This murder mystery has all the elements of a great book. A beautiful detective with a troubled history; bodies turning up in strange circumstances; a villain who himself is only the tip of the iceberg. If that sounds like cliche, think again. The Devil of Light is full of surprises.

It all starts when they turn up a half–buried body out in the woods. The strangest thing about this body is that it’s missing a foot. Mystery lovers will enjoy putting the pieces of this puzzle together. There’s a mysterious fire at a local greenhouse. Then a local rancher is impaled on a hay dolly, a sort of giant pitchfork mounted on the front of a tractor. That’s the end of him. What’s interesting here is why the sheriff refuses to arrest the rancher’s wife, who freely confesses to driving the hay dolly.

A large number of colorful Texas characters populate this mystery, from the hard-bitten detective, Mitch, to the pudgy Baptist minister, David Cronus. Wallace and Wilbur Pettigrew are twin ranch hands who play a role in the story. The star of the show is Cass Elliot, whose personality is complex, strong and lovable. This is a woman for whom work and career come first, but the choices are never easy.

The author masterfully identifies the main characters with their quirks, like the old man and his sweet smelling pipe, and the way a person listening on the phone hears
the pipe stem clacking against his teeth. Or the crime scene investigator who sniffs the air and declares that there has been no accelerant used for the fire, but maybe cooking oil. Wow, I like the way the author doesn’t skimp on details like this.

The dialogue is equally masterful, establishing these characters in their roles, and fixing them in the reader’s mind. The story takes place in a small town in East Texas, near the Sabine River. Racing up and down the back roads in this county, picking our way down the rutted trail through the forest down to the river bottom near Deuces Flat, I just felt as if I was there, smelling the mud and the smoke and the blood.

Bottom line: The Devil of Light is an extremely well crafted mystery, a complex web of treachery and betrayal building to a killer finale. I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good mystery, or just good writing.