Wednesday, June 1, 2011

The Truth Sleuth-Jacqueline Seewald

The Truth Sleuth
Jacqueline Seewald
Five Star, Jun 8 2011, $25.95
ISBN: 9781594149634

In Webster’s Township, New Jersey, Kim Reynolds has lost her librarian job at the university due to cutbacks though it may have been her solving a homicide case at the school (see The Inferno Collection) as she wryly notes what happens to whistleblowers. Her boyfriend police officer fiancĂ© single dad Mike Gardner obtains for her a teaching position at Lake Shore Regional High School.

However her job at the school proves challenging as the acting principal, Henry Anderson, believes she does not have the fortitude to perform with her challenging students. The pupils are nasty while her peers are divided with some like Will and Shandra helpful, encouraging and cynical, and others like Morgana wildly nasty. Then the first murder occurs that she sees in a vision; as Mike’s wife who deserted him and their daughter arrives seeking reconciliation and proclaiming she never filed the divorce.

This is an engaging paranormal amateur sleuth with one romance going on hiatus and another beginning while Kim changes jobs. More a character study than a mystery as the whodunit somewhat takes a back seat to the tsuris that piles on the heroine whose gift is not used enough compared with The Drowning Pool. Still readers will enjoy the Truth Seeker as Kim is forced to find herself with new employment and new relationships.

Harriet Klausner

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