Stillwater

Format:

Book

Title:

Stillwater

Other title(s):

Still water

Author:

Lenhardt, Melissa author

ISBN:

9781634502269

9781510719828

Publication:

New York, NY : Skyhorse Publishing, [2015]

Physical Description:

298 pages ; 24 cm.

Series title(s):

Jack McBride mystery.

Summary:

"Former FBI agent Jack McBride took the job as Chief of Police for Stillwater, Texas, to start a new life with his teenage son, Ethan, away from the suspicions that surrounded his wife's disappearance a year earlier. With a low crime rate and a five-man police force, he expected it to be a nice, easy gig; hot checks, traffic violations, some drugs, occasional domestic disturbances, and petty theft. Instead, within a week he is investigating a staged murder-suicide, uncovering a decades old skeleton buried in the woods, and managing the first crime wave in thirty years. For help navigating his unfamiliar, small-town surroundings, Jack turns to Ellie Martin, one of the most respected women in town--her scandal-filled past notwithstanding. Despite Jack's murky marriage status and the disapproval of Ethan and the town, they are immediately drawn to each other. As Jack and Ellie struggle with their budding relationship, they unearth shattering secrets long buried and discover the two cases Jack is working, though fifty years apart, share a surprising connection that will rattle the town to its core."-- Amazon.com.

Subject(s):

Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction.

Small cities -- Texas -- Fiction.

Fathers and sons -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Texas.

Genre:

Suspense fiction.

Thrillers (Fiction)

Detective and mystery fiction.

Fiction.

Mystery fiction.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Monmouth Public Library	Fic (m) Lenhardt, M. 2015	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Silver Falls Library	MYS LENHARDT	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Woodburn Public Library	Lenhardt	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Big secrets run deep.

Former FBI agent Jack McBride took the job as Chief of Police for Stillwater, Texas, to start a new life with his teenage son, Ethan, away from the suspicions that surrounded his wife's disappearance a year earlier.

With a low crime rate and a five-man police force, he expected it to be a nice, easy gig; hot checks, traffic violations, some drugs, occasional domestic disturbances, and petty theft. Instead, within a week he is investigating a staged murder-suicide, uncovering a decades' old skeleton buried in the woods, and managing the first crime wave in thirty years.

For help navigating his unfamiliar, small-town surroundings, Jack turns to Ellie Martin, one of the most respected women in town--her scandal-filled past notwithstanding. Despite Jack's murky marriage status and the disapproval of Ethan and the town, they are immediately drawn to each other.

As Jack and Ellie struggle with their budding relationship, they unearth shattering secrets long buried and discover the two cases Jack is working, though fifty years apart, share a surprising connection that will rattle the town to its core.

Author Notes

Melissa Lenhardt writes mystery, historical fiction, and women's fiction. Her short fiction has appeared in Heater Mystery Magazine , The Western Online , and Christmas Nookies , a holiday romance anthology. She is a board member of the DFW Writers' Workshop and vice president of the Sisters in Crime North Dallas Chapter. She's also the author of The Fisher King: A Jack McBride Mystery and the historical novel Sawbones . Melissa lives in Dallas, Texas, with her husband and two sons.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Fans of romantic mysteries will appreciate Lenhardt's sentimental debut, the first in a series starring Jack McBride, a former FBI agent. Having left the Bureau under a cloud, Jack has moved to Stillwater, Tex., with his 13-year-old son, Ethan, to become the small town's police chief. On Jack's first day on the job, he must deal with the murder/suicide of a married couple. Or are the killings actually a disguised double murder? Meanwhile, Ethan suffers through his first day at school while pained from not knowing why his mother didn't also relocate to Stillwater. When Jack later flirts with Ellie Martin, the bank manager he meets about his financial arrangements, Ellie is initially alarmed, but then she flirts back, as Jack ponders how soft and silky her hair appears. Ethan's difficulties in making new friends, assorted domestic tensions between Ethan and Jack, and Jack's dogged wooing of Ellie overshadow Jack's crime-solving efforts. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Library Journal Review

Seeking to get away from his soon-to-be-ex-wife and his disintegrating career with the FBI, Jack McBride moves to the small east Texas town of Stillwater with his son, Ethan. Unfortunately, on his first day as the new police chief, there is a double homicide at a trailer park; Rosa and Gilberto were hardworking but undocumented laborers who may or may not have uncovered something worth killing for. Then another body is uncovered, buried for more than 50 years under a tree down by the creek. Something is definitely rotten in Stillwater. VERDICT A finalist for the 2014 Whidbey Writers' MFA Alumni Emerging Writers Contest, this debut crime novel, spanning decades of Stillwater's history, features an ingenious plot and a complicated protagonist with inner depths worth plumbing. Readers who miss Donald Harstad will appreciate this well-done police procedural, which is also a good choice for fans of Terry Shames's "Samuel Craddock" mysteries, Lee Martin's "Deb Ralston" series, or Tricia Fields's "Josie Gray" novels. © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.