Larry Grieco, Librarian.  Three Colorado authors have recently published mystery novels and deserve mention here.

Let’s begin with Murder on the Horizon, by M.L. Rowland. This is an outdoors adventure mystery, featuring Gracie Kinkaid and her Search and Rescue teammates, smack dab in the middle of the Mojave Desert.

As Gracie and her colleagues are conducting a search in the blistering hot desert, they discover a trash bag containing human body parts. This opens up a whole new investigation into this grisly discovery. In a subplot, Gracie befriends an eleven-year-old runaway who draws her into “the secretive, hate-filled world of the boy’s family—a group of gun-toting extremists.” The dry Santa Ana winds are blowing nobody any good as the threat of wildfire endangers the mountains lining the Timber Creek valley. With crises building on all sides, Gracie has what it takes to save the day, but not before some very trying circumstances make this a hard-to-put-down crime novel.

Library Journal: “[An] exciting, seriously good adventure…. With her spunky female leading the way, Rowland dishes out generous portions of adrenaline rush.”

Next is a mystery taking place here in Colorado, it the Flat Tops Wilderness area, comprising the Routt and White River National Forests. Another female protagonist, Allison Coil, is in the forefront, along with her longtime friend Trudy, and reporter Duncan Bloom, who together tackle the murder of a friend, “a reclusive environmentalist with an unorthodox idea for the battle against global warming.” There’s another underground group of anti-government extremists in this one, and Allison needs to infiltrate the group in order to stop their “sinister fanaticism.” And there’s another raging wildfire to contend with, roaring through the Flat Tops. Author Mark Stevens gives us Lake of Fire, the third installment of the “Allison Coil Mysteries,” which Kirkus Reviews says “combines a loving portrait of a beautiful area with an ugly, all-too-believable conspiracy that could have been ripped from today’s headlines.”

Writer James W. Ziskin: “You’ll revel in Mark Stevens’s painted descriptions and sharp dialogue. And most of all, you’ll root for the smartest, coolest heroine this side of the Mississippi: Allison Coil. Try not to tear the pages as you turn them furiously.”

And finally we have The Reckoning Stones, a mystery novel by Laura DiSilverio. This one centers on Iris Dashwood, who is a “sought-after jewelry designer,” but who once was a terrified teenage runaway, Mercy Asher, who fled a tight-knit religious community outside of Colorado Springs. Twenty-three years later, Iris has seemingly overcome her childhood trauma of repeated sexual abuse at the hands of Pastor Matt, and the fact that nobody, not even her own family, believed her accusations of the respected preacher. She left that all behind and changed her name and made a life for herself. Someone must have believed her, though, because Pastor Matt was beaten into a coma, which he remained in for the decades that followed—until one day he suddenly regained consciousness. Iris is devastated at the news of the pastor’s recovery, and falls into a creative stupor. Unable to continue with her craft, she returns to her home town and vows to confront the preacher, and her family and friends, once and for all, and “recover the truth from a community that protects its own.”

Writer Catriona McPherson: “This utterly compelling novel grabs you on page one and drags you into the dark heart of a family and a church gone wrong….A triumph!”

We’re firming up the schedule of a new film series to take place in March/April, on Saturday afternoons, with the engaging film critic Walter Chaw leading discussion about each film immediately after viewing. Watch this column and the library website for details about the new series. This series features films of “The Archers,” the name used by collaborators Michael Powell and Emeric Press-burger, who made some of the finest films in the history of cinema. We’ll be showing The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp,  A Matter of Life and Death, The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, and Gone to Earth. A complete schedule, with dates and times, will be available shortly.