Idaho Code

by: Joan Opyr

Published by: Bywater Books

Reviewed by Andrea Sisco

The front cover pretty well sums up Wilhelmina "Bil" Hardy's family in Cowslip, Idaho. "Where family therapy comes with a shovel and an alibi." Not everyone in Idaho belongs to the right-wing. There are a number of ex-hippies, some are lesbians and then there are the members of Bil Hardy's family.

Bil is fresh out of a bad relationship in Seattle and has returned home to Cowslip, Idaho where everyone knows your name and your business. She's attending the local college and looking toward the future. And she's contemplating 'coming out' to her family. But her brother, Sam (who is adopted and African-American) and experiencing chemo-therapy, has taken the path of small-time criminal. While Sam is incarcerated (again), an evil man who left Cowslip and his family sixteen years earlier, returns, is arrested and dies in the cell he shared with Sam. Supposedly.

The police think Sam looks good for the murder and Bil and her mother Emma are driven to prove his innocence. A major complication surfaces when Bil's former girlfriend hits town to help with an anti-gay proposition, an old crush (Sylvie) moves back to town, and it appears that Emma and Sylvie's mothers were involved in a long-ago murder themselves.

As Bill negotiates the labyrinth of murder, her eccentric family adds color, mayhem and some raucous behavior to the mix. In spite of them, Bill might solve the murder and straighten out some long-ago misunderstandings. And she just might get the girl.

Joan Opyr's Idaho Code is a fun, fast-paced quirky novel where small town eccentrics can be as dangerous as murder. Some of the scenes (particularly a funeral scene) will have you laughing out loud.

Idaho Code is a lot of fun and I look forward to her next novel (hopefully about Bil). As a 'hard core' mystery buff, I don't like any sex, gay or straight, in my mysteries. That being the case, I glossed over those scenes.

Armchair Interviews says: A lesbian novel that many 'straight' folks will enjoy.

Author's Web site: http://www.JoanOpyr.com