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Rating: 
Summary: Great sense of place
Review: If southern Oklahoma is anything like the rural Missouri I grew up with, then Sandstrom nailed the atmosphere. The landscape is a bit different (no oil wells in Harrison County, MO), but every page evoked some memory of summers and holidays spent on my grandparents' 440 acres. The reminiscence factor was so great that I almost forgot that there was a mystery to be solved. Looking back, I pegged the murderer almost as soon as the character was introduced. I don't normally get such a strong intuitive feel for a character, and there wasn't anything in the writing that blared, "This is a bad, bad person!" So I was a little surprised when clues started popping up to support my hunch, but it made for a smooth read. The other characters were well drawn, also, but I wish Sandstrom, writing from Nikky's point of view, hadn't felt the need to make fun of the local speech patterns. It made an otherwise sympathetic character seem smallminded and petty. I was also a little disappointed that Sam started off the book in military CID stationed in Germany for what amounted to no real good reason. I'd like to see Sam and Nikky return to military life in a future book.
Rating:
Summary: Great sense of place
Review: If southern Oklahoma is anything like the rural Missouri I grew up with, then Sandstrom nailed the atmosphere. The landscape is a bit different (no oil wells in Harrison County, MO), but every page evoked some memory of summers and holidays spent on my grandparents' 440 acres. The reminiscence factor was so great that I almost forgot that there was a mystery to be solved. Looking back, I pegged the murderer almost as soon as the character was introduced. I don't normally get such a strong intuitive feel for a character, and there wasn't anything in the writing that blared, "This is a bad, bad person!" So I was a little surprised when clues started popping up to support my hunch, but it made for a smooth read. The other characters were well drawn, also, but I wish Sandstrom, writing from Nikky's point of view, hadn't felt the need to make fun of the local speech patterns. It made an otherwise sympathetic character seem smallminded and petty. I was also a little disappointed that Sam started off the book in military CID stationed in Germany for what amounted to no real good reason. I'd like to see Sam and Nikky return to military life in a future book.
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