cover image Death in West Wheeling

Death in West Wheeling

Michael Allen Dymmoch. Five Star (ME), $25.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-1-59414-458-5

Dymmoch (The Fall) delivers a regional mystery with a likable enough narrator, acting sheriff Homer Deters of rural West Wheeling, Ill. A sudden rash of missing persons is the most exciting case to break on Deters's watch, and when he discovers body parts-bones, a toe-in Goode Swamp, Deters realizes he may be dealing with murder. Moreover, the KKK klavern is restless, and a local family is guilty of truancy. The plot shows promise, but some readers may balk at a book written almost entirely in dialect: ""When the city fella came back, I was sittin' on the front porch of the post office with my feet up on the railin', doin' my best Deputy Redneck imitation.""