The Chip in the Dead Man’s Hand
The Connor Westphal Mysteries have been on my to be read like for decades while I read other books by the author. It feels good to finally be reaching the seventh and final in the series, Dead Man’s Hand.
If you haven’t met Connor yet, she is the owner and reporter for the Eureka!, a weekly paper for the town of Flat Skunk, California in gold rush country. She also happens to be deaf. The books give an interesting look at life for a deaf woman living in a hearing world.
This book finds the town in the middle of winter. The cold, snowy weather doesn’t hide a dead body, however, especially since it is found hanging in front of one of the stores in town. While it would be easy to rule it an obvious suicide, the sheriff finds evidence that leads him to believe it is murder. Naturally, Connor sees the chance to get a big news story for her paper, but she can’t get a handle on the story. What is the meaning of the chip from the nearby Indian casino found in the victim’s hand? Or does the victim’s drug dealing have anything to do with his death?
The book doesn’t waste much time before the body is discovered, and there is plenty to keep us guessing, including multiple motives. I didn’t guess who the killer was until the end, but things did make sense.
I was a bit surprised that one of the series regulars wasn’t in this book, and a couple of the others weren’t around much. In fact, I felt like we were missing some of the sense of place we had in earlier books in the series.
But it was nice to spend time with Connor again. She’s a strong woman who handles her hearing loss well. It was interesting to see that her signal dog, Casper, was a stronger presence in this book. I liked seeing that dynamic, and it makes me wonder why she wasn’t as involved in the earlier books.
The series started in the late 90’s, and I’d been thinking as I read those first books about how advances in technology would change Connor’s life for the better. We saw that with this book, which was originally published in 2007. It was nice to see early versions of cell phones coming into play here. Of course, through the magic of fiction, Connor and the others haven’t aged in real time while technology has advanced.
I was also a bit surprised by one of the subplots. I had to go back and read the ending of the last book again. When I reread the ending, I could see it was a bit more open ended than I thought it was, but it wasn’t the impression I had when I read that book.
As always with this series, there is much more foul language than you’d expect in a cozy. Keep that in mind when you pick up the book.
All told, this was a nice send off for Connor. Fans will be happy with where Dead Man’s Hand leaves her.
Be sure to read the rest of the Connor Westphal Mysteries.
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