A Valley to Die For

Something to Die For #1

by Radine Trees Nehring

Carrie Culpepper McCrite, star of "Something to Die For" mystery series, is an employee of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism, so she's familiar with Arkansas' adventure places. And, she can't seem to keep her nose away from humans in distress-or murder.

In A VALLEY TO DIE FOR, newly widowed Carrie McCrite, ignoring warnings from friends and family that "older women don't DO that," has left a sheltered city life and moved to the rural Ozarks. She yearns to prove she's a strong, capable woman. One of Carrie's new neighbors in Arkansas is JoAnne Harrington, an example of female independence and strength.

When a stone quarry threatens to turn Carrie's beautiful valley into heaps of gravel, the two women and their neighbors band together to fight for the valley. Then someone decides that JoAnne must die.

Carrie feels compelled to uncover and destroy the evil now swirling around her. But another new neighbor, retired Kansas City Police Major, Henry King, warns Carrie that she may be the killer's real target.

How strong can Carrie be? How quickly can she identify the murderer? How much danger can she survive?

It's time to seek answers in A VALLEY TO DIE FOR.

Genres: Mystery

284 pages, Paperback

First published April 17, 2002

About the author

For more than twenty years, Radine Trees Nehring's magazine features, essays, newspaper articles, and radio broadcasts have been sharing colorful stories about the people, places, events, and natural world near her Arkansas home. She's also the author of a book of essays set in the Ozarks. "DEAR EARTH: A Love Letter from Spring Hollow" was published in 1995.

"Until I began to write about Carrie McCrite, I'd dealt only in facts," she says. "What fun it is to take those facts and the settings I love, add people entangled in problems and seeking answers to important life questions, and come up with mystery fiction that shares my world with readers everywhere."

Nehring's research takes her to the places her characters go. She's visited Arkansas tourist destinations, hiked hills and hollows, crawled through caves, spent time in jail (while training for the jail ministry), and--as a news reporter--interviewed officials in every branch of law enforcement. She and her husband John live in the Arkansas Ozarks.

Nehring's major at Principia College in Illinois was Fine Arts. She's done post-graduate work in English and creative writing at the University of Tulsa, and in the University of Iowa Summer Writing Program.

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I liked the idea of this book a lot more than I did the book. Mostly because the main character fell in the "too stupid to live" category. I think she was meant to come off as naive, but she really just kept doing the dumbest stuff. But I guess that is how the other chose to move the story along.

I did like that the main characters were older people.

[Heather Kellermann · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the idea of a cozy, low stakes mystery for fall time, but the FMC was awfully naive and prone to doing stupid things, especially ridiculous since she's a grown ass woman who should have known better. The constant mentions of Christianity were just annoying.

[Lelia Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Years ago, when my now ex-husband was in the Air Force and our first daughter was a baby, we were stationed for a while in Bossier City, Louisiana. This was new territory for us native Virginians and we enjoyed doing the tourist thing in Louisiana and surrounding states. The one significant trip we never had the chance to make was to the Ozarks in Arkansas. I was especially interested in that area because I’d heard that it was very similar to our own very distinctive Appalachian Mountains, a place I’d loved to visit on camping vacations since I was a child. Alas, Air Force pay in 1970 and 1971 was not robust enough to allow us to indulge all of our travel urges, not to mention the AF’s desire to keep my husband close to base.

Now that I’ve read A Valley to Die For, I feel as though a void has been at least partially filled. Ms. Nehring‘s descriptions of the valley where Carrie and her friends live are enticing to anyone with an interest in a mountain environment and I could easily visualize Carrie’s surroundings. The beauty of the Ozarks comes through with all the peace and serenity, as well as the natural dangers, that are to be found there.

As for the characters who live in the valley, I have to say I wouldn’t mind calling them neighbors. There is a great deal to be said in favor of rural or small town living although, in my younger days, the very prospect of moving to a town with a population of about 1,500 pretty much curdled my brain. Anyway, folks like Carrie and Henry and their friends are a likeable bunch and their zeal to stop the quarry is a natural reaction to the threat to their beautiful valley. And wouldn’t it be nice to know that someone would actually notice—without being annoyingly nosy—if your routine changed or you didn’t answer the phone or you didn’t show up for a meeting? Yes, I like these people and I like the way they look out for each other. Oh, and I’m in love with FatCat.

As for the mystery, it’s a good one without being overly elaborate. I had my suspicions early on about who the killer might be and, as it turned out, I was right but that certainly didn’t interfere with my enjoyment of the story. I had to get to the reveal before knowing for sure and other reviewers have said they didn’t figure it out early so this debut mystery was certainly nicely done. I’m looking forward to catching up with the rest of the series.

Now all I have to do is figure out a way to get to the Ozarks to see them for myself.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, June 2012.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you love good cozies with a hint of archaeology, anthropology and history, you'll enjoy A Valley to Die For. Carrie McCrite, a widow and retired librarian, moved to Arkansas from Oklahoma, a few years after her husband's accidental death. When her neighbor is missing and found out dead, it's up to Carrie and her friends to find out who wanted her dead. Carrie later discovers a buried hidden family secret JoAnne kept to herself, which she's sworn in silence not to reveal until later. Between shots being fired at them, someone's after Carrie when she finds a piece of pottery, and now targets her and her friends. Later, she discovers the shocking truth of who done it and why... someone close to her. What a good read!

[Jack · Rating 2 out of 5]

A nice quick read. Volume 1 of the 3 mystery books I bought in Arkansas. They are set in the Ozarks and written by a local author. It was a pleasant story, nice simple mystery. The 2nd of the series will be the test! Also threw in a bit of Arkansas history and local flavor which the author knows a bit about.

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, I'll read another of her books before I judge much. The plot moved a tad slow, and though the descriptions were nice, they lacked originality. Characterization was very good and the story was intriguing. Though I did guess who done it before the end, I still wanted to read about the resolution, which was surprising.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It was well written, the characters were likeable and the Arkansas setting made you feel like you were there. The mystery was good and I was actually able to solve it on my own.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book when I was at Magna Cum Murder at Ball State in Muncie, Indiana. I met Nadine there and she was such a nice, quirky lady that she convinced me to try her new book. I'm really glad that I did.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

local author

First in the To Die For Series.

[Jessica]

A-Z Mystery Challenge by Author: Book N