A reluctant saint

Fields's excellent seventh Josie Gray mystery (after 2021's The Drummers) finds the Artemis, Tex., police chief entangled in politics and personally unsettled. First, there's mayoral candidate Mike Stryker, who's buying up land in the area to build a greyhound racetrack. Few people in Artemis are enthusiastic about Mike's plan, except Jezebel Black, who sees greyhound breeding as a new career choice. But trouble follows Jezebel, whose name change can't erase her dubious past or prevent controversy when her new kennel is vandalized. The violence escalates until Josie has two shocking deaths to investigate. Meanwhile, an intruder has been entering her house and moving things around. As Josie tries to figure out who's taunting her and whether it's related to a case, someone near and dear to her is viciously attacked, and she knows there's far more at stake than a dog track in the desert. Fields does a masterly job evoking the dry, dusty Lone Star landscape, and the well-wrought, intricate plot matches the distinctive characters, especially the indelible Josie. Readers will hope she has a long run. (Sept.)

The promise of new commercial development in a West Texas town turns to ashes. Granted, not everyone in Artemis is excited about the new greyhound racing track Mike Striker wants to open. Lots of townsfolk just don't see the point, and Police Chief Josie Gray isn't even sure that it's legal. But Mike is so convinced the idea is brilliant that instead of running for reelection in the state senate, he announces that he's challenging Simon O'Kane, the town's mayor. Though it's more than a little embarrassing for Josie, who's been discreetly seeing Simon on and off for several months, it seems like a brass ring for Jezebel Black. Fired from her job as a river tour guide after an unfortunate fatality, Jezebel's approached by Mike to breed greyhounds for the track. Then it all goes bad. Two of Jezebel's canine charges go missing, and Jezebel herself is found dead in a ravine. Even worse, Officer Marta Cruz is shot to death in the basement of a firehouse to which she's been lured, reducing the number of officers Josie supervises to one. Fields scatters suspicion generously. Mike is feuding with his brother, Morey, over his questionable methods in general and the track in particular, and Marta's alcoholic ex-husband, Javier, might well be capable of killing her if he could rouse himself to return from Mexico. In the end, the guilt is distributed over a surprising number of suspects, at least one of whom seems to pop up from nowhere. A warm, empathetic, but not very mysterious dispatch from America's heartland. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.