After the Petals Go

by John R. Riggs

After the Petals Go is the 15th book in the Garth Ryland mystery series and perhaps Riggs' most ambitious book to date. Called "an exemplary series hero" by Publishers Weekly, Ryland lives and works in the small town of Oakalla, Wisconsin ("Lake Woebegone made sinister") where passions run high, secrets go deep, and nothing is ever quite what it seems. Ryland never should have been in his office that beautiful Saturday morning in May when Will Jennings approached him with "something black and shriveled clutched in his right hand, and the weight of the world on his shoulders". The "something" that Will carries is Mike Manning's wallet that Will found in the Forty Acre Woods earlier that morning. Mike Manning has been missing from Oakalla for seven and a half years and is presumed dead by all who knew him best, including Will Jennings, his hired hand; Darrell Williamson, his best friend and drinking buddy, and Samantha Manning, his wife and Ryland's would've, could've, should've been lover. As Ryland's search takes him from the Forty Acre Woods to the old Manning place, where Mike Manning was last seen, he discovers what appears to be Mike's Silverado pickup hidden in the barn along with an ammonia wagon, missing from Central Co-op. There Ryland also discovers a barn cat with an attitude, a milk house with its windows blacked out, and just as night starts to fall, a body upside down in a water tank. But before Ryland can begin to put the pieces of the puzzle together, he is attacked and nearly killed by an antagonist who is as ruthless and relentless as he is cunning. Neither does his tormentor stop there, but pursues Ryland and his household even as Ryland slowly but surely closes in on him. Or her. Samantha Manning has a past, as Ruth Krammes, Ryland's housekeeper and trusted confidant, says to him, although she is reluctant to reveal just what that past is. So does Mike Manning have a past, one littered with bad

Genres: Mystery

262 pages, Paperback

First published June 6, 2012

About the author

Since 1971, John has lived in Putnam County, Indiana, currently on a small farm southeast of Greencastle. Throughout those years he has worked as a teacher, football coach , quality control foreman, carpenter, and wood-splitter. From 1979-1997 he assisted James R. Gammon of DePauw University with Gammon's landmark research on the Wabash River. Presently, as he has done for the past twenty years John works as a researcher for the DePauw University Archives.

John is author of 13 books in the Garth Ryland mystery series, several published articles, and the Bicentennial History bulletins for the Indiana United Methodist Church. His works in progress include a Garth Ryland mystery and Me ,Darst, and Alley Oop Walking the Dog, both memoirs. River Rats, a coming of age novel, set along the Wabash River in the 1950's.

Reviews

[Fred · Rating 4 out of 5]

Riggs is always enjoyable - great series. A little darker ending than usual.