Death Plays the Lead

Rating:
Summary: A single body and multiply graves.
Review: Death Plays the Lead is a wonderful journey to a real West Texas town. The sense of location is precise and eerie. An old rock quarry turned into an amphi-theater becomes the center of attention when a body interrupts the final rehearsal of a local group. The conflict between a single-focus director and the local sheriff's office trying to investigate the murder borders on comedy while the local citizenry rises to the occasion in a way only a small town can. Everyone knows everyone else's business and feels sure they know exactly who did it.The sheriff's office keep stumbling over every amatuer detective who is out to prove their own personal theory. Old skeletons keep falling out of the closets of the "local families" as the tentacles of the murder reach way back into the past. Long-ago cover-ups disintegrate and so do some families. I've lived in the area where the story takes place. It COULD have happened just that way. McMaster knows her location and knows the quirks of human nature and handled them both with realism and clarity. I'm looking forward to her next offering.

Rating:
Summary: A single body and multiply graves.
Review: Death Plays the Lead is a wonderful journey to a real West Texas town. The sense of location is precise and eerie. An old rock quarry turned into an amphi-theater becomes the center of attention when a body interrupts the final rehearsal of a local group. The conflict between a single-focus director and the local sheriff's office trying to investigate the murder borders on comedy while the local citizenry rises to the occasion in a way only a small town can. Everyone knows everyone else's business and feels sure they know exactly who did it.The sheriff's office keep stumbling over every amatuer detective who is out to prove their own personal theory. Old skeletons keep falling out of the closets of the "local families" as the tentacles of the murder reach way back into the past. Long-ago cover-ups disintegrate and so do some families. I've lived in the area where the story takes place. It COULD have happened just that way. McMaster knows her location and knows the quirks of human nature and handled them both with realism and clarity. I'm looking forward to her next offering.