Publisher's Weekly Review
In Shamus Award--winner Lepionka's expertly plotted fourth mystery featuring Columbus, Ohio, PI Roxane Weary (after 2019's The Stories You Tell), Roxane is hiking one morning in a park when she comes across the body of Rebecca Newsome, a private school nurse, who appears to have accidentally fallen off a trail into a ravine. A month later, Roxane hears from Rebecca's grown daughter, Maggie Holmer, who suspects that Rebecca's nasty ex-husband, Keir Metcalf, a well-connected former Toledo cop, is involved in her mother's death. Roxane drives to Toledo, Rebecca's home, where she meets Keir, who proves uncooperative. Further delving into Rebecca's final days takes her to a casino in Windsor, Ontario, and into the web of a dangerous conspiracy. Along the way to the surprise ending, Roxane learns a shocking truth about her own father's past. Roxane, with her vibrant narrative voice, stands as a worthy successor to Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary. (July)
Kirkus Review
Looking into the death of a woman tied to a cultish new church leads an investigator to wonder if the murder is connected to something closer to home. Her background as a cop's daughter has left Columbus PI Roxane Weary always on alert. When fellow hiker--well, walker, really--Rebecca Newsome dies in a local park, Roxane isn't sure whether she fell or was pushed into the ravine where her body was found. Rebecca's daughter, Maggie, certain that it's the latter, hires Roxane to investigate with a view toward proving that Rebecca's second ex-husband, Keir Metcalf, killed her, as Maggie's certain he did. As Roxane digs into Rebecca's background, she links the family to a church that seems more like a cult, complete with a charismatic leader whose background may be shady. Roxane's own background is marked by her ongoing will-they, won't-they relationship with Tom, her dead father's former colleague. It's hard for Roxane to make the leap of faith to commit and even harder when she learns that Tom's been keeping one last secret for her dad. Though Roxane's digging into the church group seems to promise danger, there's not much suspense, and her determination to work the case even after Maggie asks her to quit clearly represents a road that's already been too well trodden in the series to generate much excitement. Roxane may be surprised that the murder is so personal, but it's unlikely that her readers will be. The latest case for this hard-nosed desperado of an investigator reads a lot like the case before. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Even the simplest cases that Columbus, Ohio, PI Roxane Weary takes on have a way of ballooning into much bigger problems. Roxane encounters Rebecca Newsome at the start of a hiking trail on a beautiful fall morning, and minutes later Rebecca takes a fall that proves fatal. Her daughter doesn't think Rebecca, an experienced hiker, died accidentally and hires Roxane to investigate. So Roxane starts by looking at several people who may know something: Rebecca's recently divorced husband, who runs a security firm and has a relationship with the pastor of a far-right church that increasingly controls its members; a senate candidate who runs a women's-health business; and a 16-year-old student, from the school where Rebecca worked as a nurse, who's found hiding in her home and may hold the key to the whole thing. Dogged investigator Roxane is not deterred by warnings--a message on the mirror of her hotel room, even an explosion at her office--as she also contends with stunning news about her late father and her stumbling relationship with his ex-partner. In her fourth outing (following The Stories You Tell, 2019), Roxane is an increasingly compelling lead character, her fallibility balanced by her self-awareness and persistence.
