{"id":6579,"date":"2025-08-01T07:58:05","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T14:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=6579"},"modified":"2025-08-01T07:58:05","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T14:58:05","slug":"sarah-stewart-taylor-hunters-heart-ridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/sarah-stewart-taylor-hunters-heart-ridge\/","title":{"rendered":"Sarah Stewart Taylor: Hunter’s Heart Ridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Franklin Warren and Alice Bellows #2<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Hunter\u2019s Heart Ridge\u00a0<\/em>is the second in Sarah Stewart Taylor\u2019s Detective Frank Warren and Alice Bellows series, and it sees both of them returning with new challenges. Alice and Warren (no one seems to call him Frank) are neighbors, and have become good friends in the three months that have passed since the first book. Frank is still very much settling into his professional role, but he\u2019s already become a fixture in this small community. He and his partner in crime solving, Pinky, are working well together, and he\u2019s become familiar with everyone in town. Alice, on the other hand, is happy in her retirement and hosting a dinner party that includes Warren as a prominent guest.<\/p>\n

Both of them, naturally, are knocked off balance. While Warren has another murder happen on his patch, Alice has frenemy Arthur not only return to town, but\u00a0 attend her dinner party. Alice suspects that Arthur\u2019s motives, as a spy, are far from pure. The widow of a spy herself, she knows a lot about how clandestine affairs work, and becomes increasingly nervous that perhaps Arthur feels she knows more than she should. She stays on the outskirts of the central murder, while still keeping her part of the plot relevant and tied into the narrative of the first book far more than Warren\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The murder concerns an upscale hunting lodge, very much a man\u2019s sphere, where several prominent friends have gathered for a reunion of sorts. One of those friends has died in an apparent hunting accident, but it’s pretty clear to Warren almost at once that Bill didn\u2019t accidentally fire his own gun. Though it’s still possible that his death was a hunting accident, Warren doubts it. After the events of the previous installment in the series, which this book takes pains not to really spoil, he\u2019s also eager to prove himself and solve this murder brilliantly.<\/p>\n

Warren isn\u2019t the traditional gritty detective. He emphasizes how new he is to the role often, he\u2019s unsure of himself and even frightened, and he really does not linger on his standard dead wife backstory. All of this ramps up the tension when he\u2019s snowed into the cabin with the suspects – after all, Warren isn\u2019t a seasoned professional. He loses control of the situation frequently, he\u2019s shown up by Pinkie, and he\u2019s incredibly unaware that people lie to the police all the time.<\/p>\n

At times purposely claustrophobic,\u00a0Hunter\u2019s Heart Ridge\u00a0<\/em>is a slow burn that never feels slow paced. This book can be easily enjoyed without having read the first one, though that book does give more characterization to the townies. I recommend that one too (Agony<\/em> Hill<\/em>). Anyone who enjoys locked room mysteries, or the familiarity and dynamics of a small town, will definitely enjoy this.\u00a0 —\u00a0Margaret Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Franklin Warren and Alice Bellows #2 Hunter\u2019s Heart Ridge\u00a0is the second in Sarah Stewart Taylor\u2019s Detective Frank Warren and Alice Bellows series, and it sees both of them returning with new challenges. Alice and Warren (no one seems to call him Frank) are neighbors, and have become good friends in the three months that have … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1789,10,2221,81,100,356,2222],"class_list":["post-6579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-1960s-vermont","tag-historical","tag-hunters-heart-ridge","tag-margaret-agnew","tag-minotaur-books","tag-sarah-stewart-taylor","tag-snowed-in"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6579"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6582,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6579\/revisions\/6582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}