Cyndi J. (cyndij) reviewed on 1/29/2018 + 1031 more book reviews

I always like a Western-based mystery and I saw some blurbs for this book that said "female Longmire", and I thought it sounded interesting. It is a fun read but IMO this first in the series is shaded a tad more towards Donna Andrews than Craig Johnson. There's a really large cast of relatives and other characters, some of them pretty quirky, so large I was wishing for a character list and family tree. Kate's troubles are only starting when she gets the call that her husband has been shot; the author really piles it on. Kate, although spending most of the book mentally wailing "What I am gonna do?", just puts her head down and keeps going. I did like her occasional indecisiveness - who among us knows the right action immediately? The family relationships were nice even if I had trouble keeping track. Good sense of place too. I felt there were a few plot points that didn't get answered, but I really enjoyed the ending.

I probably won't go on with the series, but it's purely a matter of personal taste. I couldn't really tell what "tone" I should be reading in...is it light-hearted? Or serious? On the one hand, there's Kate's hippy mother making nude snow angels, and on the other there's a slaughtered newborn calf on her driveway as a warning.

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