The Boxcar Librarian by Brianna Labuskes

 

This is another very good novel by Ms. Labuskes, a story that gets kinda complicated but resolves nicely; her habit of writing three timelines that end up (at least mostly) coming together by the end is an effective technique, and she's always clear there are multiple timelines going on--it's not ever some lurking gotcha. The prose is solid and the characters are solid and well-complicated; the setting seems to have some basis in experience and research; the events going on around the story are gritty and real. Ms. Labuskes is clearly something of a romantic at heart, because she gives so many of the characters in her novels love-story-ish endings--that's not a complaint, it's often one of the primary tensions needing resolution. The mystery portions of the book feel pretty organic to the rest of the story, and the climax is suitably chaotic.