Family Practice

This is my second book by this author, and I consider this series a real find. I think you will also enjoy it, if you like cozy mysteries with atmosphere and no gimmicks (the main character is actually a chief of police, not an owner of a needlepoint shop or tea shop or any of the other themes used so often these days for cozies). The only theme in this series -- the backdrop -- is Hampstead, Kansas, and its inhabitants. We get a real feel for this college town, although it may be more appealing to me because I'm from Nebraska and had relatives in Kansas. I can easily imagine this town. Weather also plays a prominent part in Weir's books -- in this case, it's been raining heavily for some time, and this continues throughout the book -- and plays a role in solving the mystery. This mystery involves a prominent family, the Barringtons. Their deceased mother had been a well-known physician determined that all her children would also be physicians, and she succeeds with 4 out of 5. But oh what a dysfunctional family! One of the physician-siblings is murdered early on, and the other siblings are convinced that this crime was committed by one of them or one of their spouses, but they don't want the killer caught because of the public shame to a distinguished family. Susan Wren, formerly a San Francisco police officer, is chief of police, and is on the scene when the murder takes place. Because a child is gravely wounded, she is determined to find the killer but emotionally involved, which is not good. There is a huge Victorian house, a deceased father who was both mentally ill and a brilliant artist, a collection of his paintings, and a lot of people with a motive. Murder follows murder before the killer is finally identified in an exciting ending in a major Kansas storm. I was surprised but it did make sense and the motive appeared adequate. Read the whole series -- preferably in order -- although it really doesn't matter if you start in the middle. You will hear all you need to know about what went before in later books.