The Unexpected Corpse by B.J. OliphantI am now officially out of Shirley McClintock books. Fucking boo. The politics in the middle books are hair-raising and Shirley is too often absolutely right about absolutely everything, but I quite enjoyed having a quasi-cozy series with an older (mid-fifties, early sixties) twice-married heroine, her devoted companion, and foster daughter, set in semi-rural Colorado and New Mexico. Tepper's other Southwestern mystery series, written under the name A.J. Orde, is very good too -- much better than the McClintock books, in fact, largely due to the first-person narration -- but has a younger male (if sympathetic) amateur detective, and it's much more urban, set in Denver. I have some J.A. Jance, I've read nearly all of Tony Hillerman and keep meaning to try Sarah Andrews and Kathy Reichs (altho I CANNOT FUCKING STAND "BONES"), and people have recommended Walter Satterthwait, Judith Van Gieson, Louis Owens and Nevada Barr, but I don't think I'll find another heroine quite like Shirley. Bad knee and all.
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