The Desert Hedge Murders (Five Star Mystery Series)

by: Patricia Stoltey

Published by: Five Star

Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

Although Willie Grisseljon usually accompanied his mother’s travel club, the Florida Flippers, he convinced his sister Sylvia to take his place on their trip to Laughlin, Nevada. Sylvia was not the only last-minute substitute to the group. When Velma Rasher took a tumble down the library steps and was unable to travel, Sandra Pringle recruited Patsy Strump to take Velma’s place.

Upon checking in to the hotel, Sandra and Patsy had an ugly surprise awaiting them-a dead guy was in their bathtub. And although she claimed she didn’t, some of the Flippers suspect that Patsy recognized the dead man. Sylvia had some uneasy feelings about Patsy and asked her dad and Willie to do some checking on Patsy back home in Florida. They discover she’s really a private investigator and that Velma does not think her fall was an accident. Why had Sandra hired a private investigator, and did she cause Velma’s accident in order to get Patsy on the trip?
The next day while on an outing to a gold mine, tragedy struck the group again. This time it plunged Sylvia and the group into a dangerous investigation that reached from Florida to the Nevada desert.

The Florida Flippers are an interesting group whose stamina and dogged determination can only be admired. Author Stoltey’s crew is not unlike the traveling seniors in Maddy Hunter’s Passport to Peril series. I would strongly recommend fans of that series to give this book a try.

This is the second book in the Sylvia and Willie series, but author Stoltey does an excellent job of giving readers the parts of the characters’ backstory that is needed to understand their actions in The Desert Hedge Murders. She has included a brief index of characters at the beginning of the book that I found helpful. That said, there were enough of references to their first adventure to pique my interest so I am going to look for the first book, The Prairie Grass Murders.

Armchair Interviews says: Read both books in the series.

Author’s Web site: http://www.PatriciaStoltey.com