I’ve read and reviewed four of the five previous books in this series, loving each of them. Going from memory, prior reviews have focused on the main characters, narrator and protagonist Karen Seagate, a recovering alcoholic with many imperfections, offset by a desire to do well, and her sidekick, Ryan Miner, her polar opposite, a devout Mormon family man. I’ve previously talked about how well the fictional city of Rawlings, Montana and the secondary characters reflect the geography and culture of the area it would be in, were it a real place. All of these things are still true. Maybe it’s time to talk about plot.

The short version is, the plots are good, with The Reveal as my favorite thus far. In this particular story we kick off with the murder of Virginia Rinaldi, a professor at the local college. Virginia’s liberal outlook has challenged and sometimes riled up the locals, including some of her peers, but she is almost universally loved by her students.

As Seagate and Miner investigate, they uncover a plethora of suspects and additional crimes are committed that may or may not be related to the initial murder. Just when I thought I’d figured out who did what, something new would happen to shake things up, and I, along with Seagate and Miner, would be forced to reevaluate. In the end, they figured it out. I was kept guessing until the end, even second guessing whether they’d arrested the right person until they’d tied up all the loose ends. This one kept me up late, eager to find out whodunit.

Thanks very much for the generous review, Al!