THE HUCKLEBERRY MURDERS

A sheriff and an FBI agent cavort in an Idaho swamp.

The ex-Mrs. Poulson, who’d been married to Orville for 30 years and divorced for ten, thinks he’s dead and knows just who to blame: Ray Porter, the man who’d been living in his ranch house for the past few years. Unfortunately for Blight County Sheriff Bo Tully (The Double-Jack Murders, 2009, etc.), the lady harps on Orville’s whereabouts so loud and long that he has to investigate. When he does, he immediately fingers Porter as an extremely smooth sociopath. But where is Orville’s body? There are plenty of other bodies lying around: three young guys executed in a huckleberry patch, for instance. Said patch, being part of a national forest, attracts a toothsome FBI agent, the delectable Angela, to the scene. She and Bo, along with his reprobate daddy and an ersatz Indian tracker named Dave must (a) deliver a bruised-up gal to a biker gang for safekeeping; (b) shoot and kill a sentry at a clandestine marijuana-growing enterprise; and (c) hunt for the person or persons who’ve forced the ex-Mrs. Poulson’s car off the road, leaving her well and truly dead. Stakeouts on a raft bobbing along the swamp byways and a raid on Orville’s ranch turn up several surprises, not the least of which is Orville, alive and well.

Genial, amusing and sweet, with quirky characters and just enough plot twists to engage.