The Old Buzzard Had It Coming

By Donis Casey

Book Overview

Alafair Tucker is a strong woman, the core of family life on a farm in Oklahoma where the back-breaking work and daily logistics of caring for her husband Shaw, their nine children, and being neighborly requires hard muscle and a clear head. She's also a woman of strong opinions, and it is her opinion that her neighbor, Harley Day, is a drunkard and a reprobate. So, when Harley's body is discovered frozen in a snowdrift one January day in 1912, she isn't surprised that his long-suffering family isn't, if not actually celebrating, much grieving. When Alafair helps Harley's wife prepare the body for burial, she discovers that Harley's demise was anything but natural--there is a bullet lodged behind his ear. Alafair is concerned when she hears that Harley's son, John Lee, is the prime suspect in his father's murder, for Alafair's seventeen-year-old daughter Phoebe is in love with the boy. At first, Alafair's only fear is that Phoebe is in for a broken heart, but as she begins to unravel the events that led to Harley's death, she discovers that Phoebe might be more than just John Lee's sweetheart: she may be his accomplice in murder.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590583116
• ISBN13: 9781590583111
• Release Date: May 2012
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful Book!

I was very pleasantly surprised by the genuine seeming characters and accurate historical (1911) setting of this mystery novel. The book's unique title and Oklahoma setting (where I once lived) attracted me to the book. Farm wife and mother Alafair is a very appealing heroine and though I never quite got all of her nine living children totally straight most of the other minor characters are also well developed. The book has an authentic flavor of rural Oklahoma from the "down home" cooking to the speech patterns. The mystery is solid (though my eyes may have glazed over a bit when it concerned guns) and though I guessed the real murderer well before the book's end I didn't predict the full circumstances surrounding it. I am glad to see Ms. Casey has all ready published the second in the series of Alafair's detective adventures (HORNSWOGGLED) and according to her web site a third will be published this fall.

A good mystery

I usually don't care that much for mystery books but the time period & the title drew me to this book. I wasn't disappointed. I loved the family & all the children. A little romance mixed in makes this book really good. Don't miss the next one by this author with the same family & another good mystery.

enthralling, amusing great read

This is a great story. The characters become real immediately. Interesting. Smiles. Real life. Surprising, but reasonable, ending. I first checked this book out from the library, scooping up a bunch of new mystery books. I got a kick out of the title. Liked this one so much, I bought it. Looking forward to this author's subsequent books as well. My mother at first refused to read this book (she didn't like the title). Later, after I'd purchased it, she started to read it, became engrossed in it and hardly put it down until finished.

A Novel That Truly Soars

Simply stated, I loved reading this book -- I didn't want it to end! It has everything a really good novel should: well developed characters, a great setting, and heart. In fact,it has lots of heart, more than most novels and certainly more than most mysteries, which is what this book is. Unlike myself, my wife doesn't enjoy reading mysteries, but she loved this one because of its heart. Being a third generation Oklahoman like the author, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about what it was like to live on a family farm in my home state shortly after it achieved statehood in 1909. My maternal grandparents were farmers not far where the story takes place. I sent a copy of the book to my mother, and she vouched for its accuracy. And, just in case you're wondering, she loved reading it, too. I know from attending a recent reading by the author in Tempe, AZ, where she now lives, that this is the first in a series of at least three mysteries centered around Alafair Tucker and her family. I very much look forward to the next one, which is scheduled for release in the summer of 06.

fine historical mystery

In 1912 Oklahoma, Harley Day works a hard scrapple farm barely making ends meet and beating up his wife and frightening his children. They wouldn't have the farm if it wasn't for their oldest son John Lee who knows that his father owns a still and sells moonshine. One night, Harley doesn't come home but nobody worries because that is his norm. John Lee finds his father dead in the snow and at first thinks he froze to death. When the women prepare the body for burial, neighbor Alafair Tucker finds a .22 bullet from a lady's derringer in his head. She soon learns that John Lee is in love with her daughter Phoebe and she with him. Alafair's .22 is missing and she fears that her daughter gave it to John Lee, the sheriff's number one suspect, making Phoebe an accomplice. To ease her own mind, Alafair decides to investigate and discovers that every person she talks with has a reason to want Harley dead. Readers get a taste for early twentieth century frontier living in THE OLD BUZZARD HAD IT COMING. Alafair is a delightful character; a tigress, who will protects her cubs and doesn't care if she puts her life in danger while questioning lowlife customers of Harley. The historical research that serves as a foundation to this work makes the storyline believable and earns Alafair her own series. Harriet Klausner