Dead in Hog Heaven (Thea Barlow Series) [Hardcover]

Carol Caverly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2000 | Series: Thea Barlow Series

Thea Barlow is a writer for a western magazine in Chicago who quits her job and moves to Wyoming to try her hand at free-lance writing and romance. She decides to do an article on the old Four Mile Hog ranch in Hog Heaven, Wyoming, a retirement community in the 1850-92s for over-the-hill saloon girls.

What Thea finds is a community trying desperately to stay alive. Before long, she is caught up in a storm of violence, greed and deceit that leaves her accused of murder and fighting for her very life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"... fast-moving, witty and filled with some of the most interesting characters you will ever meet in a book." -- Kathy Thomason, The Butler County Post

"Dead in Hog Heaven is fast-moving, witty and filled with some of the most interesting characters you will ever meet in a book." -- Kathy Thomason, The Butler County Post

"Lots of fun with western re-enactors, new agers, Sedona wannabes, and wandering monks." -- Mysterious Women, Summer/Fall 2000

About the Author

Carol Caverly lived in Wyoming for 30 years. She has recently moved to Colorado Springs, CO. Other books in the Thea Barlow Mystery series are All the Old Lions, and Frogskin and Muttonfat.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Warp Graphics (December 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1885173830
• ISBN-13: 978-1885173836
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,639,884 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Carol Caverly is the author of the Thea Barlow Wyoming mystery series, All the Old Lions, Frogskin and Muttonfat, and Dead in Hog Heaven. Her books were local best sellers and selections of the Detective Book Club. A recent short story is included in the anthology, Homicide Host Presents.
Carol is a founding member and past president of Wyoming Writers, as well as founding and current member of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. She was elected chapter president of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, serving on the national board, and is a long-standing member of the MWA, Sisters in Crime, Pikes Peak Writers, and National League of American Pen Women. For many years she has served as a judge for PPW and RMFW writing contests, presented a wide variety of programs at local and national writing conferences and been a member of the editorial boards for two short story anthologies.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A delightful down home mystery, January 20, 2001

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dead in Hog Heaven (Thea Barlow Series) (Hardcover)

Thea Bartow has a lot of guts. Twice she has traveled to Wyoming only to become embroiled in homicide investigations on both occasions. She quits her job as editor to Chicago-based Western True Adventure magazine to relocate in Garnet Pass earning an income writing free lance articles about the West. Thea rents a place sight unseen and tests the waters involving a permanent relationship with her significant other Max.

At a squabbling town meeting, a reenactor's gun goes off and the woman standing next to our intrepid heroine is dead. In the following hours, Thea meets Opal, the owner of Hog Heaven, the site of the old Four Mile Hog Ranch and prostitute joint. She obtains an invitation, expecting to write an article about the place. Instead, she finds Opal dead. When Thea hears footsteps, she yanks the knife out of Opal's corpse, but the person entering the room is the victim's son-in-law, who thinks Thea is a killer. The whole town agrees and Max has his work cut out for him, trying with Thea to find the real killer.

Carol Caverly has written an intricately structured mystery that is nearly impossible to figure out even with the clues lying right out in the open. The problem for the reader is to determine which clues truly matter in solving the case and which are clever red herrings to confuse the case. The relationship between Max and Thea turns into a tension reliever yet adds dimension to this regional mystery. The third installment in the Bartow amateur sleuth tales, DEAD IN HOG HEAVEN, will leave the audience alive in reading heaven.

Harriet Klausner