Hell With the Lid Blown Off (Alafair Tucker Mysteries, 7) - Hardcover

Casey, Donis

4.2

210 ratings by Goodreads

9781464202988: Hell With the Lid Blown Off (Alafair Tucker Mysteries, 7)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1464202982 ISBN 13: 9781464202988

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press, 2014

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"If you can only read one book this year, Hell with the Lid Blown Off should be that one." ―NY Journal of Books

In the summer of 1916, a big twister cuts a swath of destruction through Boynton, Oklahoma. Alafair Tucker's family and neighbors are not spared the ruin and grief spread by the storm.

But no one will mourn for dead Jubal Beldon, who'd made it his business to know everyone's ugly secrets. It never mattered if Jubal's insinuations were true or not since in a small town like Boynton, rumor could be as ruinous as fact. Then Mr. Lee, the undertaker, discovers that Jubal was already dead when the tornado swept his body away. Had he died in an accident or had he been murdered by someone whose secret he had threatened to expose? Dozens of people would have been happy to do the deed, some of them members of Jubal's own family. As Sheriff Scott Tucker and his deputy Trenton Calder look into Jubal's demise, it begins to look like the prime suspect may be someone very dear to the widow Beckie MacKenzie, mentor of Alafair's daughter Ruth. Ruth fears that the secrets exposed by the investigation are going to cause more damage to Beckie's life than the tornado. Alafair, coping with injuries to her own, still has time for suspicions about how Jubal Beldon came to die. What if the truth of it hits very close to home?

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About the Author:

Donis Casey is the author of ten Alafair Tucker Mysteries. Donis has twice won the Arizona Book Award for her series, and been a finalist for the Willa Award and a seven-time finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award. Her first novel, The Old Buzzard Had It Coming, was named an Oklahoma Centennial Book in 2008. Donis is a former teacher, academic librarian, and entrepreneur. She lives in Tempe, Arizona.

From Booklist:

After a devastating tornado in Boynton, Oklahoma, in 1916, Alafair Tucker and her extended family try to evaluate the damage. Then the body of bully Jubal Beldon is found, and it is determined that his death came from wounds delivered before the storm. As Deputy Sheriff Trenton Calder sorts through alibis and time lines, friends protect each other as fast as secrets come to light. The search for suspects leads surprisingly to music teacher Miz Beckie McKenzie, mentor to Alafair’s daughter, Ruth. As WWI looms, Alafair watches members of her family and friends grow up and deal with serious problems at home. The many characters and changing points of view are at times mildly confusing, but this edgy historical mystery works as a powerful picture of the times. --Amy Alessio

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