Murder of a Sweet Old Lady by Denise Swanson

I just started reading this book. It’s the second in the series featuring female-sleuth Skye Denison of Scumble River, Illinois.

Author Swanson states in the intro of the book that Scumble River is not a real town. A lot of the farmland in Scumble River and it’s surrounding areas is viewed as being hot property by real estate developers. The developers see it as the next bedroom community for Chicago and are after local farmers to buy their land.

For me it’s easy to envision Scumble River as a real place. That’s because I’m from Wisconsin, which is right next door to Illinois. I have relatives in Chicago in fact and have been there several times in my life. Chicago metro is spreading ever outward and into our own backdoor.

And when Ms. Swanson describes how rural neighbors living on the same road can see each other’s farm-homes when the crops are young - well yeah, that’s because a lot of Illinois is pretty flat.



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