Mad Cow Nightmare

Ruth Willmarth #5

by Nancy Means Wright

Ruth Willmarth wakes one hot July night to a cacophony of drums, high-pitched warbling, and the bellowing of cows. Her lover, Colm, has invited his distant cousin, Darren, to fill in as herdsman on her Vermont farm, and Darren has brought along his extended family of volatile Irish Travellers. Among the crowd are Darren's estranged brother, Ritchie, and his beautiful but exhausted girlfriend, Nola, who has recently undergone brain surgery in a Toronto hospital. Now the hospital is seeking recent patients who might be infected with the human form of the fatal Mad Cow.

Almost as soon as they arrive, Ritchie is found in the local swamp, strangled with the reins of a neighbor's "darling" Morgan mare, and Nola disappears, prompting a widespread search for a "plague-carrying female killer."

The troubles pile up on Ruth's barn step when calves on the New York farm where Darren, Ritchie, and Nola worked contract Mad Cow. The Feds want to slaughter the two calves Ruth bought from that farmer and quarantine, without proof, her whole beloved herd.

Harassed by reporters, the Feds, and paranoid townsfolk, Ruth is trying to hold herself together. But when her kooky sister-in-law arrives with a van load of women to reenact an ancient Black Plague dance and demand that the "gypsies" leave, she breaks down. It takes a fire in the Travellers' trailer to bring her out of her funk. Desperate to find Nola and ascertain her state of health, Ruth springs into action.

Told in a variety of offbeat voices, and with a vibrant sense of place, Mad Cow Nightmare is the sometimes humorous, sometimes heartbreaking, but always suspenseful story of a fiercely independent woman who throws herself against hate and superstition in order to save farm, family, and a dying way of life.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery

272 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2005

About the author

I'm the author of 18 books of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, including 5 mystery novels from St. Martin's Press, 2 historical novels: Midnight Fires: a Mystery with Mary Wollstonecraft ('10)and the Nightmare ('11)from Perseverance Press.For those who don't know her, Wollstonecraft is the brilliant but rebellious and conflicted 18th century author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman,and mother of Mary Shelley (think Frankenstein).
I've also published 2 mysteries for kids. The Pea Soup Poisonings, based on my own 4 kids'childhood shenanigans, won the '06 Agatha Award for Best Children's/YA Novel,and The Great Circus Train Robbery was a finalist. My latest mystery is Broken Strings, a spin-off from my St. Martin's Press novels with a puppeteer sleuth, and a novel, Walking up into the Wild for "tweens" (ages 10-14, set in 18th-century Vermont just before the end of the American Revolution. It's both suspenseful and romantic and based on family history. Not a mystery.
I've published poems and short fiction for Redbook, Seventeen, American Literary Review,Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, and many literary journals and anthologies (Beacon Press, Ashland Poetry Press, Univ of Illinois Press, et al.).
A longtime actress & director,I'm a former Bread Loaf Scholar and Scholar for the Vermont Humanities Council. I live with my spouse and 2 Maine Coon cats in bucolic Middlebury, Vermont. "Becoming Mary Wollstonecraft" Facebook page.

Reviews

[Barbara ★ · Rating 3 out of 5]

All hell breaks loose when Colm's relatives squat on Ruth's farm and one of the women disappears. The woman, Nola, has just left a Canadian hospital where an outbreak of human mad cow disease was discovered. Now Nola is on the lam and Ruth's cows are in danger from the feds. It sounds like it should be an interesting and adventuresome book but it is not. It is rather boring and other than people running around panicking, nothing really happens. It's mayhem and gross stupidity that could have been fun but wasn't.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book at a used book sale. Initially I felt as though some of the character references were a bit vague or incomplete only to realize that this was the fifth book in which this lead character appears. In retrospect, I might read the preceding books prior to reading this one as I suspect they would fill in the missing pieces that I found myself looking for but, overall the story and characters in this book were enjoyable.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the Ruth Willmarth mysteries written by Nancy Means Wright.
I like the rural folksiness and plots. I was kept guessing in this book. I thought I had it figured out, but got a little surprise at the end.
Thanks Nancy for such a good book.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the travails of a band of Irish travelers and the New England farm families they imperil interesting reading. The ending left something to be desired.

[Alexis]

I read this mostly for the mad cow info. Mysteries are not my genre, so I feel disinclined to comment. Enjoyed the mad cap characters.