This week I finished reading Safe From Harm and I loved that preacher Bear Wells is having trouble with his teenage daughter again. Only this time, she is trying to figure out what happened to her friend, who wasn't a friend. She insists it was not suicide. But every time she attempts to find out more, she ends up looking down the barrel of a gun, with her father watching in horror, not knowing how to prevent his daughter's death. It's so well written. Truly. I recommend this author's books. She's so good. There was so much humor. I loved the pugs. I take that back. I adored the pugs. And I was truly surprised to find out who the killer was. ( )

Pastor Walker “Bear” Wells and his wife Annie Laurie get plenty of dinner invitations. But, being invited to Gina and John Redman’s house is always a special treat. This one was as well and the coolness of October evening had allowed the four to sit outside on the Redman’s back porch and enjoy the Texas evening. That is until the text from their 15 year old daughter, Jo, hit Bear’s cell phone.

“Come Home.”

That was the message. She doesn’t answer each time they call and the ten minute drive home by Bear and Annie is the longest in their lives. They arrive to find Jo in her bedroom, alone and unhurt, with the family dog, Bat Bear. But, Jo is not alone.

Dead in her arms is the child of a family they know. Phoebe Pickersley, a troubled child who was once Phoebe’s friend, is most definitely dead. What she was doing in their house and why will be almost as important as determining how she died. The fact she dead in their house to be found by Jo automatically makes Jo a suspect. The fact that they had clashed more than once in recent weeks, among other facts, makes Jo a suspect. A suspect who, like most teenagers, isn’t going to willingly tell all and has her own mind as to how to clear her name.

This is the kind of situation that makes your hair turn grey as a parent. Following up on Faithful Unto Death this strong sequel brings back characters familiar to readers while adding a number of new ones. Character development is further established with the returning characters as we learn more and more about them. The new characters are multi-faceted complex human beings as well bringing a fuller richness to the book.

A religious faith remains a strong part of this series. As in the first book, there are no simple and easy answers regarding life’s troubles and events. While faith is referenced and always present through the book, there is not sermonizing and there is acceptance of other belief systems. That acceptance is not automatic as Pastor Wells learns both as a parent and as pastor.

At its core Safe from Harm: A Sugar Land Mystery is about familial relationships---- the good, the bad, and the flat out evil ugly. Flat out evil ugly is why there is a murder mystery at the heart of the book. But the book is more than just that. How we interact with each other during good times and times of great stress is a part of this complex mystery. In this series, families and personal connections matter and take precedence over many other things.

Those who choose to read this series in order will appreciate the character growth, complexity of situations, rich storytelling, and the fact that Texas author Stephanie Jaye Evans writes smart, complicated mysteries that provide very good reading.

Safe From Harm: A Sugar Land Mystery
Stephanie Jaye Evans
http://www.stephaniejayeevans.com
Berkley Prime Crime (Penguin Group USA)
http://www.penguin.com
2013
ISBN# 978-0-425-25346-5
Paperback (also available as an e-book)
360 Pages
$15.00

Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano Texas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2013 ( )

NOTE: This review originally appeared in CRIMESPREE MAGAZINE

Berkley Prime Crime
Pub Date: March 5, 2013

When Bear Wells and his wife comply with their daughter Jo’s texted request – a simple, two-word message imploring them to “come home” – they don’t expect to find her alone in their darkened house, cradling the dead body of her estranged friend Phoebe.

To hear Jo tell it, she arrived home to find the lifeless girl on the floor of her bedroom. But as devastated as Jo is, she doesn’t seem to be telling her parents – or the police – the whole truth. Phoebe didn’t leave a note, and at any rate, suicide wasn’t her style. But if Phoebe didn’t kill herself, who did kill her – and why? And how did she end up dead inside the Wells’ locked and empty abode?

Elegantly plotted and exquisitely written, Safe From Harm is the second in Stephanie Jaye Evans’ Sugar Land Mystery series. It’s the first thing by Evans that I’ve read, but the prologue alone was enough to earn her a spot on my list of must-read authors. Safe From Harm is a devastating tale of jealousy, greed, vengeance, and betrayal, and the havoc these sins can wreak when they’re unleashed on an unsuspecting suburban town.

Evans’ character work is nothing short of fabulous. There’s not a single wasted word or detail to be found; actions, attire, dialogue – all are designed to develop and inform. And while this book has some truly brutal moments, there’s also a lot of humor and heart to be found, as well, together with some shockingly insightful discussions about faith.
Evans’ crowning achievement, though, may be the way she chose to structure her tale. Safe From Harm is similar to Donna Tartt’s The Secret History in that the first two-thirds or so are essentially a murder mystery told in reverse. Unlike The Secret History, though, when you start Safe From Harm, you’re not at all sure how Phoebe’s seemingly obvious suicide could possibly be a murder. You know how the story ends (or, at least, you think you do) – how everything ultimately comes crashing down; the only mystery in the mind of the reader is what brought Evans’ characters to this awful moment.

But then, over the course of the tale, little inconsistencies are revealed. Things that make you question everything you thought you knew about Phoebe’s death. Maybe they’re nothing. Or just maybe they add up to something truly terrible… ( )