a Mystery written by Ashna Graves
Kirkus Review
Mysteries & Thrillers
March 2007
One of twelve “Hot Releases of 2007”
Death Pans Out
Ashna Graves
There are characters of wonderful depth and idiosyncrasy
in Ashna Graves’s mystery—a free-thinking sheriff, a quirky old artifact
hunter, an itinerant priest and medieval scholar and some unforthcoming
family members around whom the story spins—and there is an artfully delineated
place: an abandoned gold-mining area in the sagebrush desert of eastern
Oregon. Skillfully meld the two, as this author does, and you have an unbeatable
combination. Kirkus said the book is filled with “engaging characters,
evocative descriptions of a little-known area: and is “a masterful mystery
. . . [and] a riveting page-turner.”
The author says that she’s “always been drawn to the
arid parts of the West, where spaces are vast and the light is alive. The
landscape of rocky ridges and delicate green sagebrush is as important
as any character in the book.” Protagonist Jeneva Leopold follows in the
footsteps of the author. “One winter, when the rains in Oregon’s Willamette
Valley proved too much to bear on top of a long illness, I asked a geologist
friend if he knew of any empty mining cabin,” Graves says. “A month later,
I was living in solitary bliss at an idle gold mine like the one in the
story. Like Neva, I walked myself back to health on the rocky ridges. “
Fortunately, she didn’t find any bodies along the way.
“I hesitated at first to sprinkle corpses through this beloved setting,
which is not nearly as violent as legend suggests,” she says. “But it is
also true that the West is the land of the tall tale, and certainly mysterious
in being both harsh and exquisite.” So bring on the bodies and let the
mysteries begin.
Publication Date: 3/9/2007 0:00:00
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Author: Graves, Ashna
