Customer Reviews

Murder by the Marfa Lights (The Ariadne French Mysteries)

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I loved the descriptions of Marfa, it's lights and surroundings as well as the chili cook-off. I've always been curious about the Marfa lights and have wanted to visit that part of Texas. The characters were a motley bunch which made them interesting if not always believable. Learned a bit about spiders and tropical fish as well. Perhaps a few too many red herrings in the mix and not a very satisfying resolution to the McGuffin. Still an enjoyable read.

Once in a while I stumble upon a book so good I wonder where the author has been all my life. Such a book is MURDER BY THE MARFA LIGHTS, an amateur sleuth mystery that's funny and fascinating, with a sense of place that's almost overwhelming.

The setting: Marfa, a quirky little town in West Texas with a couple of claims to fame. The movie "Giant" was filmed in Marfa, and Marfa is bedeviled and bedazzled by unexplained ghost lights that have tantalized locals and tourists since Civil War Days.

The story: Dallas resident Ariadne (Ari) gets a phone call saying her absent lover, Aaron, has died in Marfa and left her his estate, which will amount to a substantial amount of money. Despite warnings from her sister Zoe, who is the most faithful sidekick since Tonto, Ari heads for Marfa.

She learns that the Aaron who ran up charges on her credit cards has been living high on the hog. His lifestyle and his death don't jibe with the Aaron she knew. Nobody's talking, at least not at first, although townspeople drop a hint here, a comment there. Ari keeps digging away, making friends and enemies, until she finds out what Aaron was up to and what his estate really means.

It's not a pretty picture. As she discovers, "To gain the material wealth, you have to lose an awful lot."

I wouldn't call this a classic mystery novel, but I found it enormously entertaining. It's a colorful (if fictional) account of life in Marfa. The author takes us through a chili cookout, a close encounter with the ghost lights, and a tornado. We meet a snake handler, a character who collects poisonous spiders, an Apache lawyer who listens to Navajo prayers on his car radio, and a musician who keeps a pet wolf and smuggles illegal aliens.

The book's three main men are a thief, a slimeball and an embezzler. They are also good-looking computer whizzes and con artists. Ari is attracted to all of them.

Ari herself is a mass of contradictions. She blames herself for the shortcomings of others, always thinking she probably deserved their betrayals. If her self-esteem were any lower it would be non-existent. Yet she's hip and funny and a walking encyclopedia of pop culture. In the end she takes drastic action to save herself from a murderer who wants Aaron's money-making scheme for himself.

Sisters Ari and Zoe kept me laughing and I liked them -- a lot. I hope to meet them again in a sequel.

I've lived in Marfa before, so thought it would be interesting to read a mystery set there. It was a good plot, and kind of fun to see things from an outsider's prospective. I wish some more "locals" would have been included in the cast of characters since there are many colorful personalities among the Marfa natives.

Murder by the Marfa Lights by Denise Weeks Kindle 3.99
PDF sent to me by the author
Genre: Amateur sleuth

Ariadne French (Ari for short) gets a call from Marfa, Texas, with good news and bad news. She has been named a beneficiary in a will, but the deceased is her missing boyfriend. The boyfriend, who had disappeared months before with her credit cards, RV, and her heart, has upped an dropped dead. This is the first time she's heard of him since he took a powder.

Author Weeks weaves a quirky little story that at times is a little too convoluted for my tastes, but I enjoyed the Marfa eccentric types Ari meets while sleuthing both whodunnit and howdunnit. The police are not exactly forthcoming, and a local preacher (who is also the executor for the will) seems a lit-tle too interested in both Ari and her inheritance.

Murder by the Marfa Lights is a fun read if you can get past a few too many weird characters, and a plot that seems to chase the famous Marfa lights all over the horizon. Also, I found the sister, Zoe, a far more engaging character than Ari, but then I like my protagonists tough.

Jinx Schwartz. Author of the Hetta Coffey mystery series