She should have known when she fished that Pink Floyd T-shirt out of the creek that it belonged to that waitress, the one who disappeared… long, when along with her orange tabby cat, Jack Kerouac, she discovers a T-shirt in the local creek that belonged to missing waitress. Now foul play is suspected, and Ryn, who has fallen for the quaint mountain town, is determined to find the killer and give her new friends closure. Teaming up with the local police detective, who seems to want more than Ryn can give him, she puts it all on the line—her heart, her job, and her life.
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I received a free electronic copy of this cozy mystery novel on November 23, 2019, from Netgalley, BookReviewBuzz, D. M. O’Byrne, and Black Opal Books. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition and this review reflects my personal opinion of this work. I am pleased to add D. M. Byrne to my favorite author’s category and to recommend this Colorado mystery to friends and family.
Our story is set in the tiny mountain community of Trout Fork, Colorado, a wide spot in the road running alongside Trout Creek. Our viewpoint is from the perspective of New York journalist Ryn (Kathryn) Lowell and her orange tabby side-kick Jack Kerouac. Ryn is a columnist for an off-the-beaten-path travel magazine and Trout Creek looks like an excellent destination for vacationers who appreciate silence and a lack of crowds. With some of her readers, even the lack of cell service will appear as a plus. She will write the next issue of her column ‘Out of my Way’ on the attractions in this area before she moves on.
Ryn decides she really enjoys this area of small, meandering mountain roads, most one-lane, and the odd two-track, that penetrate the slopes of the Colorado Rockies ‘Fourteeners’, some of the fifty-three mountains in the Rockies that reach or exceed the towering heights of 14,000 feet in altitude. Ryn and Jack enjoy this nomadic lifestyle, wandering from place to place in her beat-up Toyota Corolla and exploring the countryside. Ryn cringes every time she calls her mother back in Manhattan, knowing that she does not understand Ryn’s need to avoid cities – and home – for her own mental health. A week or two in Trout Fork sounds like just the ticket. She will take on the temporary job as a waitress at the only Trout Forks eatery, Alma’s Cafe, which will put her at the heart of this tightly knit community. Ryn feels it is almost serendipity that the previous waitress, Heather, left Alma with no notice a couple of days ago. The majority of the permanent citizens of Trout Fork are middle-aged or older. Alma of the Cafe has a teenaged daughter, Audrey, who willingly shares her room with Ryn as she had with Heather. The nearest temporary housing is at least twenty miles away and would defeat the purpose of working in Trout Fork. Things quickly settle into a routine – an early morning jog with Jack along the path bordering Trout Creek, working the breakfast shift, a couple of hours break and the lunch crowd, then the supper bunch – makes for a long day but there are a couple of hours between busy times when Ryn can acclimate herself to a country she is beginning to love and write her column.
Motorcycle ‘gangs’ – mostly older, sedate riders, many repeat visitors who stop for a meal at Alma’s and perhaps a beer at Trout Fork Liquors, snacks from Gil’s Bait Shop, a wander through the ‘treasures’ to be found at Madam Gauzie’s Antiques or set up camp in the clearing across the road from the shops for a quiet night of rest. But the odd 1%er slips into Trout Forks as well, those hard-core outlaw bikers who are happiest making trouble. They are frightening but don’t usually stay long and have so far only made small ripples in the fabric of life in Trout Fork.
On day two Ryn finds a black Pink Floyd shirt in the creek – perhaps the same shirt Heather is wearing in the photo of her and Ashley Ryn saw posted in the cafe. Heather’s favorite shirt. And then Jack Kerouac finds the missing waitress while on their morning jog. Dead. Buried alongside the Creek. Just three fingers wearing purple nail polish poking out of the duff. The police close in from everywhere, but the Denver police have jurisdiction and aren’t visibly interested in finding out what happened to Heather. More local police don’t have jurisdiction. Things are not looking good. And then Ashley disappears… Just as Heather did.
Murder Mystery in the Colorado Rockies
This book is the first in a series. The basic plot of a roaming travel writer in the Colorado Rockies caught my eye as that is my background. The plot surrounding the murder was very well done. The final reveal will probably give me nightmares. This story is a little more graphic than the general cozy mystery. However, there is romance without sex, little blood, and no gore. The general plot could be something you’d see on Criminal Minds. I received this ARC book for free from Net Galley and this is my honest review.
Next stop….Trout Fork, Colorado!!!
Kathryn (Ryn) Lowell is a column writer
for a New York magazine. Run and her
cat, Jack travel from place to place to
feature out of the beaten path spots in
her travel column.
Trout Fork consists of a few fishing
cabins, Alma’s Cafe run by a singe mom,
Alma with. her teenage daughter as a
waitress, a bait shop, a liquor store and
an antique shop.
When Ryn discovers that the Cafe is
short handed in waitresses due to one
who up and left leaving her belongings
behind, she decides to help out until her
travel column is written.
Then while out jogging with a Jack on a
leash, they find a grave with the waitress
buried in it. It turns out the she didn’t just
leave but was murdered.
Ryn decides to play amateur sleuth.
The characters were all well casted for
this out of the way small town. The
regulars consisted alcoholic, a patriot, an
older eccentric woman, a religious zealot,
his very strict parents, a motorcycle group
of teachers on holiday, a slick real estate
developer, the developer wife, an outlaw
band of motorcyclists, a small town
detective, Alma’s husband plus a nearby
handsome town cop.
Murder, kidnapping, poison stream water
killing many, many fish, a fire add to the
drama, suspense, danger which seems
to have descended on Trout Fork.
Are they all related? Come along with Ryn
as she sets out to solve the mysteries along
with the handsome cop.
A good read that will keep you reading from
the first work until the end.
I volunteered to read Death in Trout Fork.
Thanks to the author via Booksprout for the
opportunity. My opinion is voluntary and my own.
Travel writer, Ryn Lowell, pulls into the small town of Trout Fork looking for a story. What she finds is murder. Once I started reading this powerful novel, I didn’t want to put it down! I didn’t want it to end, either. The writing is very skillful, with a nice twisty plot and believable, well-developed characters. Highly recommended! I received this book free and chose to make a voluntary, unbiased review.
Death in Trout Fork by D.M. O’Byrne was an intriguing and entertaining read from beginning to end.
I enjoyed meeting Ryn Lowell, a travel writer who is traveling around Colorado looking for new travel destinations for her readers in New York. Ms. O’Byrne’s writing is descriptive and I felt like I was actually visiting Trout Fork and meeting the quirky characters who live in this small community. Ryn is quite an independent young woman who has a need to wander and not be tied down as she enters Trout Fork. I liked Ryn and admired her determination to find out the truth about the murder to help her new friends. A plot that moved smoothly with a few twists and several suspects that kept me on my toes as I read. I’m glad that I found this series and I’m looking forward to reading the next one in the series.
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book from Black Opal Books via NetGalley. All of the above opinions are my own.
Trout Fork, Colorado, a fishing town, is where Kathryn (Ryn), a writer for a travel magazine, lands looking for a story.
Unfortunately for her, she gets a little more story than she had hope to find. While jogging with Jack, they discover an article of clothing belonging to a woman who has recently disappeared. Jack finds more than that. Murder is instantly on the table. Did I mention that Jack is her orange tabby cat, who is always with her even while jogging.
Ryn has fallen in love with the small town and making friends. Her new-found friends want her to investigate, which leads her to dealing with the local police detective. Along the way, she discovers that small towns hold secrets and there are lots of residents who may have had a motive to kill.
This is a gentle mystery with a bit of suspense, with a possible romance on the horizon. Ryn is a terrific series character, but she almost takes a back door to Jack, her traveling companion. The residents of Trout Fork vary in how they treat the newcomer. Some are quirky .. some are just downright fun … and at least one is a killer.
Many thanks to the author / Black Opal Books / Netgalley for the digital copy of this cozy mystery. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
I was provided a copy from the author in exchange for a fair and honest review. This is a completely new to me author and one that I would support 100%! From the first chapter of the story, I was instantly engaged with the characters, location, and plot. Ms O’Bryne knows exactly how to capture your attention and to keep you reading one page after another. Her characters are very well-developed, and I grew to like certain ones and be very leery of others. I kept trying to figure out who the killer was yet find that I was once again wrong. There were plenty of red herrings along the way to keep you guessing until the end. I am excited to see this series take off an cannot wait until the next book!
Travel writer Ryn Lowell likes to jog with her cat, Jack, on a harness, which is how she finds the body of Heather, a waitress who disappeared two days earlier from Alma’s Café, the only restaurant in Trout Fork, Colorado. Most everyone assumed she’d disappeared with one of the biker gangs that come to the tiny fishing hole, but someone local knows the secrets of her death.
Ryn shows up in the little town — “just four stores under one shingled roof at the intersection of two winding mountain roads” — in search of an interesting subject for her column, Out of My Way, and immediately realizes she’s found a true gem. Noting the Help Wanted sign at Alma’s, she agrees to sling hash while researching the town, which features a sour bait shop owner, an alcoholic liquor store keeper, an eccentric antique store proprietor, and the aforementioned Alma, a single mom who runs the café with her teenager daughter, Ashley. Amongst her customers is the Rev, otherwise known as Zach, a middle-aged Bible thumper who quotes scripture while passing judgment on all, and Garrett, a handsome cop from nearby Pineland Park, who’s assigned to investigate Heather’s murder, while becoming increasingly fond of Ryn. And lurking in the background is Dave Malone, a shady developer who’s pressing Alma to sell her property, an offer she consistently refuses.
Everyone seems to have a motive — happy private lives aren’t a feature of life in Trout Fork — and the heat amps up when a chemical spill upstream sends hundreds of dead fish through the town, then fire breaks out in the woods behind the cabins late one night, forcing everyone to flee in their pajamas. Finally, Ryn senses a threat in the darkness between the café and Alma’s cabin, which reveals itself when Ashley is kidnapped, and Ryn hastily assembles clues and suspicions in her attempt to save her from Heather’s fate.
Throughout the quest to solve the murder, Garrett and Ryn circle each other in a complex romantic spin, undeniably attracted but separated by an enormous emotional gulf. Death in Trout Fork is an emotional multiplex that, like life, has few neat & tidy moments, and that transforms it from an ordinary novel to a powerfully affecting mystery.
I thourough enjoy this book. Great characters, I’d like to meet some of them, especiall Ryn and her cat!
The plot was complelling, with twists and surprises. Many small touches of personal insights and quirkes and doings of the characters that made the people and area so real. Loved the learned bikers! Far too short and I am waiting impatiently for the next book.
This was a very intriguing mystery. It keeps you hooked, wondering who the murderer is. The only thing I disliked about the book was the way the murderer attempted to kill his last victims. I would recommend this book as it is a very entertaining mystery. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.