Ghost Towns

Chloe Newcomb #3

by Betsy Thornton

Cochise County victim advocate Chloe Newcomb embarks on her latest mystery when a Superior Court judge is murdered in the ghost town of Windy City and she is asked to notify his family, but instead of finding grieving relatives, she discovers a dysfunctional family plagued by dark secrets. Reprint.

Genres: Mystery

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Aka Beth Thornton.

Betsy Thornton is a contemporary American writer of mystery fiction novels set in the Southwestern United States.

Reviews

[Aidan Macadam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slow slow slow up until the end where it all came crashing down way too fast. The pacing in this book is quite frankly irritating. I found this book in a used book store so I didn't realize it was the third in a series, but that didn't matter, it was easy enough to understand what was going on. The main heroine Chloe Newcomb wasn't exactly the most in depth character anyways. I didn't feel like I was missing any critical details about her.

A fun read, light and easy to get through, and the mystery is actually quite intriguing, despite how long it takes to understand what the heck is even going on. I might check up on the other books in this series at some point.

[Candace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think Betsy Thornton is a good author and the fact that she is a local and writes about our small town makes it even more interesting. This novel deals with the murder of a local judge at a Ghost Town. Betsy is friends with a reporter who want to make this his big investigation but Betsy finds his style a aggressive and then when he disappears she fears he has stirred up trouble with the murderer and fears the worst.

[Roberta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another Chloe Newcomb tale, fraught with nervous energy, after the murder of a local judge in a ghost town several miles from Dudley, Arizona. The story includes the judge's dysfunctional family, and two previous rapes in Cochise County that go unpunished. Then there's the disappearance of the reporter friend of Chloe's, Nate. And her boyfriend, Craig, who goes into re-hab. It was just too frenetic for me.
At least there wasn't the usual typos as in the previous two novels in this series.

[Rachel N. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Chloe Newcomb is a victim advocate sent to notify the family of a local judge that he was found murdered in a nearby ghost town. Soon her boyfriend and her close friend who is a newspaper reporter disappear. The plot sounds interesting but the book was boring and the ending was odd. There were several spelling errors and random jumps in narration.

[Niko L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book!!! Just wish she would have noted, inside, that this is a series! I started off in book 3 and now need to back track.

[Jasmine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chloe Newcomb lives in a small town in Arizona. The mayor has just died, her boyfriend goes missing, and then so does her best friend. through out the book, Chloe is trying to figure out who killed Mayor Thomas and why.

Betsy Thornton is an interesting writer. I was kept on suspense while reading this book. The story line itself was very good. i sat there for about 10 minutes after completing the book thinking about what i had just read. I would actually give this book two and a half stars, but that's not an option. The problem I had with this book is that you have and extremely vague idea of what some of the main characters look like. it drove me crazy. Especially because you don't know what the character who you are seeing things through looks like. At all. That, and the fact that the publishers/editors did a horrible job. There were quite a few mistakes in the book. Twice when Chloe was talking to a character named Justin it would say "said Jason." WHO THE HELL IS JASON??? ugh! it made me irritated. Other than that the story itself was pretty good I wouldn't recommend it though. This is the last time i check out a book in the "Staff Recommendations" at the library.

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

General Outline:
Chloe is a victim witness who gets caught up in the dark secrets that lie beneath the surface in small towns. A local judge is murdered and the rumors flying around suggest that his life wasn't as nice as it looked and that the judge was trying to "start his life over". Also Chloe's reporter friend has found out somthing about the judge that he does not want to tell her. As Chloe becomes involved in the investigation in her role as a victim witness she finds out that the judges family is hiding a dark past...
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This was a pretty good mystery read, its not from a main stream author so it does read a little differntly than somthing you would find on the top ten best sellers list at your local book store. The story kept me guessing until the end and when it did end it wasn't what I was suspecting. If your looking for a "differnt" mystery writer give this author a try and you proably won't be disappointed.
m.a.c

[Hanje Richards · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fun to read because it is set in Bisbee. Called Dundee in the book, it is clearly Bisbee. I read some of her earlier books before moving here, and thought it would be fun to catch up on her more recent works now that I am familiar with the area.

[Sean Evans]

Ghost Towns by Betsy Thornton (2002)