The Scent of Rain and Lightning, by Nancy Pickard

Nancy Pickard is a veteran of the mystery-writing game. She produced the long-running Jenny Cain series, took over the Eugenia Potter culinary mystery series when the original author died, and launched the new Marie Lightfoot series with an interesting format. The Scent of Rain and Lightning is Pickard's second stand-alone thriller set in her home state of Kansas--and she captures the place beautifully.

The story centers around the Linder family, whose oldest son Hugh-Jay was murdered 23 years ago; his wife Laurie disappeared on the same night, leaving their daughter Jody effectively an orphan. The town ne'er-do-well was convicted of the murder and has been in prison ever since. As the book opens, his sentence has been commuted because of flaws in the original trial; Pickard goes in and out between narratives of the time of the murder and the present. Through both, it rather quickly becomes clear that someone else is the perpetrator and the book winds its way to a resolution.

There's something about the book that doesn't quite work--the surprises in the story don't work, the murders near the end of the book seem gratuitous, the characters don't quite ring true, and the happy ending feels false. Yet I didn't hate the book--I just didn't find it up to Pickard's usual standard.

Favorite passage:

Hugh Senior patted his middle son on his back and wondered if any of them were ever going to be able to be happy again in this life where even the most simple tasks were now so hard to do.