Hidden Heritage: A Lottie Albright Mystery

At the start of Hinger’s slow-moving third Lottie Albright mystery (after 2011’s Lethal Lineage), Lottie, the undersheriff of Carlton County, Kans., receives an emergency call around 2:00 a.m. from the local feed yard. A corpse is floating in the cattle truck washout (aka the “shit pit”), where drivers unload the dirt and manure from their trailers. The dead man is soon identified as Victor Diaz, the feed yard’s foreman, who had no obvious reason to be there in the middle of the night. Lottie, who’s active in the local historical society, draws on her knowledge of Kansas history when Victor turns out to be related to an old land-owning family. Frustrated by her part-time job in law enforcement, Lottie considers quitting, but not before she finds Victor’s killer. The investigation plods, but readers will learn a lot about the cattle business and Kansas history. Agent: Phyllis Westberg, Harold Ober Associates. (Oct.)