Footprints to Murder

In Talley’s well-plotted 15th Hannah Ives mystery (after 2015’s Daughter of Ashes), Hannah agrees to help her former college roommate Susan Lockley, the owner/manager of an event-planner service, put on the Sasquatch Sesquicentennial in Flat Rock, Ore. The conference attracts such folks as debunker Martin Radcliffe of TV’s Don’t You Believe It!, adventurer Randall Frazier (whom Susan calls a “superannuated Indiana Jones”), and cryptozoologist true believer Jim Davis, who has developed a surveillance system using leftover equipment from a defunct Radio Shack franchise. At convention headquarters in Flat Rock Mountain Lodge, Hannah meets retired cop Jake Cummings, who monitors a Bigfoot-sightings database. After a possible Sasquatch sighting, Hannah and Jake discover Radcliffe’s body in the woods. In the subsequent murder investigation, Hannah helps Det. Lt. Barbara Cook weed out a large roster of potentially dangerous suspects. Citations regarding unusual humanoid creatures, most dating to the late 19th century, head each chapter of this entertaining entry. [em]Agent: Vicky Bijur, Vicky Bijur Literary Agency. (Dec.) [/em]