"Houston is one smart writer: She traps us in the same chilling
environment as her characters so we feel what they feel -- and fear what they fear. And soon, whether we're in the comfort our study or in a lounge chair at the beach, we hear the threatening growl of a killer beast and begin pondering the possibility of murder."
                       —Jim Fusilli, Award-Winning author of Hard, Hard City

320 pages  |  $24.95 (cloth)  | $14.95 (paper) |  Add to Cart

Dead Madonna summary

When the body of a lovely young woman is found floating beneath a party pontoon on a popular lake in northern Wisconsin on the same morning that a prominent widow is found bludgeoned in her gracious home, Loon Lake Police Chief Lew Ferris is caught short-handed.

This is not a problem for Doc Osborne whom she deputizes to act as coroner and to assist with the investigation. Fishing aside, there’s
nothing Osborne likes better than helping Lew  -- a world-class fly
fisherman in her own right – delve into Loon Lake’s criminal
underworld.  They’re joined in their efforts to untangle two seemingly unrelated murders by walleye-expert, talented tracker and teller of really bad jokes, Ray Pradt.

A charming resort town on the surface, life in Loon Lake turns murky as bank officials soon discover that both victims’ accounts have been looted – along with a dozen others. One grisly development after another further links the two murders even though the victims did not know each other.  Wealthy Chicagoans, visiting entrepreneurs and the young denizens of “Party Cove” complicate the scene.  Whoever thought life in the Northwoods could be this dangerous?

Praise for Dead Madonna

Loon Lake is a typically sleepy Wisconsin resort town—except for its per-capita homicide rate, which rivals that of Baghdad. A young woman is found dead beneath a wealthy vacationer’s houseboat, and another local is discovered bludgeoned to death in her living room. Police Chief Lewellyn “Lew” Ferris is hard pressed to investigate both with her limited staff, and enlists Doc Osborne, her sometime lover, retired dentist, ad-hoc coroner, and occasional deputy, to help solve the apparently unrelated deaths. With the local citizenry chipping in as needed, Lew and Doc soon have a dozen looted bank accounts as a possible motive and a pair of slick strangers who may provide a thread to connect the killings. Fans of small-town mysteries—such as Bill Crider’s Texas-based Dan Rhodes capers—will find the eighth entry in the Loon Lake series a likable change of pace from some of the more grisly whodunits populating the best-seller lists. Houston populates her little burg with two engaging protagonists and a steady stream of mildly eccentric townies as she leisurely moves a clever plot toward a suspenseful and satisfying conclusion.
—Booklist

Victoria Houston is the author of the highly popular Loon Lake mystery series. She has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and on National Public Radio. The next book in her series, Dead Madonna, will be her first with Bleak House Books. It'll be published in the spring of 2007. For more, visit www.victoriahouston.com