Green Bay is the setting of the latest Prairie Nightingale Mystery series by Ruthie Knox and Annie Mare. (This post originally appeared on Bargain Sleuth Reviews and contains affiliate links.) A teenager convinced there’s more to a cousin’s estrangement than family friction leads to the exposure of a cult operating in plain sight. Prairie Nightingale #3 – Believer
Most books mentioned in my reviews can be found at the affiliate links below.
- (Bookshop.org)
- (Librio.fm)
- (Audiobooks.com)
- (Booksamillion)
- (Alibris: Books Music & Movies)
- (Amazon US) (Kindle Unlimited)
- (AbeBooks)
- (Audible.com)
And don’t forget your local library!
Prairie Nightingale, PI, has it all: great kids, a private detective agency run by brilliant women, and maybe a handsome FBI situationship. When her daughter’s best friend asks her to look into a bitter family estrangement, Prairie is reluctant to take on a case that requires even more life/work balance than she’s already attempting—especially with her parents visiting from out of town. But when everyone she talks to takes her deeper into a labyrinth of lies, control, and secrets, she and her team begin to untangle the history of a couple with a knack for gathering fervent followers … and collecting criminal charges.
The existence of a cult is difficult to prove, and this one’s members are less than forthcoming, requiring Prairie and her fellow agents to deploy all of their available tricks and talents. Joyce is uncovering shady history and false identities, Emma’s partnered with ex-members to appeal to her podcast audience, and Prairie and Foster find themselves following the money and working undercover. Even Prairie’s parents chip in: as residents of an Oregon commune, they know the ins and outs of high-control groups. And, to Prairie’s horror, her daughters sneak in a spy mission of their own.
But a cult is most dangerous when it’s threatened, and Prairie’s desire to rescue believers makes her a target—and risks exposing cult members on the run. She’ll need more faith in her abilities than she’s ever had to find the truth.
Thanks to NetGalley, 7th Floor Books, and Brilliance Publishing for the digital copy of this book; I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I’ve been trying to support more Wisconsin authors, and it was earlier this year that I had the opportunity to meet Ruthie Knox & Annie Mare at an author event, and they were just as charming as their writing! The Prairie Nightingale mystery series has become one of my favorites, and it’s not just because the book is set in Green Bay. There’s just the right amount of snarkyness to add some levity to the story, and the mystery was top-notch.
While it’s not completely necessary to have read the first two books in the series, but I imagine after reading Believer, you’ll want to catch up on all of Prairie’s adventures!
Without dissecting Believer sentence by sentence, Prairie is a member of a private investigator business. She works with Joyce, who happens to be her ex-mother-in-law. One of her other co-workers is Emma, a crime podcaster and forensic genealogist as well as her executive assistant, Marian. Things run very smoothly because of course it does, it’s all women. Also assisting Prairie is her boyfriend, who happens to be an agent with the FBI.
Prairie also has two daughters, and that’s how this case lands on her doorstep. One of her daughter’s friends approaches Prairie to help find a family member. One of the things that I like about Prairie’s mysteries is that the authors use names for businesses and landmarks that aren’t real, yet locals can probably decipher what they are. I also liked the audiobook narrator, Mia Hutchinson-Shaw. She’s got a very relatable voice and does NOT have a Wisconsin accent.
For more reviews, visit Bargain Sleuth Reviews.
This post contains affiliate links. That means I may earn a few pennies if you purchase any books mentioned in this post, at no additional cost to you. Monies earned offset the costs of web hosting. Thank you for supporting this blog!