Although Cyanide Wells begins in Minnesota in 1988, the bulk of the book takes place in Soledad County, California in 2002. In 1988, Matthew Lindstrom, a freelance photographer in Saugatuck, Minnesota, experiences a radical change in his life. He receives news from Wyoming that his wife’s car has been found abandoned along a highway. Her purse, containing credit cards and identification, has been found on the seat, and there are stains on the dashboard that appear to be blood, suggesting a struggle. She has not been located either dead or alive.

The fact that Matt had taken a trip, by himself, to Wyoming about the same time leads law enforcement, as well as the locals, to conclude Matt is involved in his wife’s disappearance and, possibly, her death. Life becomes so unpleasant for Matt in small town Saugatuck that he decides to make a major change in his lifestyle.

Now fourteen years later, he is running a charter boat business in Port Regis, British Columbia, and feeling pretty much at peace with his Canadian friends. Out of the blue he receives an anonymous phone call from a man in Cyanide Wells, California, informing him that his wife, Gwen Lindstrom, is now living in Cyanide Wells under the assumed name of Ardis Coleman. A little research reveals that there is an Ardis Coleman in that small California town working as a journalist for the Soledad Spectrum (coincidentally, Gwen’s vocation).

In fact, Ardis has won a Pulitzer Prize for her story on the death of a local gay couple. Matt believes the easiest way to meet Ardis and, hopefully, clear up the mystery of her long ago disappearance, is through Ardis’ boss, the crusty Carly McGuire. Fortuitously, when Matt arrives in Cyanide Wells, he learns there is a position available at the paper for a photographer. Rather than tip his hand and possibly cause Ardis to flee, he arranges with his second in command on his charter boat, Johnny Crowe, to assume Johnny’s name when he applies for the photographer’s job. He gets the job, but before he can contact Ardis, she disappears once more.

Determined to confront the woman who has besmirched his good name, he forms an unlikely alliance with Carly McGuire, who is harboring secrets of her own.

Though a more than adequate mystery in its own right, the strength of Cyanide Wells lies in its excellent character portrayal. Marcia Muller has presented Matt Lindstrom, a basically honest, upstanding citizen with a problem that encompasses and threatens to destroy his whole life. How he reacts to the challenges his author presents gives one pause to consider life’s vagaries. His wife is an equally compelling character. She is enigmatic, due in part, to the fact that she is never directly encountered in the story. All of her actions are described by others, forcing the reader to draw conclusions and form opinions about the woman from comments and references made by other characters. We do learn that she is strange, but we hardly guess at the depths of her strangeness.

Muller deals with the hot button issue of gay and lesbian relationships. Out of hand, one would assume that in northern California, especially the San Francisco area, the gay community has more of a presence than other areas of the U.S. The small, isolated community of Cyanide Wells does not have such a tolerance for alternative life styles. It is interesting to compare Matt’s reaction to such alliances with those of the townspeople.

I have not read Ms. Muller’s previous stand alone, Point Deception. However, Cyanide Wells is certainly the equal of any of her series works and, quite possibly, better. For those of us avid mystery buffs, it is difficult to remember all the intricacies of series characters’ lives from one year to the next, as each new adventure makes an appearance. It takes several chapters to become reacquainted with their lives. It is refreshing to start an independent work where a recall of previous events is not necessary.

--Andy Plonka