Monday, June 8, 2015

Small-Town Secrets - Pamela Tracy

Small-Town Secrets
Pamela Tracy
Harlequin Heartwarming, Jun 1 2015, $6.50
ISBN: 9780373367276

In Scorpion Ridge, Arizona, Twice Told Tales used bookstore owner Yolanda Sanchez follows the smoke to a woman puffing on a cigarette days before her grand opening.  The seasoned smoker states she seeks proof that can only be found in an old history book on the town; Yolanda says she has not unpacked all the books yet.  Yolanda thinks of her pragmatic mom who’s frugal and all business-like lifestyle she emulated.  Just before her mom died, she advised her daughter to follow her dream.  Thus with her inheritance she converted the family Victorian into a bookstore.  The smoker explains she is staying with relatives, the Ventigmila family who along with the Moore clan founded the town.

Although radically different in demeanor than his employer whom he knew in school, Adam Snapp also left Scorpion Ridge to come home for a parent.  He returned when his dad became ill and obtained work renovating Yolanda’s home into Twice Told Tales.  They become engrossed in the smoker’s mystery especially when it shockingly agitates their grandparents and the other elderly who insist the smoking customer died decades ago.

The love subplot takes a backseat to the intriguing enigma of whom the first customer is, the history of the town, and a historiographer’s theory of relativity when each person interviewed provides a different perspective to what happened years ago.  Leisurely-paced, Pamela Tracy’s return to Scorpion Ridge (see What Janie Saw, Katie’s Rescue and Holiday Homecoming) is an entertaining romantic mystery.


Harriet Klausner

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