Beneath the Ashes:: An Alaska Mystery
The identity of the arsonist plaguing musher Jessie Arnold comes as no surprise in her seventh outing, but Anthony and Macavity winner Henry provides plenty of unexpected twists and turns along the way. Right before Jessie's favorite bar burns down, killing an unknown man inside, she gets a call from an old acquaintance and former neighbor, Anne Holman, now living in Colorado. Anne asks Jessie to help her travel to the log cabin she once shared with her physically abusive husband, Greg. Knowing this entails a dog-sled trip into the wilderness, but feeling sorry for Anne, Jessie agrees. As they prepare for their trip, however, Mike Tatum, the arson investigator looking into the bar fire, tells Jessie that Anne, who's been strangely secretive, was a suspect in an arson case years before in which the now-identified victim played a part. Anne swears Tatum is obsessed with proving her guilty, which makes sense to Jessie, who can't stand the man. Later, though, Jessie has to wonder when she and Anne arrive at their destination and find the charred remains of Anne's former home. Anne is sure that Greg has burned down the cabin since her last visit. Back home, when someone torches the cabin Jessie built with her own hands, she can't figure out who her enemy really isATatum, whom she enraged by defending Anne; Anne herself; or Greg, who's followed his wife to Alaska. Again, Henry's lyrical descriptions of the Alaskan wilderness make up for a transparent plot and a melodramatic finale. (July)Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.