BONES UNDER THE ICE, Sheriff Jhonni Laurent series #1

BONES UNDER THE ICE (Jhonni Laurent #1)
MARY ANN MILLER
Oceanview Publishing (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$18.99 paperback, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Jhonni Laurent is the first female sheriff of Field’s Crossing, Indiana—and now she has her first murder case

Two days after a blizzard hits Field’s Crossing, Indiana, Sheriff Jhonni Laurent discovers the frozen body of a high school senior under a fifteen-foot pile of snow and ice. Murder is rare in farm country, and this death marks the beginning of Jhonni’s first homicide case.

Just as the investigation gets underway, Jhonni’s opponent for sheriff from four years ago wages a bitter reelection battle to oust her. Then, Jhonni finds another body, and further complications arise when a century-old feud between two families reaches its breaking point.

Soon, a slew of newspaper articles causes the Indiana State Election Board to doubt her credibility. Jhonni must fight to maintain her reputation, keep the small farming community together, and find the murderer at large—all while demons from her own past threaten to crush her. Can she find the killer and mend her battered spirit before it’s too late?

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: There's a lot of nastiness in any murder. No one should take to themselves the responsibility for ending another person's life without facing consequences. In the meantime there's a lot of truly tedious legwork to do to make those consequences come about. Jhonni Laurent does that slogging work.

Of course it starts with the victim: who the heck would hate a high-school senior enough to kill her? Is she a victim of her own behavior...a popular way to discredit women of all ages...or is she simply a victim? It's a puzzle Jhonni is not getting any help making headway on. Her (male) deputy is harboring a grudge at the election defeat she handed him when they both ran for sheriff. He's well-connected in town and willing to call in his favors to get Jhonni either recalled or simply scupper her re-election bid.

Fate steps in, so to speak, when a local pooh-bah is found dead in his ice-fishing hut. So is this a murder as well? Is this the same killer if it is a murder? These are all vexing questions for any law enforcement agency, let alone one run by a complete tyro to anything like this level of crime. Jhonni's asking questions, getting lied to, figuring out how to go about this, while she's under constant pressure from the local reporter (a good buddy of her resentful deputy's) and coping with her past coming back to meet her...literally.

Small-town wintertime setting, woman fighting for her literal life and livelihood, and passels of nasty secrets suppurating for generations, all get their moment in the story spotlight. It does rather feel like a spotlight, though; I'm clear who's doing what, but without a lot of why until we reach the resolution. It is all drawn together, and there's a resolution had; there's clearly got to be another book because there are *major* threads left unresolved.

I'll be here next time, though. Jhonni won me over with her ability to learn on the job, deal with more ugliness than any one person should have directed against them, while reckoning with her past better than most ever could. A terrific way to get away for a few hours without feeling you've wasted your time.

8114, a podcasting horror novel

8114
JOSHUA HULL
CLASH Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$5.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: After returning to his hometown, Paul, the beleaguered host of a small-time podcast, discovers a longtime friend committed suicide in the dilapidated ruins of Paul’s childhood home. Desperate to find answers, Paul interviews friends and locals hoping to find closure. He finds himself in a chilling downward spiral of his memories and the land he grew up on. Has his past caught up with him or is there something far more sinister at play?

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Podcasting as horror...that scans. It's a modern medium that's neither rare nor well-done most of the time. Particularly troubling is the true-crime podcasting that can get so destructively out of hand in the information age. Mobs have lots more data to use in tracking down and harassing their targets, so the innocent feel the wrath of the ignorant and ill-informed much as Adam Benny, Paul's childhood pal and podcast subject did.

Does this teach Podcaster Boy some circumspection? Of course not. There wouldn't be a story!

A different childhood friend, Matt, tells Paul about a mutual called Kyle's suicide...Kyle even painted Paul's old house address onto the walls of the room in that very house that he diced himself up in, using his own blood. A new podcast is born! Plus, adding to the foolishness of this dude, he's got some awful botanical...thing...growing in his arm.

Not on. Not under. IN.

I myownself would be on the way out of that place, and I'd swear off the very sight of a lavalier to propitiate whatever the hell supernatural thing it was that had it in for me! The moldy walls and stuff like that make me shudder more than any ghosty/demony/Lovecraftian horror. Really, in 2025 reality is way more horrible and scary than any made-up thing could ever be. In this story, the horror that scares me witless is the podcast that's already done such damage.

Author Hull's made some very good craft decisions, like setting the story in rural Indiana...not a spooky gothic place, but one where the horror can really bloom without competition. The structure of "found audio, in effect, is achieved by the inclusion of podcast transcripts between chapters. It serves to make a point: the place, the medium, the man, are all being consumed by a guilt, a rot, a creeping nastiness inside hollow forms.

Had the author trimmed this a thousand words or bloated it five thousand in exactly this style, I'd be warbling my fool head off with praise. As it is, we're just short of a novel, just too much for a novella. There's a lot to be said for compactness in horror stories. I don't think this one benefited quite as much from it because the creeping rot was never really woven into the characters' motivations, or even awareness. Just a wee bit more, please, Author Hull.

It's too creepy and good an idea to leave just shy of its best!