Genre:
Adult, Young Adult, Mystery, Suspense
Source: I
purchased a copy.
This was a fun book to read. We start with a twenty-three-year-old character named Walter MacGregor, Wallie for short. Walter was named
after her father who is a judge in Gunmetal, Texas. Wallie, whose mother is deceased has been
raised by her father with the help of her two aunts. Her favorite thing to do
is read Sherlock Holmes books. That is as close as she figures she will ever
get to an adventure. When her uncle Rory shows up she is very intrigued. He
claims his life is in danger and he needs his brother’s help. There is
definitely some contention between Rory and his older brother. It is obvious
that Rory, a rum-runner is nothing like her father, the well-spoken judge.
However, his lifestyle intrigues her, even if she doesn’t agree with it. There
are family secrets, and a stranger watching the house. No one will talk to
her about her uncle or why he left so suddenly twenty years before. When Rory
is found dead, it is ruled an accident by the sheriff. Wallie doesn’t believe
this was an accident. Her perceptive Aunt Ida, knowing her niece won’t
let this go, proposes a trip so Wallie’s father can grieve, while secretly
helping Wallie find the information she wants. But things are worse than Wallie
could imagine. She and her aunt find themselves knee-deep in gangsters and women they would not usually associate with. Throw
into this mix two young men who are after Wallie’s heart and you have a
charming yet mysterious story that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
I loved this for several reasons. We start off with Wallie writing
to her sixteen-year-old granddaughter about Rory. It seems that her
granddaughter, Austin Starr is as curious as her grandmother was as a young
lady. The time period was one I am not familiar with in books. There seems to have
been a lot of research that went into this story to make it accurate. The
roaring twenties was a time of prohibition and rum-runners, as well as
gangsters. We get an idea through this book what life for a young woman would
have been like during that time. Anytime Wallie tries to step out of the
acceptable role for women she is treated like she has no brain. She holds out
hope for women as they have just won the right to vote. I loved that Wallie
assumes she will never marry since she doesn’t want to be reigned in by a man.
The story is a remembrance of a time in Wallie’s life that provided the adventure
she longed for.
The author does such a wonderful job of putting twists and
turns in that I had to sit and read it from cover to cover. I could not go to
bed until I had finished it. I truly had no idea who the murderer was or why
until near the very end. Well done. I definitely want to read other books in
this series as this was a prequel to the Austin Star Mystery series. This is a
book for adults, but I would recommend it to young adults because it is a clean
read with the occasional swear word.
Kay Kendall is an award-winning
author of two historical mysteries. Her second book, RAINY DAY WOMEN (2015),
won for best mystery and best book at Killer Nashville in August 2016. It is
the second in her Austin Starr mystery series, published by Stairway Press. The
first was DESOLATION ROW (2013).
In her previous
career, Kay was an award-winning international
PR executive, working in the US, Canada, Russia, and Europe. She has graduate
degrees in Russian history and was a Woodrow Wilson Scholar at Harvard Graduate
School of Arts and Sciences.
Kay and her
Canadian husband lives in Houston, Texas. They’ve rescued abandoned pet bunnies
for twenty years and currently have three rabbits and a bemused spaniel, Wills.
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