Customer Reviews

Hornswoggled (Alafair Tucker Mysteries)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a truly wonderful book! In fact, it is one of the best books I've read so far this year, and I read a lot of books. Like the first Alafair Tucker mystery, THE OLD BUZZARD HAD IT COMING, HORNSWOGGLED is set in the small town of Boynton, Oklahoma, a few years after Oklahoma achieved statehood in 1907. This book has all the essential ingredients that every good novel should have: well developed characters, a great setting, and a gripping plot. It also has a lot of heart. Reading it was like visiting family that you love and have missed. And while the ending isn't one that a loving parent like Alafair would have wanted for her daughter Alice, it is certainly realistic given Alice's independence. I'm glad the author didn't sugarcoat it.

In 1913 Boynton, Oklahoma mother of eleven Alafair Tucker finds she is very concerned about Alice, one of her adult children. Alice wants barber widower Walter Kelley, a handsome man whom the woman adore. Alafair mistrusts the man because she believes he would not remain faithful to one woman as he seems to enjoy the female adulation.

However Alice refuses to change her mind insisting that the love of a good woman, her, will keep Walter from straying. To keep her mind off of Alice's obsession, Alafair investigates the cold case homicide of Walter's wife, Louise. Her body was found floating in a creek near the Tucker farm eight months ago.

HORNSWOGGLED is a fabulous early twentieth century Oklahoma historical amateur sleuth story that grips the audience from the start with its insight into time and place. The dialect used by the Tucker brood and their neighbors augments the strength of the plot by adding depth to the cast and the feel for the era. The whodunit investigation is fun, but the tale is more a period piece than a mystery as the investigation augments the period and locale. Fans will appreciate going down home to an Oklahoma less than a decade as a state escorted by delightful tour guide Alafair Tucker.

Harriet Klausner

for giving us this great book. From the moment you open to the first page it feels like walking through the door of Alafair Tucker's home, (main character), and into her life. The way this book is written makes you feel like part of the family. This book is so well crafted, descriptions seamlessly a part of the story. I love being absorbed into a tale and Donis Casey has a wonderful way of bringing the readers imagination to every page, allowing your senses to bring this mystery to life. I am in awe of someone who has this ability. I sure hope Ms. Casey is busy working on another book. This is an author I hope is around for a long, long time.

The year was 1913. The place, an Oklahoma farming community. Fifteen-year-old George Washington Tucker, known as Gee Dub, was trying to fight off the gnats and mosquitoes as he fishes along the overgrown banks of Cane Creek.

Gee Dub usually loved fishing, but between the bugs, the hot July weather, and having to keep an eye out for his eleven-year-old brother, Charlie, it wasn't as pleasant as he'd like it to be. To make matters worse, Charlie the boy and his ever present companion, Charlie-dog insisted on swimming in the creek. With all the noise and splashing, Gee Dub knew the fish he hoped to eat for dinner were miles down the creek by then.

Charlie was oblivious to his brother's irritation and was enjoying using a low hung limb as a rope to jump from. Gee Dub pulled on his line, ready to give up when he heard a loud snap followed by a splash. He looked in Charlie's direction, but Charlie was no where to be seen. The big yellow dog was barking and jumping about on the bank, but all Gee Dub could see in the water was the cottonwood branch floating away from him.

Gee Dub ran to the spot and jumped into the creek. Try as he might he couldn't locate Charlie. He called frantically and heard Charlie call back to him from under the cottonwood roots tangled along the bank. Gee Dub was so relieved he forgot to be angry, but his relief was short lived when Charlie gasped, "Gee Dub, there's somebody dead down there."

At first Gee Dub didn't believe Charlie, but once the boy climbed out of the water he became adamant that there was a woman tangled among the cottonwood roots. Gee Dub agreed to take a look. He dove into the creek, under the cottonwood roots. The water was so murky he couldn't see anything so he moved his outstretched arms back and forth, entangling his fingers in what felt like hair. When he brought it close enough to his face to see that it was hair, he hoped it might be the tail of a mule that had fallen into the creek and drowned. He stretched his arm out along the hair and felt the head and then a face.

Gee Dub broke the surface and shouted for Charlie to go for help. When Shaw Tucker and the sheriff pulled the woman from the creek they discovershe is the barber's wife, Louise Kelley. And the knife sticking out of her chest is proof she didn't drown.

Alafair is not happy at all when later, her daughter Alice becomes enamored of the newly widowed Walter Kelley. He was cleared of his wife's murder, but something doesn't sit right with Alafair. When her children are involved, Alafair Tucker leaves no stone unturned.

Another delightful murder mystery by Donis CaseyHornswoggled

Alice Tucker has decided that Walter Kelley is the man for her. He's older and therefore wiser, he's already got money, and he's very attractive. Alice, being 18 and knowing it all, is convinced that he'll never stray from her, even though he has a history of stepping out on his wife Louise. Louise is no threat to Alice, because one of her brothers found Louise down in the creek with a bone-handled knife still stuck in her chest. Walter didn't kill Louise; he was very conveniently out of town when Louise was killed.

Alice's mother Alafair is less than excited to hear about all of this, particularly the part about Alice and Walter sneaking around behind the family's back to see each other. Alafair asks for a month of separation; if they really love each other, the month won't kill it and if they don't, well better to find out now. And that gives Alafair a month to find out all the dirt about Walter that she can, including whether or not he hired someone to kill Louise.

What Alafair finds out doesn't make her very happy. Louise Kelley was a confused woman; one minute a devout Christian, the next minute stepping out on Walter and going to bars and the like. There are plenty of people who like Walter and hold Louise responsible for the troubles in the marriage. There are just about the same number who fault Walter, but nobody thinks he killed Louise. What's Alafair to do?

HORNSWOGGLED is decidedly on the cozy end of the spectrum, and a good historical mystery. None of the details of daily life seem unreal or exaggerated; certainly the day-to-day routine of a farmwoman with ten children still at home is conveyed with scary reality. Alafair is a god-fearing woman, and a tad uncomfortable with the feelings she gets from people who have "passed", although they do help her figure out what has happened. The fact that Louise got around almost as much after her death as she did before strains the bounds of credulity, but not enough to put the book down. HORNSWOGGLED is the second in the Alafair Tucker series; if the first is as enjoyable, it would be worth tracking down.