Hornswoggled: 2 (Alafair Tucker Mysteries, 2) - Softcover

Casey, Donis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1590584716 ISBN 13: 9781590584712

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press, 2012

Synopsis

Praise for Donis Casey's novels "Dialogue rich with Midwestern speech patterns and a consistent, unobtrusive narrative voice lift this smalltown historical." -Publishers Weekly of Hornswoggled "Donis Casey's voice flows like tea syrup, transporting you effortlessly to the Oklahoma frontier....A welcome invite to your great-grandmother's front porch swing." -Julia Spencer-Fleming Edgar finalist and author of All Mortal Flesh It's spring 1913, and love is in bloom for Alice Tucker. Walter Kelley is handsome, popular, and wealthy. But Alice's mother, Alafair, sees that Walter has a weakness for the ladies-and they for him. Only a few months earlier, Walter's late wife Louise had been stabbed in the heart and her body disposed of in Cane Creek. The murderer was never caught. The sheriff cleared Walter of the deed-he had an alibi-but Alafair is not so sure that he wasn't involved in some way. Something literally doesn't smell right. With the help of her feisty mother-in-law, Sally McBride, Alafair sets out to prove to the headstrong Alice that Walter is not the paragon she thinks he is. Alafair soon uncovers such a tangle of lies, misdirection, and deceit that she begins to think that the whole town has been downright hornswoggled! Third generation Oklahoman Donis Casey introduced Alafair Tucker and her family in her first novel, The Old Buzzard Had It Coming, which was nominated for the Benjamin Franklin Award, the Oklahoma Book Award, and was a finalist for the 2007 Oklahoma Centennial Literary Award. www.doniscasey.com

About this title

Review

Set in the prairie town of Boynton, Okla., in the spring of 1913, Casey's nostalgic, folksy second novel to feature Alafair Tucker (after 2005's The Old Buzzard Had It Coming) finds the full-time mother of 11 and part-time sleuth worried about one of her grown daughters, Alice. Alice is sweet on barber Walter Kelley, an attractive widower whom the determined and discerning Alafair mistrusts; Walter is just too popular with the ladies. Since Alice is set on having Walter, Alafair seeks distraction by investigating the unsolved murder of Louise Kelley, Walter's late wife, whose stabbed body surfaced in a creek bordering the Tucker farm eight months earlier. Dialogue rich with Midwestern speech patterns and a consistent, unobtrusive narrative voice lift this smalltown historical, which should particularly appeal to Margaret Maron fans. An appendix of down-home recipes is a bonus. --Publishers Weekly

Adult/High SchoolThe author evokes Oklahoma of almost a hundred years ago and peoples it with wonderfully diverse characters with intertwined relationships. Alafair Gunn Tucker, mother of 10 and amateur sleuth, is concerned that one of her daughters is falling for a recently widowed barber who may have killed his wife. Partly in an effort to protect Alice, Alafair pursues the clues left behind by the killer (or victim), and the mystery she unravels seems to tie half of the town to the murder. There are moments of farce and elements of danger. Readers can almost smell the scent of death on the bloodstained rug and taste the homemade butter and potato patties (recipes included). The book provides an entertaining way for teens to appreciate the richness of life in this time and place. The idioms and local color are delightful, and the characters are real enough for readers to fear for their safety.--School Library Journal

About the Author

Donis Casey is the author of ten Alafair Tucker Mysteries: The Old Buzzard Had It Coming, Hornswoggled, The Drop Edge of Yonder, The Sky Took Him, Crying Blood, The Wrong Hill to Die On, Hell With the Lid Blown Off, All Men Fear Me, The Return of the Raven Mocker, and Forty Dead Men. This award-winning series, featuring the sleuthing mother of ten children, is set in Oklahoma during the booming 1910s. Donis has twice won the Arizona Book Award for her series, and been a finalist for the Willa Award and a seven-time finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award. Her first novel, The Old Buzzard Had It Coming, was named an Oklahoma Centennial Book in 2008. Donis is a former teacher, academic librarian, and entrepreneur. She lives in Tempe, Arizona.

About this edition

• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1590584716
• ISBN 13: 9781590584712
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240