When a fellow reviewer raved about Lori Armstrong’s Hallowed Ground, I knew I had found a new author. I went back to find Blood Ties, the first Julie Collins mystery and Hallowed Ground and read them both back to back. To me, when you can read several books in a series back to back and still want more, that is something special.

Julie Collins and her partner Kevin Wells are on what starts out as a typical insurance fraud case. Time is running out and they need to prove that Lang Everett is faking his injury. The reappearance of a mysterious hole, one that causes the fatal accident, brings about an unsettling confession from Everett‘s wife. Everett and his partners in an illegal off-season hunting scheme discover human remains out on the remote ridge. Fearing repercussions, the hunters reburied the remains and kept quiet about the discovery. Now the hole is back and the bones have vanished.

Are the missing bones a part of an unknown ancient Indian burial ground? Or are they connected to the unsolved disappearance of a Native American woman? As the over-worked and under-staffed local Sheriff department checks out the crime scene, Julie’s old boss Al Richards asks for her help. But this case opens the old wound of her half-brother’s murderer having never being found. This has her at odds with the Standing Elk family once again. Along with all of that, Julie’s relationship with Tony hits a bump in the road when he asks her to go undercover in his strip club.

Julie is once again on the wrong side of tribal politics, family disputes, and employee rivalries. Even though the personal stakes run deep, Julie continues to dig for answers.
Julie finally comes face to face with her brother’s killer in a brutal fight for her life.

The third Collins private investigative mystery continues to provide insight into Julie’s character. She is a strong-willed, independent woman who can take care of herself. But it is Julie’s back-story that is revealed a bit at a time that explains much of her source of strength and why she is such an interesting woman. Ms. Armstrong moves the dialog; character development, and the plot that you are immersed in within the South Dakota scenery with Julie and her boyfriend, good guy/bad guy Tony Martinez. Shallow Grave shows Ms. Armstrong’s growth as an increasingly impressive and consistently interesting crime fiction author. I look forward to her next Julie Collins book Snow Blind due out later this year.

Reviewed By Theresa
© March 2008