Review As a veteran craftsman of both SF and mystery novels, Mackay delighted critics with his entirely earthbound crime thriller, The Angel of the Glade (2010), featuring Clyde Deacon, a former personal physician to President McKinley, newly removed to Fairfield, New York. While still grieving the loss of his wife and his failure to save the president from an assassin's bullet, Deacon has nonetheless quickly become a respected Fairfield fixture, healing local patients while moonlighting as a crime-fighting deputy. When a philandering business tycoon named Ephraim Purcell is murdered while the sheriff is away on business, the doctor offers to track the killer. But before he can break in a new, infatuated nurse and mend a misunderstanding with his lady friend Olive Wade, Deacon finds himself having to sort through a bewildering array of suspects, including a financially ruined blacksmith and Purcell's own vengeful stepdaughter. While Deacon's latest case lacks the spark of his previous one, McKay's period detail and crisp, engaging prose will satisfy fans of well-crafted historical mysteries. -- Booklist, July 1, 2011
