‘Unfortunate’ Layers Suspense, Humor In Small Montana Town

“An Unfortunate Prairie Occurrence” Jamie Harrison (Hyperion, 384 pages, $22.95)

You may not find the name of Blue Deer on any map of Montana, but over the last several years, the small town has become a must-visit for armchair travelers and mystery readers.

“An Unfortunate Prairie Occurrence” is Jamie Harrison’s third engaging novel set in Blue Deer, which with its offbeat residents and ways is sort of a second cousin to “Northern Exposure’s” Cicely, Alaska.

And speaking of cousins, here Sheriff Jules Clement discovers the pitfalls of either knowing or being related to everybody in town when a skeleton is found on land once owned by Jules’ respected uncle. Members of the local historical society get into the act of identifying the skeleton, but everyone is curiously mute about events of a long-ago summer. Then an elderly rancher dies under mysterious circumstances, a serial rapist accelerates his schedule and Jules keeps tripping over feuding friends and relatives.

Harrison layers suspense and humor with a deft hand. Where her earlier books - “On the Edge of the Crazies” and “Going Local” sort of loped along, their plots almost incidental - this one moves more briskly and mines more deeply. Still, we’re glad to see that Harrison continues to occasionally punctuate the narrative with intriguing excerpts from Jules’ weekly sheriff’s report.