The Sky Took Him-Donis Casey

The Sky Took Him
Donis Casey
Poisoned Pen, Jan 2009, $24.95
ISBN: 1590585712

In 1915 her sister Ruth Ann Yeager informs Alafair Tucker that her husband Lester is dying. To pay her respects to Lester and be there for her sibling, Alafair accompanied by her two daughters Martha and three years old Grace takes the train from Muskogee to Enid, Oklahoma.

Upon arrival in Enid, instead of being there for her already grieving sister while Martha watches Grace, Alafair who learned from the letter she received re Lester’s pending death that her niece Olivia’s foolish husband, Kenneth vanished even as local ruthless businessman Buck Collins is looking for him. Apparently foolish Kenneth had a deal with Buck that failed to pan out; most locals assume Buck took care of business his way, but Alafair thinks otherwise and with her oldest daughter assisting her begins to investigate the disappearance of her niece’s moronic husband

The latest Oklahoma historical amateur sleuth story (see THE DROP EDGE OF YONDER, HORNSWOGGLED and THE OLD BUZZARD HAD IT COMING) is a fabulous entry in one of the best continuing WWI era sagas. The story line as always gives the audience a sense of place and time as for instance the events in Serbia last year seem so removed from the current events in Oklahoma. The mystery of the vanishing in-law is filled with twists that stun the mother and daughter detectives as the links go back to the last decade of the previous century. Fans will fully appreciate this strong story while thinking the sooner Donis Casey writes her next Tucker tale the better.

Harriet Klausner