I first noticed Sheila Simonson because her old Lark mystery series featured a former pro women's basketball player, and I grew up playing and loving the game. As it happens, there was very little to do with basketball in the books, but they were still enjoyable reading—memorable for the quality of the writing and for not being readily labeled as just like (insert better known author name). That hasn't changed with Buffalo Bill's Defunct, the first book in her new Latouche County series. Beautifully crafted prose lays out an interesting, multi-faceted story, filled with a varied array of three dimensional characters you believe in and care a lot about, with a distinctive, vividly depicted setting.

Fortyish librarian Meg McLean is starting a new phase of her life with the move from Los Angeles to Klalo, a small town on the Columbia River Gorge. She knew there would be adjustments; she just didn't expect them to include joining a murder investigation before she had finished unpacking. Meg's new neighbor is sheriff's investigator Rob Neill, who made a hash of his first case, involving the theft of priceless Native American artifacts, some ten years before. A fragment found near a newly uncovered body seems to tie it to that theft... but how? Budget and staffing problems and Meg's own skills—not to mention the fast developing personal connection between them—lead Rob to accept her impulsive suggestion that he swear her in as a reserve deputy, pulling her with him into a dangerous whirlpool of dysfunctional families, divided loyalties, buried secrets and more murder. The results will change a lot of lives, including Meg's and Rob's.

The cozy check-off list of small town setting, amateur sleuth, and relationships being central to the story is in place here, but not the wrapped in cotton feel to life in most cozies. There's banter and romance, but no fluffiness. On the contrary, there's a bit of grittiness compounded of real traumas and storytelling that expertly weaves Rob's professional point of view around Meg's interested amateur. Meg's being sworn in as a special deputy, however inherently unlikely you might consider it, gives her a legitimacy for being involved most cozy heroines lack.

The prose makes this an enjoyable, easy story to read; the storytelling makes it an enjoyable, easy one to believe in. I'm delighted to see Sheila Simonson back in print and look forward to the next book in her new series. Highly recommended.