Consider the Crows [SIGNED COPY, FIRST PRINTING]

After moving to Hampstead, Kansas, to become Chief of Police, former San Francisco cop Susan Wren becomes caught up in uncertain weather, webs of deceit, and small-town intrigue when a prominent local citizen turns up dead

Weir's second Susan Wren tale, following The Winter Widow , finds the transplanted (from San Francisco) chief of police of Hampstead, Kans., struggling against her own townspeople to solve two recent murders. Lynnelle Hames came to Hampstead in search of the mother who gave her up for adoption, but she winds up dead instead. As does, in short order, Dr. Audrey Kalazar, the ill-tempered vice-chancellor of local Emerson College. Time turns against Susan as her boss, the mayor, loses patience, and the citizens of Hampstead risk shooting each other with the guns they've bought for protection from the serial killer they're sure is loose. Weir's appealing heroine gets tired and hungry, is sometimes short-tempered and often lonely in her new town. Most importantly, she doesn't have all the answers, even when the clues are right in front of her. Unmistakably present, the clues are hidden among a satisfying number of red herrings sure to please the reader eager to solve the mystery along with the sleuth. This deceptively simple mystery is not easily cracked, a tribute to Weir's skills.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Former San Francisco cop Susan Wren, now a widow and the police chief in tiny, insular Hampstead, Kansas, discovers that Lynnelle--the poor waif found dead in the woods--thought local college math professor Carena Egersund was the birth-mother who relinquished her years before. Did Carena kill her to keep her silent? Carena is clearly worried about something--perhaps her sister Caitlin's latest descent into schizzy hallucinations. Or her recent brouhaha with college vice-chancellor Audrey Kalazar, whose daughter was using Lynnelle's place to meet her boyfriend. Then Audrey disappears; her secretary stews--and tells a lie or two--and her writer-husband admits to an affair. Are the two deaths connected? Susan and Officer Parkhurst sort through a passel of red herrings and emerge with...the least likely suspect. Plot heavy, like The Winter Widow (1992), but salvaged by interesting characters. Weir hasn't quite got the hang of a bang-up ending, and she's surely not one to turn to for a delicious turn- of-phrase. Overall: fairly standard stuff. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.