Penn Valley Phoenix

Tru North Mystery #2

by Janet McClellan

A legacy of secrets.... A tangled web of lies....Everyone loved to gossip about wealthy restaurateur Sandra Vandamier. They said the leggy blonde was an insatiable seductress who always got what she wanted -- one way or another. They said she was absolutely charming and absolutely ruthless. Now she is absolutely dead and Kansas City Homicide Detective Tru North has the killer in custody. Or does she? Despite a by-the-book investigation, the seemingly open-and-shut case is about to swing wide open, pitting Tru against her superiors and a vicious killer in a deadly game of hide-and-seek.

Genres: Mystery

197 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1997

About the author

Received PhD from Northcentral University in Arizona and assistant professor with the University of Alaska, Fairbanks in the Justice department teaching graduate and undergraduate courses. Formerly of SUNY Canton in the Criminal Investigation department teaching homicide investigation, death investigation and crime scene investigation. McClellan has an extensive background in public service including her roles as police officer, police chief, investigator, corrections official, and chief executive of the Kansas Violent Sexual Predator Maximum Security Facility. She has written crime fiction series with the main character being "Tru North", mystery novel Murder in Cloud City, romance novel Windrow Garden and non-fiction book Erotophonophilia: Investigating Lust Murder.

Reviews

[Wayne Spiceland · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars, which means that I liked it more than most of the things I like, but not quite in the "really liked it" range. (4 stars for me is probably like 5 stars for a lotta people. I mean, how many things actually fit the "It was amazing" descriptor?) Anyway, this is pretty well-constructed, capably written, if somewhat predictable, murder mystery. Detective Tru North is not a character you warm to right away, but I think maybe that's what makes me like her. While I understand that murder is a gritty and gruesome affair, the book would have benefited from a little humor.