Publisher's Weekly Review
The body of a cranky heiress kick-starts Houston's uneven ninth installment in her backwoods Wisconsin series featuring spunky police chief Lewellyn "Lew" Ferris (after 2007's Dead Madonna). Along with Paul Osborne, a retired town dentist and deputy coroner, Lew investigates the murder of Nolan Reece, whose battered body washes ashore one Thanksgiving morning. Shorthanded, Lew and her on-again off-again beau enlist the help of Ray Pradt, a skilled local tracker-poacher with the ears of a wolf, to unravel the tangled motives surrounding the death of the universally unpopular Nolan. Houston often overloads her characters with familiar backstories (both Paul and Ray are recovering alcoholics) and infuses her subplots with predictable red herrings, such as the angst of Nolan's teenage daughter, Blue. Still, series fans will appreciate Loon Lake's starring role, with its local color and murderous urges lurking just beneath the placid waters. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
A police chief and a retired dentist team up once more to solve several murders. On Thanksgiving Day in Loon Lake, Wis., Nolan Reece is found dead in the waters near her lakeside mansion. Her overbearing manner has given many people reason to hate her. Nolan has squandered all of her father's fortune except for her daughter Blue's $20 million trust fund. The result of a youthful indiscretion, Blue suffers from her mother's wild mood swings. So does Andy, who was paid to marry Nolan and give Blue a father figure. Once Police Chief Lew Ferris calls on her boyfriend and part-time deputy, retired dentist Doc Osborne, to check out the scene, it becomes clear that Nolan was murdered. The family and friends attending Blue's engagement party the night of the murder had been joined by Nolan's new pet project, the Dark Sky sisters: serious Frances and vivacious Josie. The girls' foster mother, crabby Mildred Taggert, who owns the local grocery store and sells hunting and fishing licenses, becomes the next victim when she's shot in her yard. With help from nonpareil tracker and fishing guide Ray Pradt and computer expert Gina Palmer, who's on the trail of a credit-card theft ring, Lew and Doc manage to end the carnival of crime. The ninth in the Loon Lake series (Dead Boogie, 2006, etc.) is a charmingly descriptive look at Wisconsin's north country wrapped around a so-so mystery. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.