An aged photograph of a dead man hanging from a tree...

Deaths in a nursing home that may not be as natural as they appear...

Clues showing a 70-year-old suicide could be murder...

Sinister small-town secrets, decades old, finally revealed...

Feisty Livy Crowe, single-and-loving-it owner of the nostalgia shop, Better Days, has to deal with all of these and more, including her mother's slow deterioration in a senior residence that might be a crime scene, a very awkward romantic triangle, and murders old and new that threaten even Livy herself...

***

I was so engaged in this slick, clever mystery, I nearly burned the house down, having forgotten I had something cooking on the stove. Murder Old and New by Laurie and Chet Williamson is so riveting and swiftly paced you almost hate to arrive at the solution because you hate to lose the narrator's voice.

Sharp writing, excellent characterization and a satisfying conclusion should put this at the top of your reading list. - Joe R. Lansdale