Two victims. Twenty years apart. One elusive killer.
Crescent Bluff, West Texas. Everybody knows everybody. And everybody has a secret.
When a boy is found dead with the skin of a hare’s head in his hand, everyone knows who killed him—Willis Newland, just released from prison after serving twenty years for an identical murder.
But what if everyone’s wrong?
Detective Colly Newland reluctantly agrees to investigate a case that seems to involve the whole town, including her dead husband’s extended family. But the deeper she digs, the more secrets she unearths. And as threats against her escalate, Colly realizes someone is willing to kill to keep theirs…

IN A NUTSHELL
‘The Killing Plains’ is a solid mystery with a strong sense of place, believable characters, creepy child murders, a wound tight town, complex family history and an atypical but believable investigator.

It’s set in Crescent Bluff, West Texas a town full of secrets, many of them revolving around the Newland family that retired detective Colly Newland married into, so there’s a rich suspect pool and lots of deception.

The fast pace and short timelines kept the tension cranked up as this complicated but believable plot unfolded.

From the start of ‘The Killing Plains‘ I was impressed by the clarity of the writing and the skill of the storytelling. The people and the place felt real.

At first, the story seemed a familiar one. Willis Newland, who was a little off by community standards was tolerated because his father employed half the town, until he was convicted of murdering a child. He did twenty years in prison, came home to his rich family and then became the prime suspect for a similar murder.

I thought I knew how the story would go until I met the main character, Colly Newland. At forty-six, she’s a former Houston PD Detective who, after the sudden death of her husband and daughter, retired so that she could focus on raising her traumatised, eight-year-old grandson. Colly had no desire to return to Crescent Bluff, her dead brother’s home town, but her brother-in-law, Crescent Bluff’s Chief of Police guilted her into doing an informal review of the Texas Ranger’s murder investigation which identified, Willis Newland, another brother-in-law of hers, as the murderer.

I liked that Colly wasn’t an outsider looking askance at the odd West Texas folks. She married in, never intended to stay but ended up spending decades enmeshed in the family’s dramas which she’s about to be pulled back into. Colly has brought her troubled grandson with her and has to place him in a school where her sister-in-law is the Counsellor. To add to her stress, Colly is disliked by some of the people in Crescent Bluff who hold her responsible for her husband’s death. It’s easy to see how everything gets very tense very quickly.

Crescent Bluff has lots of people with secrets to hide. I admired how the pacing of the reveals of the various secrets and subplots sustained the mystery. I kept finding things out but each new piece of information raised more questions and gave me new people to suspect rather than giving me clarity.

I was kept guessing about who the murderer was until almost the end of the book but the final reveal made sense.

i’d never have guessed that ‘The Killing Plains‘ was a debut novel. I’m looking forwared to seeing more of Sherry Rankin’s work.