Hell With the Lid Blown Off

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. Then the undertaker discovers that Jubal was already dead when the tornado swept his body away. Had he been murdered by someone whose secret he had threatened to expose? Dozens of people would have been happy to do the deed. 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. 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? Donis Casey is the author of the Alafair Tucker Mysteries and has twice won the Arizona Book Award. She has also been a finalist for the Willa Award and the Oklahoma Book Award. She lives in Tempe, Arizona. www.doniscasey.com