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“If you read for pleasure, there’s probably more pleasure per inch in Pickard’s work than almost any other current crime novelist.”
Cleveland Plain Dealer -
“Pickard has evolved into a novelist of substantial literary power.”
The Denver Post
Introduction
Written with the wisdom and grace devoted readers have come to expect from the award-winning author of The Virgin of Small Plains, here is a brilliantly moving tale of family, murder, and redemptive love.
Rose, Kansas, is a quiet town poised between the orderly and the unpredictable, where a terrible secret lies long dormant. . .until it vengefully stirs to life one fateful day. Young English teacher Jody Linder wakes up one morning to find her three intimidating rancher uncles on her doorstep. They bring shocking news: Billy Crosby, the man convicted of murdering her father—and presumably her mother’s killer as well—is being released from prison and coming back to Rose with his son, Collin, an attorney. Convinced of his father’s innocence, Collin provokes Jody to face the stunnig mystery behind her tragic past. Enthralling, surprising, and beautifully textured, The Scent of Rain and Lightning blurs the boundaries between suspense and literary fiction.
“With exquisite sensitivity, Edgar-finalist Pickard (The Virgin of Small Plains) probes a smoldering cold case involving the Linders, a cattle ranching family that's ruled the small, tight-knit community of Rose, Kans., for generations.”
Publisher’s Weekly (Starred Review)