NO GOOD DEED: A SAM DAWSON MYSTERY

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY SEP 30, 2019

Horn's entertaining fourth mystery featuring photographer Sam Dawson (after 2017's When They Were Young) makes the most out of its clever concept a search for vindication by the descendant of a wrongfully executed man. Dawson is still scarred by the loss of his lover, Annie, to a serial killer, but he takes a shine to lawyer Cricket McMurdy, who had ambitions of being appointed to the Supreme Court, until she was saddled with a family secret passed down for decades that led to her moving back home to Wyoming and starting an investigation into the execution of the real-life Tom Horn, who was charged with murdering a 14-year-old boy and hanged. Snippets of what that secret entailed are revealed through old newspaper clippings and flashbacks to 1903, when a teacher was accused of perjuring herself in defending Horn. Dawson joins Cricket's crusade to clear her great-grandfather's name, despite opposition from the powers that be, even going so far as to engage in some illegal grave-digging. Fans of mysteries with a Western setting, such as the Longmire series, will be satisfied. (Self-published.)