9 Crimes Linked to Books

For fans of missing persons cases with the investigator tied to one of the cases, procedurals, and Native American leads.

Eva “Lightning Dance” Duran is a sheriff’s deputy whose best friend, Paloma, is one of four women who have gone missing from Taos Pueblo reservation. Because Duran doesn’t feel like her own department is doing enough, she teams up with Cruz “Wolf Song” Romero, a friend and tribal police officer. They’re up against a lot, including time, when the missing women begin to turn up dead. Can Duran save Paloma in time?

For fans of small town procedurals, family drama, and murder mysteries.

There are days where I randomly grab a book and see where the journey takes me, which I did with this one. It’s why I didn’t realize it was a sequel (it gives you the info you need from the first book, I was never lost) and am now planning on reading the first since I enjoyed this one quite a bit.

Deputy Ben Packard recently moved to a small Minnesota town and took on the role of active Sheriff due to the Sheriff being diagnosed with cancer. He’s not thrilled about the Sheriff part, because of politics and he feels like he has a social target on his back as an openly gay deputy. But soon he has to decide, while being begged by others, if he’s willing to run for Sheriff to take the job full-time. It’s all going on while he has a complicated murder investigation that is full of family drama—like you could put this family on a reality show!

Bill Sandersen was murdered in his home while his wife slept in her separate room. His wife was his first real girlfriend, who he broke up with years ago to marry her sister instead. Bill was divorced from the sister and married to the original sister (I know!). Obviously the sisters don’t like each other, neither does the third sister who wants nothing to do with these two–or the emotionally abusive mom they blame for all their problems. As you can imagine, Bill had plenty of people who wanted him dead, including a business partner he stole money from. So Packard has plenty of work between his professional life of deciding if he wants to be Sheriff and this case with a long list of suspects…

I did the audioook format and enjoyed Linda Jones’ narration, even if at first I briefly wondered why a male narrator wasn’t picked since the lead is a dude. Maybe because there were a lot of supporting characters that are women? Anyhoo, if you’re an audiobook listener, it’s a good pick!

(TW talk of past suicide, detail/ alcoholism/ former Sheriff dies of cancer/ mentions past overdose, not deadly/ parent with dementia/ past child abuse case recounted, emotional child abuse/ fatphobia)