Fire and Rain

Rain Mystery Trilogy, #3

by

David Homick

This final entry blazes across the pages with riveting, non-stop action and edge-of-your-seat suspense.

When Jenn's secret former husband, Finn Rafferty, showed up on the ranch house doorstep and announced they were still legally married, Dillon Bishop put his plan to propose on hold until things got figured out. Although Jenn swore the marriage had been annulled, Finn claimed there was no record to prove it had ever actually been filed in court, and he wanted HIS HALF of Jenn's ranch! 

Finn was a conman, and his arrival at the ranch coincided with the appearance of Riverdale Gaming in the nearby town of Redfield, with money in hand and hoping to buy up numerous sections of land to open up a large-scale casino operation. Some local property owners took the offers and sold out, but many didn't, and soon word of more aggressive persuasion began to filter into the sheriff's department, where Dillon now worked part-time as a deputy. Unfortunately, Jenn's ranch was right in the middle of the area Riverdale Gaming proposed to build the casino, and she was most definitely not interested. She was so close to fulfilling her promise to her Uncle Roy to open an equine therapy center. However, rumors that the casino people were urging the town to consider eminent domain to help them acquire the needed properties had started circulating. 

Finn refused to back off on his demand for half of the ranch and threatened to go to the authorities and nullify Jenn's adoption of her son, Alex. With his family at risk, Dillon starts investigating Finn's connections to the casino project and the rash of suspicious accidents on the properties of owners who refused to sell to Riverdale Gaming. He breaks into Finn's room at the local motel to search for evidence of his collusion with the casino gang when Finn walks in on him. Later, when Finn is found dead from a gunshot wound, Dillon becomes the number one suspect. 

Fire and Rain is the final book in author David Homick's excellent suspense series, the Rain Mystery Trilogy. This group of books has been so good that I was reluctant to start this final entry and have it end, but read it I did, and it was full of the same action, intrigue, and breathtaking suspense that made the previous books some of my favorites of the year. Dillon Bishop is a great character and has grown and healed so much since his first appearance on the page. He's overcome the debilitating effects of PTSD and the nightmares that had plagued him since his tour in Afghanistan. As a result, he's become much more stable and reliable. He's just a good man. While he's still somewhat impulsive in his investigations, his unpredictability makes for exciting reading and a sense that anything could happen next. 

One plot thread concerns the universal interest of property owners and community members in general. What do you do when an undesirable business comes into town and wants to be your neighbor? It's one thing if the company talks your neighbors into selling them their property, but what about the holdouts? What if the business can convince the local government to compel the holdouts to sell through eminent domain? 

In this story, the business (a casino) is aggressive in its land acquisition and PR campaign, selling the community and the town council on the economic benefits the town stands to gain from the business opening there. But strange accidents (fires) and other occurrences (damaged equipment, fences, and animals gone astray) suspected of being the handiwork of Riverdale Gaming henchmen, specifically Finn Rafferty, bring in a sinister level of danger that Dillon and Sheriff Ziggy Scott must unravel. Add in an attempt on Jenn's life, a couple of murders, and kidnapping, and what could have been just an ugly and tragic real estate caper blazes across the pages with riveting, non-stop action and edge-of-your-seat suspense. 

I recommend FIRE AND RAIN and the entire RAIN MYSTERY TRILOGY to mystery readers who enjoy lots of action and excitement featuring an imperfect, flawed hero but a hero, nonetheless. 

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy from Reedsy Discovery.