Nighthawk’s Wing (Gideon Stoltz Mysteries)
Gideon Stoltz, sheriff of Colerain County, is still woozy two weeks after falling from his horse while on patrol and lying unconscious for hours. His memory of that time comes back in bits and snatches, and some of the snippets are disturbing: recollections of an interaction with Rebecca Kreidler, a woman who went missing the same time as his accident and whose death he is now investigating.
Nighthawk’s Wing is the second in author Fergus’s mystery series set in the 1800s in Pennsylvania Dutch country. It is an accomplished crime novel, unraveling truths as Gideon questions witnesses about the last days of Rebecca’s life and eliminating falsehoods as he pieces together evidence and observations. It keenly reflects on attitudes and grievances held by members of different religions, cultures, and native languages and suspicions of women unwilling to be confined by their expected roles. It also warmly details time and place and finely depicts tensions between a husband and wife in grief. The narrative stokes Gideon’s restless guilt and captures Rebecca’s tumult in the form of an imaginary nighthawk companion. More than a down-to-earth procedural, Nighthawk’s Wing takes flight.
