This 2016 Kansas Notable Book had been on my radar for a while. So before the Artic weather came in, I went ahead and picked up a copy of To Leave a Shadow by Michael D. Graves! "Pete Stone hadn’t always been a private eye. He’d lost his dairy business at the toss of a coin when the depression hit. His children grew up, as children do, and his wife left him for a chinchilla farmer. He had learned to like his solitude. When Mrs. Lucille Hamilton walked through his door searching for her missing husband, Pete was the only one who believed her husband’s death hadn’t been a suicide." This was an enjoyable mystery to read.
Graves completely nailed it when it came to research. The setting, atmosphere, and even the speech of the characters was perfect and definitely made it feel like I was in 1930s Wichita, Kansas. From walking around downtown Wichita to enjoying a meal at the Broadview Hotel, Graves' writing really pulls you in. For those familiar to the area, it almost even brings a sense of sadness as much of that area is rather decrepit nowadays. I liked Graves' character Pete Stone. Not a perfect character, but one with a strong sense of justice and willingness to stick up for others. There was definitely excitement and I enjoyed how the clues Stone found were used to figure out who the killer was. However, there were a few things I did wish were different. There were unnecessary details that the book could have done without. Rather than leaving those details in, more time could have been used to better develop the interactions between characters and Stone's own background. It would have helped with creating more meaning to the relationships and made some of the events that took place in the book much more emotional. Better transitions in some areas would have also been helpful in creating more suspense and build up since sometimes the pacing was a little too fast. There were some great unexpected reveals in the book and I feel those small changes would have helped create a bigger impact. Regardless, I enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to reading Graves' sequel Shadow of Death.
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