set in 1964, this terrific first in a projected series opener from Sweazy (The Devil’s Bones) introduces Marjorie Trumaine, a farm wife and book indexer in Dickinson, N.Dak. Indexing keeps Marjorie’s life afloat. A voracious reader and list maker, she also provides care for her beloved husband, Hank, after a hunting accident left him blind and paralyzed. Noting that “Mother and Father were stiff-upper-lip kind of people,” she shoulders her burdens and struggles to suppress her occasional lustful thoughts about a local deputy. She’s horrified when Sheriff Hilo Jenkins tells her that someone has slit the throats of her neighbors Erik and Lida Knudsen, and she’s not happy when Hilo asks her to research a strange copper amulet found in Erik’s dead hand. As more people die, Marjorie becomes increasingly convinced she’ll never feel safe again. The characters are superbly drawn, and the prairie—its flatness, winds, and critters—is an evocative character in its own right. Sweazy is also an author of western fiction and has won the WWA Spur Award for best short fiction. Agent: Cherry Weiner, Cherry Weiner
Literary Agency.

January 30, 2017
Sweazy’s novel, the first in a series set in rural North Dakota circa 1964, is narrated by its protagonist, Marjorie Trumaine: a smart, remarkably adaptive woman who, since her husband Hank suffered a hunting accident that left him blind and paralyzed, has been caring for him and keeping the family farm in operation by working as a professional book indexer. When an unknown killer begins cutting the throats of her neighbors, Marjorie’s penchant for research leads Sheriff Hilo Jenkins to seek her help in identifying his only clue—an amulet clutched in the hand of one of the victims. Though this rendition features a full cast, voice actress Nanette Savard handles the lion’s share of the work, portraying Marjorie as a determined woman with a subdued Fargo-esque accent. The other performers handle the rest of the well-drawn citizens of Dickinson with similar, equally effective accents, particularly Chris Geneback as the weary, understandably melancholy Hank and James Konicek as the seemingly dependable, deep-voiced Sheriff Hilo. The production includes mood music and sound effects that, in creating wind and rain on the plains, sometimes overpower the dialogue in this dark, well-crafted whodunit. A Seventh Street paperback.

March 1, 2015
A North Dakota farm wife-turned-indexer who's cared for her husband ever since an accident left him unable to take care himself takes on still another job-amateur sleuth-when someone begins cutting her neighbors' throats.It's 1964. Ever since a freak accident with his shotgun left Hank Trumaine blind and disabled, he's been wholly dependent on his wife, Marjorie, who ekes out some income by indexing books for far-off H.P. Howard and Sons, and their friends and neighbors for his care. Things take an abrupt turn for the worse when Dickinson Sheriff Hilo Jenkins tells Marjorie that her neighbors Erik and Lida Knudsen have had their throats slit, leaving their college-age sons, Peter and Jaeger, suddenly orphaned. The day after Jenkins asks Marjorie to help him learn more about a mysterious amulet clutched in Erik Knudsen's dead hand brings an even bigger shock: the sheriff's wife, Ardith Jenkins, disappears from Hank's side, where she'd been helping Marjorie, and turns up behind the Trumaine barn with her own throat cut. Nor will she be the last casualty. Sweazy (The Devil's Bones, 2012, etc.) establishes a quiet atmosphere that's somehow never broken by the horrific series of murders. There's not much of a small-town feel to the proceedings, though the tale is sensitive to the rhythms of the Trumaine farm. Nor is there any detection to speak of: after carefully researching the amulet's significance, Marjorie leaps to a conclusion-"It's just a gut feeling," she says-and identifies the wrong suspect. A distinctive bonus, however, is that Marjorie, an indexer to the tips of her fingers, includes a draft index to her own first case. That's got to be unique in the annals of the genre.

April 1, 2015

In the first installment of a new series from Sweazy (The Devil's Bones), Marjorie Trumaine is just trying to make ends meet as the primary breadwinner in rural North Dakota in 1964. She works as a freelance book indexer after an accident left her husband, Hank, severely disabled. Marjorie is shocked when the local sheriff tells her that their neighbors were found with their throats slit. As the bodies pile up, Marjorie decides to try her hand at sleuthing and unmask the killer--or be killed herself.

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