Publication Day Review: Throwing Shadows: A Sheriff Hank Worth Mystery by Claire Booth

 

Throwing Shadows: A Sheriff Hank Worth Mystery by Claire Booth is the latest read in a great series that began with The Branson Beauty. This is a series that must be read in order as events happen, create consequential ripple effects just like in real life, and people change. That is especially true in this case as this read is set just a few weeks after the events of Home Fires. Not only is the community dealing with the aftermath, Sheriff Hank Worth and his family are dealing with the scorched earth aftermath of a devastating family secret that burned through them all.

 

In the here and now, Sheriff Hank Worth is dealing with a surge in catalytic converter thefts across Branson County, Missouri. The devices are getting stolen in large numbers off the cars in the local car lots. It is happening in places that have poor or nonexistent security. Nobody has an idea they have been hit until a car is started for a potential customer and the loud racket makes it clear the theft has happened.

 

At the same time, Chief Deputy Sheila Turley is coping with her slowly healing injuries as best as she can as she faces the upcoming trail of her attacker. The same grit and determination that got her through the attack is getting her through each day, a painful minute at a time, now. The odds of getting a fair trial are considerably stacked against her, but Malcolm Oberholz assures her they can win the case.

 

Then a man in very bad shape stumbles out of the thick woods and everything else, personal, and professional, takes a back seat. He claims to have been lost in the woods the last two or three days. Not only was he not prepared to be wandering around in the woods, he was not prepared to find a body. He did. Now the good Sheriff and others on his team have to figure out where the lost man has been and if there really is a body in those woods so lovely, dark, and deep.

 

After some effort a body is found. It isn’t the first time blood has been shed in those same woods. Those woods have a bloody, and often violent, history that goes back decades and rumors of stolen treasure. There is a reason why the area is known to the natives as the “Murder Rocks.” That history inspired a podcast. That, in turn, brought out a bunch of people with zero wilderness skills to hunt loot from long ago. It also seems to have also brought out at least one killer who is not through yet.

 

Throwing Shadows: A Sheriff Hank Worth Mystery by Claire Booth is another very good read. Complicated as these books always are, it also features a lot of interesting local history for us armchair travelers. The result is another really good read that ends all too soon and leaves the reader wanting more.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3TJOLNi

 

I picked this up through NetGalley by way of the publisher, Severn House, which has me on their preapproved reviewer list. A fact I am very grateful for as the ability to instantly download is a wonderful thing. There was no expectation of a review.

 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2025