RUTHE FURIE – A Natural Death. Avon, paperback original; 1st printing, January 1996.

   This is the second of only three cases on record for female private eye Fran Tremaine Kirk, as she introduces herself. Both the first one, If Looks Could Kill (1995), and this one were nominated for Shamus awards. The third was A Deadly Pate (1996), and that was the end of the series.

   This particular case begins with a death by pitchfork impalement at an organic farm somewhere in the Buffalo NY area, and widens to a totally dysfunctional family, lots of secrets, vandalized computers, a hotel burned to the ground (in which Fran is presumed to have been staying), a young missing girl with plenty of growing pains, a sheriff with competency issues and another murder.

   Fran Kirk also is having problems with the new man in her life, perhaps having to do with the first that her first husband was a wife-abuser. She’s also a member of a support group for women in similar situations, and one of the other member of the group was a “very close” friend of the first dead man.

   All of this makes for a very long book, over 280 pages, and even more detrimental to the story is that none of the characters — and there are a lot of them — are particularly likeable. Well, yes, I know, characters in mystery stories don’t have to be likeable, but they have to be interesting enough in their bad habits to care what happens to them. This one didn’t make the grade with me.