Cathy C. (cathyskye) - , reviewed on 5/28/2021 + 2307 more book reviews

I have a weakness for mysteries with strong female lead characters and ones set in areas with which I am not familiar. Bad Axe County was a natural for me to pick up because it has both. "This is the Bad Axe. This is coulees. Where did you grow up?" Heidi asks someone. "Somewhere else," the driver said. "That's why you don't get it." The Bad Axe is a part of Wisconsin that's set apart, that has its own rules, its own problems. Drugs, human trafficking... as Heidi lists all the criminal activities in her county, she wonders why she decided to raise a family there, and you can't blame her. But her ties to the area are strong, and she's committed to making it a safe place for everyone who lives there.

The cast of bad guys is seemingly endless in Bad Axe County, and it's not so much a matter of whodunit but of which-one-dunit. After a few chapters, readers will want to pull up their sleeves, put on their sturdiest butt-kicking boots, and help Heidi clean the place up. But as strong as the mystery is, as strong as the sense of place is, the reason why this book became one of my Best Reads of 2021 is its marvelous cast of characters. I won't even waste any time on the characters readers will love to hate, I'm skipping right on to the list of Good Guys. Heidi Kick is smart, intuitive, and determined. Fortunately, she has two people in the sheriff's office who have her back: Officer Yttri, and the night dispatcher, Denise Halverson. Denise and Heidi have their daily "innoculations," Denise telling Heidi one horrible sexist joke after another, the reason behind it being that, when they are faced with the jokes from the jerks they're forced to work with, those "funnies" will have lost their power to inflict damage.

Then there are the younger members of the cast. Pepper Greengrass, missing and in terrible danger, has had a tough life, and her mantra "Nothing you do can hurt me" has the power to break a reader's heart. As far as I was concerned, Pepper and Heidi shared center stage. Heidi's five-year-old daughter, Ophelia "Opie", is a little gem. Much wiser than her years, she's going to be a force to be reckoned with when she's older. Heidi, Denise, Pepper, and Opie are prime illustrations of Heidi's comment, "Emotion makes us stronger. It's something men don't get."

Heidi cares with all her heart and soul, and after reading Bad Axe County, I'm going to be following her from one book to the next as she does her best to clean up her territory. Come join me.

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