In Sugar Land, Texas, just outside of Houston, folks
are not supposed to die. Not in this world of perfect master planned communities of perfect
lawns, perfect homes, and powerful Home Owners Associations. Everything in
sight is to be aesthetically pleasing at all times. Dead bodies are certainly not
supposed to be laying out in plain view.
But, that is exactly what Graham Garcia did messing
up the ambiance one Monday morning. He was murdered and his body was left where
it fell on the golf course near the tunnel under Alcorn Oaks Boulevard. Unfortunately,
on her way to school and away from teen drivers on nearby streets, thirteen-year-old
Jessica Min found him. It would have been golfers on any other morning and she would
have been spared the sight. Instead, she found him as the golf course was closed
for grass maintenance. Having seen more than a few crime shows Jessica knew not
to touch the body. Instead, as quick as she could, she went back home and told
her mother.
The first Walker “Bear” Wells knew about the death
was when Detective James Wanderley walked into his office like he owned the
place, asked a lot of questions that were about everything else, and then finally
got down to it. Back in the day “Bear” played football for The University of
Texas as a starting right guard. These
days, he writes theology books, leads a congregation, and tries to take care of
the people of his church. While Graham Garcia was not a member of the
congregation, the rest of the family was.
A little over 48 hours earlier Bear had a meeting
with Graham Garcia. While Detective Garcia wants to play 20 questions, Bear’s
focus is on the family and their suffering. In his mind that makes precedence
over everything else. He ditches the detective, picks up his wife, and heads
over to see what comfort he can bring in their time of need. His attempt to help them will lead to many
questions and his active involvement in this complicated mystery from author Stephanie
Jaye Evans.
Faithful Unto Death: A Sugar Land Mystery is a complex and extremely enjoyable debut novel. Along with observations about the wealthy master planned communities, there are plenty of observations about the role of faith regardless of religion, parenting, family, and other topics. These observations are asides and an integral part of the characters in such a way that they do not detract at all from the mystery.
A mystery that has plenty of plot twists and turns
with no artificial inducements as the reader is taken for quite a ride. This is
a book that starts slowly, builds steadily, and leads readers to quite an
ending. In short, Faithful Unto Death: A Sugar Land
Mystery is an intense riveting read that skillfully works on every
level and does not preach to readers. Simply put, this is a very good book and
well worth your time.
The next book in this series SAFE FROM HARM is scheduled
to be released on March 5, 2013. So far it is not listed in my local library
system, but, hopefully that will change.
Faithful
Unto Death: A Sugar Land Mystery
Stephanie
Jaye Evans
Berkley
Prime Crime
2012
ISBN#
978-0-425-24773-0
Paperback
344
Pages
$15.00
Material
supplied by the good folks of the Plano, Texas Public Library System.
Kevin
R. Tipple ©2013
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete