Dead Madonna

A Loon Lake Mystery #8

by Victoria Houston

Whoever thought life in the Northwoods could be this dangerous?When the body of a lovely young woman is found floating beneath a party pontoon on a popular lake in northern Wisconsin on the same morning that a prominent widow is found bludgeoned in her gracious home, Loon Lake Police Chief Lew Ferris is caught short-handed.This is not a problem for Doc Osborne, whom she deputizes to act as coroner and to assist with the investigation. Fishing aside, there's nothing Osborne likes better than helping Lew--a world-class fly fisherman in her own right--delve into Loon Lake's criminal underworld. They're joined in their efforts to untangle two seemingly unrelated murders by walleye-expert, talented tracker, and teller of really bad jokes, Ray Pradt.A charming resort town on the surface, life in Loon Lake turns murky as bank officials soon discover that both victims' accounts have been looted--along with a dozen others. One grisly development after another further links the two murders even though the victims did not know each other. Wealthy Chicagoans, visiting entrepreneurs, and the young denizens of "Party Cove" complicate the scene.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery

242 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

She is the author of the Loon Lake Mystery Series -- DEAD ANGLER, DEAD CREEK, DEAD WATER, DEAD FRENZY, DEAD HOT MAMA, DEAD JITTERBUG, DEAD BOOGIE, DEAD MADONNA, DEAD HOT SHOT, DEAD RENEGADE. DEAD DECEIVER, DEAD TEASE, DEAD INSIDER, DEAD HUSTLER, DEAD RAPUNZEL, DEAD LOUDMOUTH, DEAD SPIDER, DEAD FIREFLY, DEAD BIG DAWG and WOLF HOLLOW in hardcover, trade paperback and as an eBook from Simon & Schuster. The mysteries are set in the Northwoods of Wisconsin against a background of fishing – fly fishing as well as fishing for muskie, bass, bluegill and walleyes.
Houston’s mystery series was featured in a story on the front page of The Wall Street Journal (January 20, 2004) and on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation with Neal Conan” (February 2, 2006). Both can be seen/heard on the website: www.victoriahouston.com.

She has also written or co-authored over seven non-fiction books. An award-winning author specializing in family issues, Houston’s non-fiction books include the highly recommended ALONE AFTER SCHOOL: A Self-Care Guide for Latchkey Children and Their Parents (Prentice Hall, 1985); the national bestseller, LOVING A YOUNGER MAN: How Women Are Finding and Enjoying a Better Relationship (Contemporary Books (1987); Pocket Books (1988); MAKING IT WORK: Finding the Time and Energy For Your Career, Marriage, Children and Self (Contemporary Books, 1990) -- which was published by Simon & Schuster's Fireside imprint in August 1991 as a trade paperback titled MAKING IT WORK: Creative Solutions For Balancing Your Career, Marriage, Children And Personal Life. Houston co-authored RESTORE YOURSELF: A Woman’s Guide to Reviving Her Libido and Passion for Life (The Berkley Publishing Group/2001) with Dr. James Simon, a Past President of the North American Menopause Society.

Reviews

[Abibliofob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dead Madonna is another fishy mystery by Victoria Houston set as always in Loon Lake and as followers of the series by now know Doc and Ray will help Lew with the investigation. I really do enjoy this series.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me, these books provide the pleasure of recognition, as I lived near Eagle River for a time. Houston is a pleasant, gracious person, and this is reflected in her work. She does a decent job of portraying the flavor of the Wisconsin Northwoods, an area she obviously loves. Her characters are likeable and the stories are fun.

This book had the same tone of the other books. There is a pleasant sameness to this series. The characters' personalities are always pretty much the same. There's always some fishing involved. Jealousy or greed always drive people to kill. The murderers in this story were satisfingly nasty people.

These are light, fun reads, but in all of these books there is a bit of darkness too. The Northwoods is constantly under pressure from development. Summer brings a tourist horde that often rubs roughly against local sensibilities. Million dollar lakeshore "cabins" sit in uncomfortable proximity to poverty and endemic unemployment. There's enough of this in Houston's books to give them a bit of edge.

While I enjoyed this book, it wasn't my favorite. It had all the familiar elements but kept going over old ground. I felt like she was spending too much time re-introducing each of her recurring characters. This is Houston's first book with a new publisher and perhaps she felt the need to introduce the characters to new readers. As someone who has read the other books, I found it repetitive.

Still, this was an enjoyable book. I look forward to further entries to the series.

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always enjoy hanging out in Loon Lake. Satisfying listen!

Kindle Unlimited, Read & Listen

[Eileen Lynx · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yummy read it in one bite.

[Deon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dead Madonna by Victoria Houston is a light mystery set in a small town by a lake in Wisconsin. Two women are brutally murdered. Chief Lew Ferris along with her sidekick Doc Osborne are up to the task of catching the bad guys. I like Lew, she is a competent, kind woman with a sense of humor, it is nice to see a woman portrayed as a real person. Lew and Doc share a passion for fishing and each other. The mystery is light, the characters likable, the setting interesting, especially if you like fishing.

[Karissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chief Lew Ferris is having a very bad day. First, Nora Loomis is found dead in her home, clearly murdered. Then a girl, DeeDee Kurlander, is found trapped underneath the pontoon of a wealthy young man's boat after a party. The coroner is off playing music. And it's tourist season to boot meaning dealing with thefts, wrecks, and out-of-towners getting into trouble. Deputizing her boyfriend, and retired dentist, Paul Osborne as deputy coroner; the two set out to find out how Nora and DeeDee died, when precisely it happened, how they are connected (if they are), and who might have been after the two seemingly harmless women. What they unravel is far more involved than either of them ever imagined.

[Gretchen Mattingly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This series got off to a great start - the characters were likeable, the settings were enjoyable, the circumstances were believable. But as I read more and more of the series, little things started bugging me - time had passed, but characters didn't age... tiny stuff like that - It was almost as if Victoria Houston had contracted other writers to keep the stories going, and they didn't do their homework... or follow the style book... As I was reading these recovering from an illness, I was reading them one right after the other, so those inconsistencies would be more apparent....just my two cents.

[Kimberly Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

A young woman is found dead under the pontoon boat of the son of a wealthy business man, she was murdered. Near the same time a local woman is found dead in her home; same wounds as the dead girl.....

The young woman was pregnant, but her wealthy married lover was not going to divorce his wife tin order to marry her & the other man, well she was stringing him along which made his wife unhappy...

Easy to figure out "who done it"... Loon Lake is a decent series and the main characters are likeable enough, there is a lot of fishing goin on, which I often skim over.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy the Loon Lake series, but found some of the details in this book to be implausible.
For example, someone was opening bank accounts in four states with counterfeit cheques using stolen identities, then immediately withdrawing the cash. No bank is going to deposit a cheque for thousands of dollars, then cash out before the cheque clears, even if it is supposedly drawn on the account of a major company.

A few other things just appeared to be "off" in this book.

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It was a fast read with an interesting story line and I enjoyed the small town characters. It looks like I started with book #8 in the series, so I am looking to get moving on book number 1. This would be a fun series to read in the summer, at the lake or while fishing. (Do others bring a book when they go fishing?

[Chris Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little too predictable for my taste, there was never really any mystery in the story for me.

I did enjoy the sections about fly fishing, and it even prompted me to look into images of the flies themselves.

The characters are OK, but I found some of the dialogue stilted.

I see it is #8 in a series, but don't think I will pursue any of the others.

[Baglady · Rating 3 out of 5]

scams abound. financial shenanigans. Bad guys not local for a change. some implausible plot situations - esp with bank and credit card details - but can be explained by the difference in today's banking rules compared to those at the time this was written.

[Chantelle ellesbooksandbakes · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was only okay. I was looking for a satisfyingly simple provincial mystery. While this ultimately does check this box, I wasn't impressed with the writing, and the characters each had exactly one character trait. It was alright for a quick read, but ultimately not to my taste.

[Mary A Schmitzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly Addicting

As this mystery kept me reading I had a hard time putting it aside. Loved the characters that were included to make another novel exciting. Can't wait to read the next in this series.

[Sarah Ehinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series is easy to read, and features main characters who aren't teens/twenties, which is somewhat refreshing. Nothing too complex, but enjoyable.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Woman sheriff and retired dentist solve murders.

[Kathy Schouten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Always enjoy hanging out with Lew, Doc, and Ray on Loon Lake.

[Laura Talley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really good mystery. I really like the plot

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book interested me because I love mysteries but also because it takes place in the state I live. Not all lakes rivers etc. were not all real I'm sure, but a lot of the cities were.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

totally enjoying the series, don't know a darn thing about fishing, doesn't matter, great characters
and story lines...

[Darlene Linder · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will continue with this Loon Lake series, as they are light,reading, not too complicated and I like the characters.

[Linda Weber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this series!!

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Hook, Line ... and Killer

"The bucolic Wisconsin fishing resort town of Look Lake awakens one morning to a double homicide. Party girl DeeDee Kurlander is found dead beneath an affluent tourist's houseboat. Across town, a prominent widow lies savagely murdered in her elegant living room. And police chief Lew Ferris is shorthanded enough to deputize her own romantic interest, Paul Osborne, to assist as investigator and coroner.

"Fishing being one of their shared passions, Lew accepts her new deputy's opinion that the victims were mutilated by an old muskie gaff -- but that's the only apparent connection between the dead women. Soon, reports of looted bank accounts, slick entrepreneurs, wealthy Chicagoans and a hip 'Party cove' scene all add up to a deeper mystery and more spilled blood ... before a twisted killer can be baited and caught."
~~back cover

Clever mystery, good plot, nice setting, nice romance, etc. Not compelling enough for me to get the rest of the series, but quietly enjoyable.

[Sherry · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am always looking for new mystery authors. This book looked interesting, but I was very disappointed in both the story and the characters. It takes place in Wisconsin. This was the most interesting part. It must be quite beautiful there around the lakes and streams. The main character is a female chief of police whom I just didn't feel any reality about. Her sometimes deputy and medical examiner, is her lover, and the town's dentist. I was married to a dentist for 49 years and the description of the dentist's personality didn't sit right with me. His demeanor was usually descibed as the way he would look at a patient that hadn't flossed enough or a patient that had waited too long between visits.
The mystery wasn't too interesting either and the perpertrator was easy to decide upon. I on't read any of her other books.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two brutal murders in a small Wisconsin town are clearly linked. Police Chief Lew Ferris and her retired-dentist boyfriend Doc Osborne set out to solve the double crime before anyone else gets killed, and along the way solve a bank-fraud scheme and more.

The identity of the murderer was plain as a pikestaff fairly early on -- so much so that I spent most of the novel wondering how on earth the principals could be so stupid as not to notice the evidence staring them in the faces. That in itself mightn't have been too much of a worry had the writing been less laboured, the characters more interesting or the tale more charming.

I've read a lot of good crime novels recently -- I've been incredibly lucky in my selections these past few weeks -- so I guess maybe I've become spoilt, but this one, alas, just didn't do it for me.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being a woman from Wisconsin who likes to get out and fish once in a while, it's a no-brainer that I would really enjoy Victoria Houston's series. I used to save her books to read when I stayed up at a cabin near Rice Lake and enjoy the familiar names to the area as I read.

I enjoy that the author has chosen to tell the stories from a man's point of view. I often think how cool it is that I have almost nothing in common with the main charactor and yet I completly sink into the story every time. Guess that's what ya call good writing.

[Lauri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book! While still falling into the 'cozy mystery' category, Loon Lake has a bite & a bit of the dark side which makes it more interesting than average. Small town America with engaging , likeable characters you can really care about. It's just that sometimes someone or two will get murdered in an appalling manner... I want to read more of these! Gotta love Lew.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another interesting mystery. A young woman is found dead under a boat and a widow is found bludgeoned in her home. The manner of death connects them. Chief Lew & Doc slowly unravel what happened along with some other crimes. Worth the read.

[Kitty Tomlinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doc, a retired dentist, and the local sheriff (Lew Ferris--who is female, by the way) investigate 2 dead bodies. One under a pontoon party barge and one at the victim's home. They discover the murders are related. Add in bank fraud, job fairs and you've got quite a mix of clues. Fun read.

[Bob M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad...but you can see the perpetrator coming a mile away...even though the authorities can't! And I was disappointed in the amount of info apparently disseminated by the killer before being taken down. Very unlikely and unrealistic.