"A Cruel Oblivion: A Tess Alexander Mystery"

Biblio File column

It begins with Bay Area investigative journalist Tess Alexander reading a puzzling news report about a rich family. Rennie Matlock, just 13, used a letter opener to kill her mother, Cliona, an Irish model. Her developer stepfather, Simon Matlock, holds plenty of political sway and eventually becomes a State Senator. Rennie had everything. The murder doesn't make sense.

Thereby hangs a tale in Nevada County writer Joan Merriam's new novel "A Cruel Oblivion: A Tess Alexander Mystery" ($10.99 in paperback, self-published; also for Amazon Kindle). Merriam (facebook.com/JoanMerriamAuthor) writes the Casey's Corner column for this newspaper about the care and feeding of dogs, and wouldn't you know that Tess' sidekick is Cooper, "from Homeward Bound Golden Retriever Rescue."

When Tess, a Pulitzer Prize winner, moves to "the small community of Deer Valley, about seventy miles northeast of Sacramento," Cooper becomes her "Velcro" dog, always sticking close. 

Then, when Rennie herself is found dead, police call it a suicide. Tess is convinced it's murder.

Merriam's novel, she notes on Facebook, "was just awarded the Eric Hoffer Book Award in the E-Book category" and was a finalist for the grand award. Hers is a worthy win. Compellingly written, with smooth-as-silk prose, the story draws readers into Tess' world as she conducts her own investigation.

Family mysteries multiply and so do revelations, and Tess is put in mortal danger. "Truth crept in on languid cat's feet," Merriam writes in one of the book's epigraphs, "in no rush to reveal itself." Doggedly probing behind the scenes, Tess is no one's lapdog. "Much as she loved her work, she hated being associated with the packs of media hyenas that passed for reporters these days...." But looking beyond official press releases could get you killed.

Tess sometimes senses when things aren't right; her skin crawls; visions swirl around her, but they are often cryptic even as they propel her deeper into deadly secrets. When the truth finally makes its way onstage, and there's a reordering of Tess' own troubled past, readers may feel like Cooper, "an amber tornado, racing from one end of the house to the other, dancing circles around Tess." 

Now it all makes sense.

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Copyright Chico Enterprise-Record; used by permission