Pg. 69: Marshall Cook's "Twin Killing"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Marshall Cook's Twin Killing.

About the book, from the publisher:

Everywhere Monona Quinn goes, people turn up dead — and Mo ends up confronting their killers! First there was Charlie, owner of the town diner and Mo’s first friend after moving to little Mitchell, Wisconsin (Murder over Easy). Then there was the parish priest (Murder at Midnight).And now, even a trip to the family farm yields corpses.

Mo’s twin sister, Madison, is already under plenty of pressure taking care of her mother and keeping the family farm going, with her husband serving in Iraq. So when her son (also one of twins) is arrested for drug possession, Mo drops everything — including her 80-hour-a-week job as editor of the weekly Mitchell Doings — and drives down to the farm, outside Summersend, Iowa, to help. The simple possession charge turns to suspicion of murder when not one but two locals, who are running a meth lab out of an abandoned barn outside town, are killed.

Add to the mix a troubled marriage — when she leaves home, Mo’s husband, Doug, tells her he can’t promise he’ll still be there when she returns — and you have tons of trouble for our amateur sleuth.

Among the praise for the novel:

"When her twin sister's son, Aidan, is arrested for marijuana possession, small-town newspaper editor Monona "Mo" Quinn rushes to the rural community in Iowa where she grew up, leaving in the middle of a fight with her husband, Doug, about the long hours she works. After Mo arrives, a meth laboratory is found in the town, and two area residents are murdered, thought to be the result of a drug deal gone bad; complicating matters further, Aidan is one of the suspects. Believing her nephew is not a drug user or a murderer, Mo sets out to prove his innocence. Personal issues intervene, as Mo finds that her mother's memory is slipping, and her old high-school boyfriend, now the sheriff, still has feelings for her. And then there's the matter of whether her husband will still be there when she finally returns home. The importance of family and faith permeate this mix of mystery and family drama, the third in a series."
--Sue O'Brien, Booklist

Marshall Cook lives in Madison, WI where he is an instructor with the University of Wisconsin's Department of Continuing Education. He is the author of over 20 non-fiction books, and the Monona Quinn mystery Series.

The Page 69 Test: Marshall Cook's Twin Killing.

--Marshal Zeringue