Up In Smoke (A Police Chief Susan Wren Mystery)

by Charlene Weir

Book Overview

An Agatha Award-winning AuthorPolice Chief Susan Wren was a newcomer to Hampstead, Kansas; fate had led her from San Francisco and put her down in this prairie town. When the news came that the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0373265158
• ISBN13: 9780373265152
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Worldwide
• Length: 346 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Excellent book.

Normally I find a plot with so many characters muddled and confusing. No so here! The characters are so well drawn and interesting, each stands clearly on it's own, yet they weave together to form a very good story. It also provides and interesting, and timely, backstage look at the running of a presidential campaign. I've always felt Weir is a much-overlooked writer who deserves more notice. I highly recommend this series.

A really good read!

I won't bore you with the plot--let's go straight to the evaluation. This is a good book! It's got action, well-drawn characters, several intertwining subplots, lots of interesting background--and, the prose craftsmanship is outstanding. Well worth reading!

Murder and Politics in a Small Town

Susan Wren is Chief of Police in Hampstead, Kansas. Governor Jack Garrett is running for President. He and his entourage have come back to Hampstead to kick off his campaign with a homecoming rally. Susan?s cousin Sean Donovan is in town as he is a reporter covering Garrett?s campaign.Casilda Storm (Cass) has returned to Hampstead to Aunt Jean?s house. She finds a large dog in the middle of the road in a rain storm. She takes it in. Luke and Laura (her husband and daughter) were killed by a drunk driver. She is planning suicide. Jack is an old friend. He has Bernie Quaid enlist her help with the campaign.M. L. Shoals (Em) has come to town planning to murder the governor. Wakely Fromm is Jack?s childhood friend. He was paralyzed in a fire jumping incident many years ago. Jack takes care of him and has him travel with him. Jack?s wife Molly is not too pleased with this situation. A woman calls 911 from the trunk of a car but no one can track down where she is located. She is later found murdered. Her niece Arlene Harlow (Moonbeam Melody as she prefers to be called) runs away. The killer comes looking for something and ends up attacking Moonbeam. Officer Luke Demarco cares for her and becomes her friend. This relationship is believable in a small-town atmosphere. It lets us get to know Demarco a little better.Then Wakely Fromm is found murdered. Susan has her work cut out for her to get to the truth and find the killer. I find these books a little hard to get into because there are so many different threads to the story, but once I?m in, I?m hooked! She has created fantastic characters for this story. Plus I really like Chief Susan. She has had hardship ? she lost her husband of four weeks! She doesn?t know if she wants to stay in Hampstead or return to San Francisco. The author has truly captured this struggle. The various characters related to the governor are very well constructed and their interactions are so well written that I forgot they weren?t real.I highly recommend this book.

insider?s look into a political campaign

Governor Jack Garrett is one of the several Democratic Candidates running for the office of President. Twenty years ago, he was a smoke jumper whose bravery saved three men in an out of control forest fire on Pale Horse Mountain in Montana. His friend since childhood Wakely Fromm was severally injured in that fire leading to his being wheelchair bound. For the past two decades Jack has taken care of him.When Jack and his campaign team come to Hampstead, Kansas, trouble follows. The wife of a man who was on Pale Horse Mountain when Jack was fighting the fire is found murdered in the trunk of her car. Her younger sister was badly injured by someone who broke into her home but with time she is expected to recover. Wakely is murdered in a homicide made to look like a suicide and if Police Chief Susan Wren finds the common link that ties these people together, she will have named her killer.Charlene Weir weaves a tangled web that somehow is totally believable in turns of plots and characterizations. There are some very interesting sub-plots that enhance and ultimately run into the main storyline including a suicidal woman who finds she has much to live for when the killer tries to make her victim number five. In a classic turnabout, she is the one that finally confronts the killer and is doing so learns to cope with the loss of her husband and child at the hands of a drunken driver. UP IN SMOKE is a very creative work that gives readers an insider?s look into a political campaign.Harriet Klausner