Mason City, Illinois, a tiny rural community in the heart of the Midwest, is the setting for Dale Fancher's book of reflections and memories of a day gone by. A lifelong resident of Mason City, Fancher has a keen mind, and a heart for the quaint, easily lost memories of youth: From bathing in a galvanized washtub, to trailing behind the ice-delivery truck to beg shards of ice on a hot day; from fishing at Salt Creek at night and listening to the bobcats, to World War II blackouts. Reading Fancher's book, one becomes familiar with local characters like Kenny Hanover, still barbering after fifty years, and Edna Sylvie, the barefoot taxi lady. Told as a series of "Remember when .?" and "Did you ever .?" snippets, reading this book is like flipping through an old family photo album.

The mean streets of Memphis are about to run red with blood as the most lethal ladies in the Dirty South prepare for all-out war. Bullets have no names and collateral damage is just part of the game as deadly boss divas push their gangs to secure total control of the streets. In the end, only one can rule—but all-out war means all-out consequences. Vice Lord chief Lucifer goes after the upstart Crippettes gang one by one—but locking down her power will put everything she lives to protect at risk. Ta’Shara straps on her training wheels to prove she can ride with the best of the Flowers—but does this good-girl-gone-bad really have what it takes to survive? And as Queen G LeShelle viciously body-drops to keep her bloody secrets buried, her husband Python may be the one person that can put her in check.

Millhiser outdoes herself yet again in The Rampant Reaper, an effort sure to leave both loyal fans and new readers clamoring for the next installment of this unconventional and engaging series. Literary agent and amateur sleuth Charlie Greene accompanies her mother to her great-great-aunt's funeral under great duress--after all, Charlie herself is adopted, and this part of her extended family has never made her feel that welcome. Plus, it's in Myrtle, Iowa, about as far from Charlie's life as a high-powered California literary agent as one can get. But she agrees to go. How bad could it be? In one of Marlys Millhiser's quirky, offbeat mysteries, that is the world's biggest rhetorical question. Because someone may be offing the elderly in this midwestern town's only nursing home, and it falls to Charlie, the suspicious outsider, to put all the pieces together. Dealing with a passel of wacky relatives she's never met and a vicious killer as well won't be the easiest task she's ever been handed, but Charlie's good humor and recently acquired investigative experience should be more than enough to finish the job. That is, if she can escape the prying eyes that seem to peer at her from every corner of the tiny town.