Tamar Anolic’s The Missing Meteorologist follows Ellie Moore, a twenty-three-year-old single mother whose plans for the future have collapsed after a disastrous stint in the Army. Back home in Kentucky and working at a gas station, Ellie is raising her two-year-old son, Carter, while trying to live down the scandal surrounding her less-than-honorable discharge. The one passion she has never entirely abandoned is meteorology, particularly storm chasing. When television meteorologist Amelia Winstead arrives in Paducah for National Weather Service storm-chasing exercises and subsequently disappears, Ellie finds herself drawn into the search. What begins as concern for a woman she admires gradually becomes an opportunity for Ellie to rediscover abilities and ambitions she had assumed were lost forever.
In Justice Rendered, we meet an eclectic character named Fred. The town dislikes him because he is what they call a junk dealer. One day Fred has his wares all over the sidewalk as people complain, and the next day he is found murdered. Sheriff Peter Elliot and his squad work diligently to find the culprit but find themselves going in many different directions. What they learn will shock readers.
The author starts her story with a cast of characters one would meet in small-town USA. Karson highlights the shop owners, concerned citizens, and the sheriff’s department. Her inclusion of the multifarious citizens of Anderson is a reminder that all towns have those special people we just cannot figure out. Each character is a reminder that just when you think you know everyone in town, you realize you don’t. Karson’s descriptions of his character are vivid and creative. An example of this is Karson’s description of the hotel manager:
A dapper man in a coat and vest reminiscent of the style worn in the old west stood at the hotel entrance. Manager Phil Meyer, hands on hips and a scowl on his face, confronted Peter. ‘You’ve got to do something about that mess, Sheriff. On top of the unsightly view, when the wind gets up just right, the smell goes straight into our dining room.’
Finley Burke is concerned over a recent email received by her friend, Birdie in Terry Overton’s Suspicious Delivery. The email, purportedly from an old boyfriend, has come out of the blue, and while Birdie is almost ebullient over hearing from her old flame, Finley is skeptical. The boyfriend, Cash Gentry, had hurt Birdie years earlier by leaving her at the altar, and the correspondence bears the scent of a scam. If this were the only problem Finley was facing, her day would be relatively tranquil. However, news has reached Finley and her fellow citizens of Sunset Cove of an escaped criminal named Bertoni who is intent on exacting revenge on Finley.
