STALKED BY REVENGE

Members of an Oklahoma family trying to recover from tragedy reel from the news that the incarcerated relative who terrorized them is being released from prison.

In this third installment of Lipinski’s mystery series, Zane Clearwater, six weeks into police training, learns that his half brother, Clyde Doom, will get out of prison to await a new trial. Clyde had been convicted of kidnapping Zane’s sister, Lettie, now 16 years old and pregnant. Clyde’s conviction was overturned on a technicality. Oklahoma’s 2020 McGirt ruling will allow Clyde to be out on bail before a new trial because, like Zane, he is part Cherokee, and the crime occurred within Native American borders when he was a juvenile. Zane lives in a mobile home with his grandmother Verda, Lettie, and the teen’s boyfriend, Angel. After learning of Clyde’s upcoming release, Lettie gets spooked when she receives a baby rattle from an anonymous sender, and the police academy suspends Zane because he’s accused of selling meth. Someone seems to be working with still-incarcerated Clyde to upset the family members and probably hurt them in retribution for past events. To protect his family, Zane adopts a big guard dog and engages in what Angel calls “hillbilly security”: placing junkyard metal around the trailer’s perimeter that will “make it noisy for an intruder to come near.” Zane’s girlfriend, Tiffany, assists in setting up a video and lighting security system. Along with these measures, Zane fights feelings of violence, which plagued him in the past, as they continue to ramp up. In this captivating tale, descriptions are often vivid and precise, such as that of a woman with spidery clots of mascara-laden eyelashes and a man whose “mouth pinched like he was sucking food out of his teeth.” But they can be clunky, too: “Hearing his current girlfriend’s name brought her face and smile into his mind.” Reading this series in order would be preferable, as incidents from the players’ brutal pasts are jarring to read in summarized sentences. Still, this gripping installment features a cast of intriguing characters and a memorable, complex hero. In addition, the tale is timely, with a reference to Covid-19 and pro and con stances on policing.

Like its characters, this mystery is engaging, compelling, and rough around the edges.