Interesting and enjoyable mystery

Marjorie Trumaine is a farmer’s wife who has seen her share of trouble in recent years. Her husband, Hank, had a horrific accident which left him blind and a quadriplegic – a mere husk of the man he was before the accident. The setting for the story is North Dakota in 1964. There aren’t any of the devices that are available today to assist Hank. What he has is Marjorie and she takes care of him and the farm with the assistance of her few close friends and neighbors. Thankfully, during the lean years just prior to the accident, Marjorie took a course in Indexing that was made available by the USDA and did well enough to get work on an on-going basis. It is this work helps pay the bills and keeps food on the table now that Hand is permanently disabled.

Out of the blue, her good friend Sheriff Hilo shows up with the sad news that her neighbors (Erik and Lida Knudsen) have been murdered in their sleep. Hilo asks Marjorie, as the smartest person he knows, to help him solve the mystery of an ancient Norse amulet that was found clutched in Erik’s hand at the scene of the dreadful killing. Though Marjorie is inundated with worries and work, she agrees to help hoping to help catch the murderer.

Marjorie calls on her skill as an indexer to help sort the clues that she finds as she tries to figure out the meaning of the amulet. There is a lot of misdirection as clues fall into place one by one and the reader is caught up trying to figure out the whodunnit at the same time. While I was able to figure out the murderer ahead of the story, I was still able to enjoy the book.

The characters are interesting and the author is doing well at developing them in what appears to be the first of an on-going series. The setting is interesting – a small farm in the plains of North Dakota at a time when television was a bit of a novelty in the area and the phones are still on a party-line. There are no fancy gizmos to help Marjorie, either in her care for Hank or in her work as an indexer. The dialog is concise and meaningful. The plot is well done and makes sense within the time and the story that is presented.

The truly different part of the book is that the author’s writing style comes across almost as lyrical prose. He is able to capture a time, a moment, a look, and turn it into something much more by way of his ability to describe it. This beautiful wording was juxtaposed against the straightforward and sparse indexing and made for an interesting contrast through the entire book.

While there was a tad too much emphasis given to Marjorie’s footwear (or lack thereof) throughout the book, I was able to see beyond that and appreciate the book as a mystery set in a time that I can only vaguely recall. By the time my childhood was memorable, hippies, love-children, feminism, war protests, and drugs were becoming the backdrop of society. This story is set at a time when neighbors helped neighbors, women wore dresses (and dress shoes), the made dishes of food for those who were in distress and turmoil.

I truly enjoyed the book and am looking forward to reading more by this author in the future. I recommend the book to anyone who enjoy a good mystery. The time and setting make it an interesting and unusual read and one that promises more in future books as we think of where society headed afterwards.

I received a complimentary copy of this book via the publisher.