Lake Braxton
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REVIEW BY JOHN MESSER
How well do you know your best friend? This question drives Linda Opdyke's second Ethan "Cockeye" Jenks mystery. This time around, Jenks' wife, Michelle, cannot believe that her best friend and cousin, Jesse McClain, would commit suicide, despite the despairing remarks contained in her diary. Obsessed with validating her intuition about Jesse, Michelle moves to Lake Braxton, the small town where Jesse lived and where her husband died three years ago. The police think it was her husband's death that eventually drove the young widow to suicide. In need of a distraction as she prepares to divorce Ethan, Michelle moves into Jesse's former house—the scene of her death— and takes a bartending job at the same roadhouse where her cousin worked. Michelle carefully searches the house and tries to strike up friendships with Jesse's co-workers, but she's only partially successful in applying the techniques that made Ethan one of Nashville's top private detectives. Instead of the methodical research done by her husband, Michelle's research consists primarily of following her intuition. What she discovers is that Jesse was a loner who confided in only one person, Castle, a fellow waitress and social outcast. Michelle's amateurism surfaces early on when her questioning alienates Castle and the other waitresses. However, the roadhouse crew is soon united by its resistance to the bar's prickly owner, Gil Martin. His constant pressuring ultimately allows Michelle to gain Castle's confidence, with lethal results for both of them. Like a character from Touched by an Angel, Ethan always appears to shield Michelle from the consequences of her missteps. Her naivete stands out starkly when she is confronted by a brutal, resourceful killer who manages to stay one step ahead of her investigation. As the number of suspects narrows, deadly violence becomes part of the narrative's plot. Opdyke skillfully obscures the killer's trail and creates obstacles for her novice sleuth. Readers are left to compare Michelle's impulsive, emotional approach to solving the mystery with Ethan's more careful and deliberate pursuit of the killer. The suspense-filled Lake Braxton—another exciting entry in Opdyke's series—is a reminder that chasing killers is a high-risk profession, one best left to professionals. John Messer is a freelance writer in Ludington, Michigan.
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