While I’m a big fan of Terry Shames’ character Police Chief Samuel Craddock, I’m not a big fan of her latest book, The Curious Poisoning of Jewel Barnes. I love Craddock and the familiar characters in the series. However, there are a few too many people in the dysfunctional Barnes family, and only one of them seems to have a level head.
Craddock, the police chief in Jarrett Creek, TX, is a little befuddled. Wendy, the woman he’s been dating, dumped him for someone from her high school years. And, her daughter wants Samuel to investigate him because she’s done a little background digging, and doesn’t like what she finds. However, Loretta Singletary, Craddock’s neighbor, gives him a project to distract him. Twin sisters in their forties, Lily and Jewel Barnes, live together, and Loretta heard a rumor one of the women complained her sister was trying to kill her.
Craddock never gets a chance to meet Jewel Barnes. By the time he gets to the house, Lily has found her sister dead, and she’s moaning that it should have been her. When Samuel smells cyanide, he and the medical examiner agree she’s been murdered. That investigation only sends Craddock down a dark hole when it comes to dealing with the Barnes family and all of their relatives.
One of the Barnes sister-in-laws worries that a nephew might have taken advantage of the twins’ kindness. Although the young man, an ex-con, seems okay to Craddock, he finds he’s driving truck to a site outside the Jarrett Creek city limits. Craddock suspects there’s toxic waste being dumped at the site, but he can’t do anything since it’s outside of his jurisdiction. When violence occurs, and two people are injured at the site, and Craddock feels threatened, he watches the issue spiral out of control.
There are a few too many characters in the Barnes family, and they all seem to have problems. While I enjoy catching up with Samuel, his deputy Maria Trevino, and Loretta, I didn’t find other characters appealing. Instead, their problems seemed to be of their own making, and the ending was a little too pat, coming at a point when Craddock and Trevino seemed to be condemned to end up in trouble with all the Barnes family.
I enjoyed the return to Jarrett Creek, but I found the messes with the Barnes relatives and Wendy to be as uncomfortable and troubling as Craddock found them.
Terry Shames’ website is https://terryshames.com/
The Curious Poisoning of Jewel Barnes by Terry Shames. Severn House, 2025. 256p.
FTC Full Disclosure – My digital ARC came by way of Severn House, through NetGalley, with no expectation of a positive review.
Enjoyed the read, but did have issues keeping straight who was who and their dysfunction in that train wreck family. I thought it was me more than anything.
No, me, too, Kevin. Thank you. I thought it was just me after I read the reviews on NetGalley – so many 4 and 5 stars. Everyone in that family, except Hannah, had issues.
My take exactly. I am a big fan of the Terry Shames series but this particular book fell flat for me. Maybe we are the outliers?
Either that, Susan, or the reviewers on NetGalley felt obligated to give a good review.
My review at NetGalley wasn’t s review but a “i did not finish reading this book because I did not find it to be my cup of tea.”. i love the ” did not finish” feature at NetGalley.
Kaye, I get it. I just was hoping for more of what the previous books were.
Me too but I got too bored and confused fairly early on and just not interested enough to continue.