Sandy Lake is as known for its crime as it is for its lake and small-town charm, and Joshua Moehling’s sophomore novel, Where the Dead Sleep, beautifully marries quaint and thrilling. Everyone knows everyone, and, more importantly, everyone’s got a secret.
After the events of Moehling’s debut, And There He Kept Her, Deputy Ben Packard could use a break. After all, he has a house to renovate and his own skeletons to dig up in Sandy Lake. Packard is there for a reason, which the more than competent Moehling deftly plots across both books. But for now, he has a murder to solve. The vic, Bill Sandersen, has a lot of problems: a gambling addiction, a wife that doesn’t love him, an ex-wife he should probably stay away from, and two bullets in his chest. And that makes for a laundry list of motives.
…Packard has to use cunning, charm, and the connections he’s built in Sandy Lake to piece together the mystery.
Detective Packard uncovers a tangled web that only a dynastic family like the Gherlicks could have spun: Bill’s wife and ex-wife are sisters and enemies, and their family is significant in Sandy Lake. As the suspect list grows, what seemed like a simple Dateline plotline (the spouse did it) turns into something more complex. Between an expert pot shot at a high-stakes poker game and the town’s emergency election for the sheriff’s office, Packard has to use cunning, charm, and the connections he’s built in Sandy Lake to piece together the mystery.
Moehling smartly adds to the body count, including a long-dead corpse as motive and a top suspect whose name is only crossed off the list of possible killers when they themselves are killed into the mix, and amps up the tension. The last several chapters of Where the Dead Sleep are a sprint to the finish line, and it’s unclear if we’re running towards danger or a conclusion. Packard cleanly wraps the case, and Moehling sets himself up for a third book. The only loose ends left by the novel’s end are those tying the reader to Packard’s dark past.
Overall, Where the Dead Sleep is a competent crime procedural with a cast of characters that I’d be more than happy to revisit, but suffers from the reality that the main character’s sexuality is used flatly as a plot device and a punchline but not explored past that. If queer representation is what you’re looking for, you may find yourself disappointed. Detective Ben Packard is gay but not Gay. And maybe that’s the point Moehling is trying to make. If it is, it’s a blunt one.
