The Brook Farm Murders (Jill Szekely Mysteries Book 2) (English Edition) [Kindle-editie] beoordelingen het boek quotes

Strange things are happening at the Brook Farm commune when Jill Szekely arrives to do graduate work. There have been two recent deaths, apparently accidents, along with the disappearance of a baby. Is it only a coincidence that all victims were handicapped? Or are there Spartan types around who believe that only perfectly formed humans should be allowed to live? Could this area be targeted because of a school for the handicapped next door to the commune?Added to that, the very day Jill arrives, her close friend and college roommate, Renee Corliss, disappears from a rest stop with one of her children. Unbelievably, Renee leaves two other children, her own and her friend's, behind alone in the car.Jill is a student social worker, not a private investigator. Though she had indeed solved an earlier mystery, it was very different from this one, a case in which she knew everyone involved. So when her housemates look to her for help, she has no idea how to proceed. She'd been away for years, knew few people in the present situation, and can't begin to assemble a list of suspects. She must talk to everyone and listen closely to their stories. For the police, the prime suspect is Bridey Madigan, newly released from prison for the murder of her own severely retarded child. But Bridey claims she didn't do the killing, that she only confessed because she thought her husband had done it and she didn't want to see him in jail as he was needed to support the other children. If Bridey is telling the truth, then who is the guilty party? There's Renee's estranged husband, an active member of the local Planetary Sanity society which promotes the idea of limiting family size. And there's Renee's long time lover, who has mysteriously turned up simultaneously with the renewed killings after years of absence as MIA from the military. And the neighbor couple, the "not in our back yard" type angry over the sudden appearance of a commune and a school for the handicapped in their neighborhood. And their daughter, Jacqui, certifiably insane and newly incarcerated in a state institution. In short, a plethora of suspects, far too many for a private investigaror to pursue, even had Jill the skills to do so.Jill's husband Zoltan, his concert tour placed on hold because of a threatened hurricane, arrives to help, and together they probe more deeply into the various intrigues of the area, always a step behind the plotters who are out to destroy the handicapped school and if possible, the commune. This is the second Jill Szekely mystery and continues the saga of her troubled relationship to her concert-pianist husband, whose slow-growing career doesn't pay enough to allow Jill to move on from her student days to home-and-family time. Jill continues to face the problem of what to do about this situation, how long to wait for a man she loves but with whom she has little life.