The Royal Wulff Murders
A Novel
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3.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
The first novel in the clever and fast-paced Sean Stranahan Mystery Series.
When a fishing guide reels in the body of a young man on the Madison, the Holy Grail of Montana trout rivers, Sheriff Martha Ettinger suspects foul play. It's not just the stick jammed into the man's eye that draws her attention; it's the Royal Wulff trout fly stuck in his bloated lower lip. Following her instincts, Ettinger soon finds herself crossing paths with Montana newcomer Sean Stranahan.
Fly fisher, painter, and has-been private detective, Stranahan left a failed marriage and lackluster career to drive to Montana, where he lives in an art studio decorated with fly-tying feathers and mouse droppings. With more luck catching fish than clients, Stranahan is completely captivated when Southern siren Velvet Lafayette walks into his life, intent on hiring his services to find her missing brother. The clues lead Stranahan and Ettinger back to Montana's Big Business: fly fishing. Where there's money, there's bound to be crime.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A fisherman snags a body from a river, a sultry singer asks an artist to catch a fish her late father caught and marked, and feisty Montana sheriff Martha Ettinger refuses to take the easy way out in McCafferty's thoroughly entertaining debut. Sean Stranahan, a recently transplanted Vermonter now living in Bridger, Mont., owns the art studio Blue Ribbon Watercolors, whose window sign includes the odd postscript "Private Investigations." Velvet Lafayette is the lounge singer with the unusual and fishy request that hooks Stranahan. McCafferty blends plenty of fly-fishing lore (the Royal Wulff is a lure) with a host of intriguing characters, including fishing guide Rainbow Sam, Cottonwood Inn owner Doris Sizemore, and Blackfeet tracker Harold Little Feather. Only the sharp-eyed observation of the medical examiner suggests the body was a murder victim rather than an accidental drowning. The eventual identification of the victim helps link Stranahan's task to that of the sheriff. The vivid Montana setting is a plus.
