Through a Shot Glass Darkly

Alex Fitzpatrick, transplanted Jersey girl, has recently moved to Sherman, Nebraska and opened her own pub. Sherman is on the map, but sometimes Alex feels she's living in a time warp. The little boys have crew cuts and the residents smile and say hello to strangers. No one locks their doors. Then, on a cold October night, Book Ends, a wonderful Main Street bookstore, burns down with the owner, Alex's friend Barb, inside. As Alex grieves, her initial unease about the fire deepens into a conviction that it was arson. She digs into Barb's past and finds enemies there: an abusive ex-husband-a farmer embittered by their divorce-and closer to home, God's Warriors, a secretive local men's group: think Promise Keepers meets Ku Klux Klan. Becoming a detective was not Alex's game plan and sometimes she feels like a Miss Marple impersonator. But Alex is determined to discover who set the fire. Humor helps her keep things in perspective. She's also helped by her wisecracking friend Kathy (her instructor in Nebraska 101) and Chris, a beautiful photographer to whom she is secretly, unwillingly attracted. But someone wants them to stop, and pranks escalate into threats. To discover the arsonist, Alex must decode the often mystifying culture of Sherman, Nebraska, whose sunny surface conceals more darkness than she'd bargained for. Ultimately, her investigation will force her to confront this question: does a Jersey tomato belong in Nebraska dirt? This is the first book in the Alex Fitzpatrick mystery series.