When an early morning call brings Deputy Ben Packard to the scene of a home invasion, he finds Bill Sandersen shot in his bed. Bill was a well-liked local who chased easy money his whole life, leaving bad debts and broken hearts in his wake. Everyone Packard talks to has a story about Bill, but no one has a clear motive for wanting him dead. The business partner. The ex-wife. The current wife. The high-stakes poker buddies. Any of them–or none of them–could be guilty.
As the investigation begins, tragedy strikes the Sheriff’s department, forcing Packard to make a difficult choice about his future: step down as acting Sheriff and pursue the quiet life he came to Sandy Lake in search of, or subject himself to the scrutiny of an election for the full-time role of Sheriff, a job he’s not sure he wants.
I got Where the dead sleep because it was part of the Lambda Literary shortlist, without realizing that it’s book 2 of a series of which I read the first book. I realized that when I saw my own review of Book 1 on The Storygraph from a while ago (when I still said ACAB): « ACAB but especially this one ».
My expectations were pretty low for this book.
In Where the dead sleep, our main character, gay police officer turned interim sheriff Ben Packard is not nearly as unlikeable as I found him in the first book of the series. Maybe it’s that he isn’t closeted anymore and that he lays on the self-hate way less thickly.
The story is pretty classic: man dies, wife could be the suspect, or wait maybe it’s the ex-wife, oh they’re sisters, oh affairs and gambling are involved, more people die, genius detective solves murder(s), all is well in this quiet little town if you don’t count the several murders of the past few months spread across two novels.
The thing with formulaic crime novels is that they’ll either be boring and satisfying, or actually good. I think Where the dead sleep was truly enjoyable, and might read book 3 of my own volition, even without an award to go with it!