Detective Inspector Carol Ashton is unaware that her investigation of execution-style murders and the bombing of a small-town police station has put her life in grave danger. The case leads her to the fringes of a mysterious underground group whose members are waging an undeclared war against anyone who does not share their extremist views.
CLAIRE McNAB, 1940-2022 Claire McNab died on June 30, 2022, after a prolonged battle with Parkinson’s Disease. She also wrote under her real name, Claire Carmichael, an outpouring of children's literature, textbooks, self-help books, and plays. She became (and remains to this day) a renowned author of children’s books in Australia.
Claire McNab is the pseudonym of Claire Carmichael. She was born in 1940 in Melbourne, Australia. While pursuing a career as a high school teacher in Sydney, she began her writing career with comedy plays and textbooks. She left teaching in the mid-eighties to become a full-time writer. In her native Australia she is known for her self-help and children's books. She moved to Los Angeles in 1994 after falling in love with an American woman, and now teaches not-yet-published writers through the UCLA Writers' Extension Program. She is best known for three lesbian mystery series featuring Inspector Carol Ashton, Agent Denise Cleever and Detective Kylie Kendall. She is the recipient of the 2006 Alice B. Medal.
From the publisher's website: Claire McNab has written over 50 books and is known in her native Australia for crime fiction, children's novels, picture books, self-help, and English textbooks. Her first mystery, Lessons in Murder, was published in the U.S. in 1988. Now a Los Angeles resident, she teaches not-yet-published writers through the UCLA Extension Writers' Program. She is the author of three lesbian mystery series featuring Inspector Carol Ashton, Agent Denise Cleever and Detective Kylie Kendall. She has served as the president of Sisters in Crime and is a member of both the Mystery Writers of America and the Science Fiction Writers of America. She lives in Los Angeles and is working on the finale of the Carol Ashton series, Lethal Care.
I really enjoyed this eighth foray into the world of Detective Carol Ashton. Two bodies are found posed in a T formation on the lawn of an extremist right wing politician; one happens to be the friend of his son from the town he grew up in. Ashton is put in charge of the case, complicated when a police officer is killed by a bomb. The right wing militia group in this has disturbing parallels to the crazy Alt-Right groups active in the US at this time. Is it an incredible mystery? No, but the story is till very engaging and keeps the reader wanting to read on.