"Bitterroot Lake" by Alicia Beckman; Crooked Lane (336 pages, $27.99)
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Alicia Beckman, who writes two charming, award-winning cozy series, takes a decidedly harder edge in the highly entertaining “Bitterroot Lake,” mixing mystery with touches of the paranormal.
Grief-stricken over her husband’s recent death, Sarah McCaskill Cater agrees to return to her hometown of Deer Park, Montana, at the suggestion of her mother, Peggy, who believes cleaning out the family’s abandoned summer home will be good therapy for the new widow. But Sarah has bad memories of the house on Bitterroot Lake where a young man was killed 25 years earlier. Sarah still feels guilty over the death, believing she could have prevented the death if she had paid attention to her recurring nightmare.
Sarah’s return puts her back in touch with estranged friends and coincides with the murder of another former friend. Ghosts, dreams, family secrets and a death that occurred in 1922 are deftly woven into a solid plot that hinges on believable twists.
Beckman, who writes the Spice Shop and the Food Lovers’ mysteries as Leslie Budewitz, shows her storytelling skills are limitless with “Bitterroot Lake.”
