Thursday, June 01, 2006


If you like your cozies with zest and teeth, Victoria Houston’s books about fishing and murder, set in Loon Lake in northern Wisconsin, come highly recommended – by the likes of T. Jefferson Parker and Laura Lippman. The characters are as real as family and neighbors, especially retired dentist Dr. Paul Osborne, who wants more time to develop a romance with police chief Lew (for Lewellyn) Ferris but mostly has to settle for identifying dead bodies for her. In Houston’s latest, three women found in an overturned car on an isolated road turn out to be murder victims. One is Peg Garmin: “that her loveliness had been for sale did not diminish it.” And it’s her past connection to a prominent Chicago family that kicks off the lively investigation.