Bum Steer

Jenny Cain #6

by Nancy Pickard

From witty, suspenseful, sexy mysteries featuring the charming and complex amateur sleuth, Jenny Cain. In Bum Steer, a mysterious murder and a strange bequest send Jenny to the wild, wild West.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Cozy, Crime, Mystery Thriller

240 pages, Board Book

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Nancy Pickard is an American crime novelist. She received a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri and began writing at age 35.

She has won five Macavity Awards, four Agatha Awards, an Anthony Award, and a Shamus Award. She is the only author to win all four awards. Her novel The Virgin of Small Plains, published in 2007, won an Agatha Award. She also served on the board of directors of the Mystery Writers of America.

Reviews

[Katherine Clark]

I read this book for the monograph. It won the best novel award Agatha in 1990. (I'm going to have to check all these dates of the awards in these reviews.) This is part of the Jenny Cain series, and I love these books so much. It has been an incredible pleasure to reread the series, and I have to exercise some control not to restart the series for a third time. Wonderful. Sheila, if you read this review, this is a series you would love. I will try to remember to add this to the list I am creating for you. Start at the beginning.

[Jenny]

I enjoyed this book, although I took a fairly long pause at one point to read part of another book (my mind has been a bit all over the place lately). There were a few things that I had minor quibbles with (like why when Jenny got the call about wealthy ranch farmer Cat leaving an estate to Port Fred's foundation, she immediately assumed it was a 'him' - I would have thought the name Cat belonged to a woman, short for Katherine) but overall, I didn't see the ending coming! It turns out that Cat hasn't actually died - he's posing as ranch hand Slight Harlan. The real Slight had cancer and they thought since he was going to die anyway, he could die as Cat, which would leave the boss man to in peace, running the ranch and no longer dealing with family quibbles and fights. As soon as I figured it out/had it explained (I feel like I realized it about a page ahead of Jenny), it completely made sense - Cat has been depicted as a sexy guy, with three or four wives behind him and she could feel a magnetic pull to Slight. It also explains why he wanted to leave his estate in trust to Jenny's foundation - it's far away and the board knows nothing about running a cattle ranch, which would leave Slight and Carl to do their own work. It also explains why he told his family never to set foot on the ranch or they would lose their inheritance - they would recognize him as Cat immediately.

Carl shoots Slight at the end because his "son" was actually the result of an affair that his wife, Cat's sister, had. (Don't worry - Slight/Cat survives and escapes the hospital without telling anyone where he's going).

[Lola]

The foundation that Jenny Cain works for inherits a cattle ranch worth a couple of million dollars. She'd never heard of the rich man who left it to them in his will & wondered how he, Cat Benet, knew of them.
Two men live on & run the ranch. Both are long-time employees of Cat's.
Cat stated in his will that none of his heirs are allowed to step foot on his ranch. He left his four ex-wives a generous amount of money.
Although Cat is gravely ill in the hospital, someone murdered him by smothering him with a pillow.
Jenny Cain travels to meet all Cat's heirs in an attempt to figure out who had murdered him and why, and why Cat had them banned from the ranch.
This story is unlike any I've read before. I don't want to say more to avoid ruining the story for anyone who wishes to read it.

[Jan M]

Western Fun

A mysterious bequived (spelling?) ranch, a foundation head with no ranching experiencr, a wild Romeo and murder. Some laugh out loud lines and general intrigue in the West. I enjoyed!

[Shawn]

3.5 stars actually.

[Penny]

Not a bad mystery, enough clues given, starting with the title, to figure it out, but a bit improbable nonetheless.

[Donna]

Number six in this entertaining series about civic foundation director in Pirt Frederick,Mass. Lots of plot twists and humor.

[Matt]

It wasn't a bad read at first, the quality of the writing stands up all these years later, but then suddenly it turns into a romance mystery with only moderate success

[Bev Mcconnell]

This is definitely the best Jenny Cain mystery so far!

[Carol Palmer]

Great book! I can see why this was an Agatha Award winner.

[Sheila]

I really enjoyed this story but there wasn't much of Geof in the story.

[Regine]

Has charm.

[JoAnn Ainsworth]

Exciting read. I had a little trouble with the ending. My life experiences were different than those re the weather in the novel.

[Barbara]

When the Civic Foundation of Port Frederick Massachusetts gets a strange $4 million bequest of a cattle ranch in Kansas, Executive Director Jenny Cain is sent to investigate it's validity. The Foundation would be expected to forever employ the two ranch hands and the family is forbidden to visit the ranch on threat of loss of inheritance. However, the day Jenny arrives, the bequestor, "Cat" is murdered and Jenny feels it her duty to find out what is going on in this Kansas town and why "Cat" has made such a bizarre will.

The mystery of the four wives and the ranch hands is enough to keep Jenny busy and is interesting enough to keep the reader entertained. The ending is rather a surprise though I'm sure I should have seen it coming but didn't. This is the first book I've read in this series and though I liked Jenny, I'm not sure I will avidly continue this series. If I happen to come across a book from the series, I will snap it up but I won't be actively searching out subsequent books.

[George]

#6 in the Jenny Cain mystery series. Jenny is the CEO of a charitable foundation in the fictional small town of Port Frederick, Mass. Nearly the whole story is set in the Mid and Southwest. Jenny is asked to come to Kansas City because the Foundation has been named as beneficiary to a large Kansas Ranch. Jenny is task to evaluate it and it quickly leads to murder. Jenny feels the bequest is suspicious and tries to determine why it was made along with solving the murder. Also involves members of the ranch owner's family and strange conditions set with their inheritances.

[Luz C. Johnson]

This mystery broke the well established frame of “Poor Fred” surroundings, and took us to an exciting wild-wild west setting. The mysterious, elusive, and shady bequest of a three millions dollar ranch to the Frederick Civic Foundation turned out to be an interesting story of a man’s live and four marriages and several children later. This one was so obvious I cracked it right away. “There’s nothing more elusive than an obvious fact.”—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

[Kimberly]

My favorite of the Jenny Cain novels. Perhaps it's because it takes place in my native Kansas. Nevertheless, the title perfectly fits the novel because the reader discovers at the end that Pickard has given the reader a bum steer.

[SmarterLilac]

Hysterical. I didn't think I could like a book as much as "Confession," but this installment in the Jenny Cain series is also great. Didn't guess the end until, well, the end. Totally satisfying mystery all around.

[Julie H. Ernstein]

In this one, Jenny is dragged (kicking and screaming al the way) to a cattle ranch in Kansas.

[Patty Sutton]

a great mystery set in the Flint Hills of Kansas. Believable surprise twists make it a fun read.

[Helen Fleischer]

Some times you wish you _had_ fallen for the red herrings.

[Brenda]

Not a bad little book. Want to read more of her stuff.

[Tammy]

I was sort of disappointed in this Nancy Pickard story. Not very entertaining, but did have a good twist at the end.

[Elaine]

I liked this while I was reading it, but when I finished it, I have to admit I was left a little unsatisfied, and I'm not quite sure why. Not your run-of-the-mill mystery, though, that's for sure.

[L Kate]

Could not put this book down from start to finish! Another good mystery in the Jenny Cain Mystery series. Now where is the next one? LOVED IT!

[JB]

good pace & nice ending

[Donna]

Funnest part - referencing Frango mints.

[Nancy Rodgers]

Fast and fun read.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: amateur sleuth, Jenny Cain, encounters a murder and a strange bequest. She's off to the wild west.