Home Again, Home Again

Home Again, Home Again by Susan Rogers Cooper 1997 Avon Books

[image error]

The story begins with an average family of Willis Pugh, his wife, E.J. their son, Graham, 9, and daughters Megan and Bessie, both 6.

Willis doesn’t come home from rock climbing and E.J. begins to worry. She reacts like any normal wife, getting angry at Willis, suspecting him of an affair, and questioning her behavior. This is a series and E.J has solved murders before. Bessie’s parents were murdered and they adopted her. Her next door neighbor is a detective. She finds his car abandoned on the road heading home, and a body in the morgue turns out to be someone else. She learns Willis has visited the preacher and a counselor in the last month. Family and friends gather to search for him. She receives a phone call from him that is cut off.

Cooper switches to Willis’s point of view and we see what has happened to him. He is going through a mid-life crisis. His 40th birthday is on Saturday and he wanted to climb Enchanted Rock, which seemed to speak to him. His car breaks down on the way home, and he gets a ride with Tater. When Rogene calls him on the CB to tell Tater her husband, Calvin, is beating her, Tater turns around, taking Willis with him. Willis discovers Calvin’s body in the trailer and has to help figure out who killed him in order to escape from his captors.

Cooper provides a fast-paced story with plenty of twists and turns as the reader tries to solve the murder along with the main characters. For anyone who enjoys mysteries with a normal, middle-class detective, these books will appeal to you.

For more book reviews, go to authorfreeman.wordpress.com