When Meg Halloran and her daughter, Katy, visit Meg's old friend, Lauren Cavalier, the anticipated arrival of Lauren's long-lost brother, Bobby, who vanished ten years earlier, leads to murder. By the author of The Cruel Mother.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
A satisfying blend of domestic and wild life, LaPierre's ( Grandmother's House ) latest Meg Halloran mystery finds the schoolteacher on a trip with her teenaged daughter, Katy. After touring a wolf refuge, they visit Lauren Cavalier, Meg's former student, at her Modoc County, Calif., ranch where they find that hostility can flourish in even the most bucolic setting. A tense town meeting on the subject of grazing rights concludes with a fistfight between two brothers, Chuck and Marv Jakel. Lauren drives the badly beaten Chuck to his home, entrusting her two young children and her elderly Aunt Frances to Meg. The next morning, the police arrive to speak with Lauren: Chuck has been murdered. But Lauren has vanished, just as her brother did 10 years before. Meg and Katy dig in, caring for the kids as well as irascible Frances, and Meg chats up the locals, hoping to sniff out some information. Lauren's husband, a renowned nature photographer, breezes in from his latest field work and comes under official scrutiny. As Meg continues to probe (hoping she can track down Lauren and escape from this "vacation"), she uncovers enough local and family feuding to keep her and the reader guessing until the finale.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Teacher Meg Halloran (Grandmother's House, 1991, etc.) is indulging 14-year-old daughter Katy's passion for wolves with a trip to a Washington State preserve, to be followed by a visit to Meg's longtime friend in northern California--Lauren Macrae. Lauren's husband is Sam Cavalier, a naturalist-photographer whose work with wolves makes him one of Katy's idols. All goes well until the two reach the Macrae ranch, where Meg senses a flow of tension under Lauren's warm welcome to the house she shares with her two small children and her frail, crotchety Aunt Frances. Sam is in Alaska on one of his months-long expeditions. Meanwhile, it's the tenth anniversary of the disappearance of Lauren's no-good younger brother Bobby--adored by Aunt Frances, feared by others. Bobby spent a lot of time at the neighboring Jakel ranch, where sons Chuck and just-out-of-jail Marv are at odds. They come to blows after a town meeting attended by Lauren, who insists on driving a badly beaten Chuck home. The next morning, Chuck is found shot to death and Lauren has vanished. While an inept sheriff seeks Lauren, Sam comes back to reveal feet of clay, and there's another killing- -but Meg finally cues in to the murderer. A good plot is almost buried under domestic trivia, wolf lore, Katy's social life, and other ramblings--but is partly salvaged by an interesting rural setting, some oddball characters, and a breezy narrative style. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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