Also in the box from Wandering Reader, and my favorite, was Murder on the Middle Fork, by Don Ian Smith and Naida West. A new setting here ... Idaho, in 1918. Did not like the one of the main characters, he was a horrible man ... an abusive husband. Wife had married him to escape an abusive father. They are working an exhausted gold mine so the location is barren and isolated. There is a local man with a nice farm, a German (remember, this is 1918, think WWI) and he is not well thought of, even though no one has bothered to get to know him. A plot is made to take him out and take over the farm. Things take a strange turn and the ending is unlike other mysteries I've read. It's based on a true story. The descriptions of the mountains, and weather and forests and so on are what I enjoyed, they are wonderful and remind me of my time camping in the high country.

As much as I am enjoying the Albert Smith's Culinary Capers mystery series by Steve Higgs, I will also say that I am starting to worry about Albert, and that holds true for the Cornish Pasty Conspiracy, the 13th in the series. Albert is old, after all! He cannot take a beating the way he once could, nor too much hard physical activity. And, he's figured things out, there is a master criminal he has dubbed the Gastrothief behind all the crimes he's investigating, and now he is on to Albert! Rex is along, to help, of course, and he gets into some unusual situations as well. A fun series.

Reading Hermit With Dog