Reviewing Murder Comes By Mail

Being a hero was the last thing on Deputy Michael Keane's mind. He was busy driving a busload of silver haired ladies from Hidden Springs to Eagleton, as a favor to his Aunt Lindy. As he drew near the Eagle River Bridge, he saw a man ready to jump. He climbed off the bus and in front of that bus full of people, pulled the man back over the railing.  The ladies quickly got off the bus to see what happened and more than one savvy granny snapped pictures with her smart phones. One Hank Leland, owner of the Hidden Springs Gazette, just happened to be there too and was busily snapping pics too. But Hank's pictures were for his next issue of the Gazette.  News like this didn't happen in Hidden Springs so he took pictures of the rescue and pictures of the man loaded into an ambulance with a few good shots of Michael with the jumper. Amid the post-rescue chaos the jumper had a few last words for Michael: "You'll wish you'd pushed me."

A.H. Gabhart's Murder Comes by Mail is the second in her Hidden Springs Mystery series.  If you have read Murder On The Courthouse Steps, You've already been to Hidden Springs and met the people of this quiet little town full of of characters you couldn't find anyplace else.  Nothing ever happens there and they like it that way. Every Wednesday, the Hidden Springs Gazette comes out but on this particular week the paper is full of its home town hero Michael Keane and his heroic rescue of a man  who didn't want to be rescued. Uneasy with being the center attention, he is more interested in finding out who the man was and why he said those last haunting words to him.  Words that refused to leave him in the days to come.

One day after the "Hometown Hero"story broke, Betty Jean sat opening up the mail as usual at the Sheriff's Office. She was just teasing Michael about the article when she pulled some photos out from a manila envelope when she gasped, becoming clearly upset. Michael jumped from his desk to see what was going on and found grizzly photos taken of a young victim.  He dumped the entire contents and found a note from the jumper reminding him that Michael should have let  jump.

From then on the story takes an unexpected turn as sleepy Hidden Springs is roused to full alert. One crime leads to another in an  uncanny twist leading to Michael.  Can he stay one step ahead of the game and protect all those connected to him? I can assure you that this is one good mystery. The plot is well developed in Gabhart's fashion and you will be gripping your seats as you try to turn the pages fast enough.  No spoilers here, you will want to read this one yourself!  Many thanks to Revell for the advance copy to review and to A.H. Gabhart for many hours of entertainment.