Review: Up in Smoke

Susan Wren is Chief of Police in Hampstead, Kansas. Governor Jack Garrett is running for President. He and his entourage have come back to Hampstead to kick off his campaign with a homecoming rally.

Susan’s cousin Sean Donovan is in town as he is a reporter covering Garrett’s campaign.

Casilda Storm (Cass) has returned to Hampstead to Aunt Jean’s house. She finds a large dog in the middle of the road in a rain storm. She takes it in. Luke and Laura (her husband and daughter) were killed by a drunk driver. She is planning suicide. Jack is an old friend. He has Bernie Quaid enlist her help with the campaign.

Wakely Fromm is Jack’s childhood friend. He was paralyzed in a fire jumping incident many years ago. Jack takes care of him and has him travel with him. Jack’s wife Molly is not too pleased with this situation.

A woman calls 911 from the trunk of a car but no one can track down where she is located. She is later found murdered. Her niece Arlene Harlow (Moonbeam Melody as she prefers to be called) runs away. The killer comes looking for something and ends up attacking Moonbeam. Officer Luke Demarco cares for her and becomes her friend. This relationship is believable in a small-town atmosphere. It lets us get to know Demarco a little better.

Then Wakely Fromm is found murdered. Susan has her work cut out for her to get to the truth and find the killer. I find these books a little hard to get into because there are so many different threads to the story, but once I’m in, I’m hooked! She has created fantastic characters for this story. Plus I really like Chief Susan. She has had hardship – she lost her husband of four weeks! She doesn’t know if she wants to stay in Hampstead or return to San Francisco. The author has truly captured this struggle.

The various characters related to the governor are very well constructed and their interactions are so well written that I forgot they weren’t real.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Dawn Dowdle

Book Review: Up in Smoke