What is Tricia Fields reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Tricia Fields, author of Scratchgravel Road.

Her entry begins:

I just finished Ian McEwan’s newest book, Sweet Tooth. It was a masterpiece – a perfect mix of mystery, romance, intrigue – all wrapped up in McEwan’s beautiful prose. As in all of the books I’ve read from McEwan, I was amazed at the structure, at the way he unwraps the story so that the ending not only has impact, but leaves the reader in a satisfied state of wonder.

In the first paragraph, the reader receives the set up for the mystery, and the rest of the book slowly unfolds Serena Frome’s story all the way through the last sentence: the most satisfactory ending I’ve read in...[read on]

About Scratchgravel Road, from the publisher:

The twisty follow-up to the Hillerman Prize–winning The Territory, featuring tough smalltown Texas police chief Josie Gray

It was pure luck that Josie Gray spotted Cassidy Harper's car, abandoned on the side of the road. If she hadn't, then she'd never have found Cassidy, lying nearly dead of heatstroke on the desert sand beside the body of a Mexican immigrant. But Cassidy can't explain why she was out for a walk in the midday desert heat, let alone how she happened upon the corpse. And once Josie sees the ominous wounds on the man's body, she knows she needs to find the answer fast, before her own life is in danger.

Tricia Fields's The Territory marked her as talented new author of Southwestern crime, and Scratchgravel Road marks an inventive new mystery set in the unique world of smalltown Texas.

Learn more about the book and author at Tricia Fields's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: The Territory.

Writers Read: Tricia Fields (November 2011).

The Page 69 Test: Scratchgravel Road.

Writers Read: Tricia Fields.

--Marshal Zeringue