Three Sisters: A Charlie Moon Mystery

by: James D. Doss

Published by: St. Martin's Minotaur

Reviewed by Kathy Perschmann

The 12th in the Charlie Moon series, this book is about three sisters, not the rock formations, but three actual sisters: Astrid, Cassandra and Beatrice Spencer.

Rancher Charlie Moon and his friend Scott Parris, the police chief of Granite Creek, Colorado, are playing poker when Scott gets a call. He deputizes Charlie, and they are off to the scene of a horrific crime. Astrid Spencer was on the huge family ranch alone, on the phone to her husband in Denver, when she is attacked. When the police arrive they find her ripped-up bloody remains, and eventually make the assumption that a bear attacked her, attracted by the food in her bedroom.

Cassandra is a television psychic who does not see her sister’s death, despite her skills in reporting a truck-stop shooting in some detail, as well as some other crimes. Her sister Beatrice is a talented painter. Beatrice and Cassandra both find themselves drawn to Astrid’s handsome widower Andrew, a computer geek—and before long, Beatrice is married to him.

Charlie Moon’s stubborn Ute shaman Aunt Daisy is of course featured prominently, involved with the psychic when she makes a big hit on her live television show. Daisy has seen the dead young woman, April Valentine, who Cassandra is trying to contact. Nicky Moxon, Cassandra’s manager, sees the advantages of using Daisy for ratings.

The elderly Daisy, however, is much more astute than anyone imagines, and eventually figures out what is going on with the psychic’s television show and Astrid’s supposed death from a bear attack. It is also up to Charlie to discover what happened to the handsome Andrew, who vanished on his way to town one night.

The author has a singular narrative style involving long asides to the reader—however this may be very distracting to some readers—as it did me.

Armchair Interviews says: An unusual setting, great characters, and a fantastic plot make this book a good bet.