ONE FOOT ON THE EDGE

ONE FOOT ON THE EDGE
Author:C.K.Crigger
Copyright: 2009
Whoo Doo Mysteries/ Treble Heart
Softcover ISBN:978-1-932695-88-5
$12.95 275 pages
Historical Fiction/Mystery

When your father dies and leaves his money to your step-mother you don’t have many choices in life. Fortunately China Bohannon has the advantage of having an uncle in another city a distance away from her former life that happens to have an extra bedroom available. That is if he is expecting you.

China takes it upon herself to start her life in Spokane, Washington far away from her step-mother in Walla Walla. This is hopefully with the assistance of her uncle who happens to run a detective agency. China’s plan is to find a job and fortunately, the detective agency does need someone to manage the office. For a spinster in the 1890s though, this might not be the best choice.

When China arrives at the office, her uncle is not around, but his partner, Gratton Doyle questions if she is a capable bookkeeper and can successfully run the office. Her uncle understands the situation and quickly even asks for her assistance in a case. Her feminine perspective is keen and she leads her uncle to solving the case.

Through a random occurrence, China might also have witnessed a chance encounter with a murderer of young girls. Everyone seems convinced that the death of a particular 14-year-old girl was suicide, but China questions how a girl could easily cut her own throat. Even the police seem convinced that the girl had a bad reputation and took her own life.

The girl’s mother gives China her hard-earned money to investigate the death without her uncle or his partner knowing about it. Also, the murderer is suspicious that others are questioning him, and is quickly killing off all the possible witnesses, including China.

C.K. Crigger resides in Idaho. She has won various awards for her novels. She has written BLACK CROSSING, CROSSROAD, LIAR’S TRAIL, ALDY NEAL’S GHOST, ASK PARROT, THE WINNING HAND,SHADOW SOLDIER, THE PRINCE’S COUSIN,IN THE SERVICE OF THE QUEEN, SIX SHOT, and THE GUNSMITH series of audio books.

The story is fast-paced. The characters are believable and enjoyable. The historical sense is accurate. The overall novel is a delightful perspective of life from the feminine perspective of being independent in the 1890s while living in the frontier city of Spokane, Washington.
I definitely look forward to more books by this talented author.