Lay This Body Down (Gideon Stoltz Mystery Series)
Gideon Stoltz is the sheriff of the south-central Pennsylvania town of Adamant. In the spring of 1837, 24-year-old Gideon—who is fairly new in his job—suddenly faces three separate problems. The editor of one of the town’s newspapers, Phineas Potter, is found dead, apparently murdered. Free Blacks are mysteriously disappearing. And a pair of slave catchers arrive in town, in search of a teenage escapee. Are the three issues related? And whom can Gideon trust? These questions play out in a well-constructed plot that leads the reader not only to the solutions to the mysteries but also through the fraught politics of a border state in the slaver era.
Gideon is an appealing character. He earnestly desires to do the right thing, and desperately loves his unusual, headstrong wife, True. Like many ordinary people in times when great issues disturb their lives, Gideon’s feelings about slavery evolve as he faces its impact on his friends and neighbors.
I am often disappointed in mysteries. I tend to feel that the setup is contrived and the solution so convoluted that a main character must explain it to the reader in a long paragraph of dialog. That was not the case with this story. The crime wave feels urgent, and we unravel the mysteries alongside Gideon, no explanatory exposition required. The author clearly did thorough research, bringing the time and place to bright life. A Pennsylvanian myself, I was especially delighted with the touches of authentic Pennsylvania dialect.
This book is one in a series of Gideon Stoltz mysteries. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to readers who like literary fiction, with lots of deep character development. But it’s highly recommended for anyone who enjoys appealing characters, a tight plot, good historical detail, and a lot of action in a historical mystery.
