The Bones of Paradise

I had read The River Wife by Jonis Agee years ago and loved it, so I was happy to see that she had written another book.  Sadly for me, I wasn't nearly as enthusiastic with this book as I had been with The River Wife.  However, my reaction doesn't seem to appear to match the excellent reviews on the book, so maybe I just missed something.

The story takes place in the Sand Hills of Nebraska in the 1900's.  The Wounded Knee massacre had occurred ten years earlier not far from the Sand Hills.  The book opens with JB Bennett on his way to retrieve his son from JB's father, who has raised the boy as he felt he should be raised.  JB's wife, Dulcinea, had left him about ten years before after JB let his father take their son and she lived in a nearby town.  JB was raising their younger son by himself.  As JB was headed toward his father's place, he came across the dead body of a young Lakota Sioux woman (Star). As he studied the body, JB was shot and killed. And that set up the story.

Dulcinea returned to the ranch after JB's death and was left there to deal with her resentful two teen-aged sons, her father-in-law, Drum Bennett, and her best friend, Rose, who was Star's sister.  Not only was Dulcinea dealing with who killed her husband and Star, but also her conniving father-in-law who not only wanted her sons, but wanted her land.  Meanwhile, there is the issue of how the murders tied into the Wounded Knee massacre.

It's kind of a busy story, but good enough to keep my interest in finishing it.  Not good enough to keep the book, however.

That's my new standard, since we will be moving.  Is the book good enough to keep? Nope, not this one.