The Return of the Raven Mocker by Donis Casey...if you'd like a historical look at a pandemic from a great mystery series...

The Return of the Raven Mocker is the 9th book in Donis Casey's historical mystery series set in early 20th century Oklahoma.  Donis has written a 10-book series that tells about Alafair Tucker, her husband Shaw, and their family of 10 children.  This particular book is set in 1918 and lets us know what's happened to the Tucker family during war time.  Mostly, it's about the flu epidemic and how it affects Boynton and Oklahoma and the Tuckers.  I read this book about 3 years ago soon after a bout of flu, so it was interesting to me in that regard.  It might be interesting to you as well.  Alafair is a farm wife and a skilled amateur healer.  Plus she also does some crime investigation as well.  She has experience with 10 children and has nursed many family members through illness.  She has her own opinions about remedies and how to best keep this severe flu from spreading.  After Alice and Walter, her daughter and son-in-law, are stricken, Alafair moves to town to nurse them, while placing her younger children and grandchildren in quarantine with Mary, another daughter.  Flu spreads rapidly through the town and people are sick and some die.  The people in the house next door to Alice have flu, but when two of them die and it turns out they were poisoned, Alafair tells the sheriff and his deputy what she has observed.  I loved this book, but will say that it was not a very complicated mystery to solve.  I enjoyed reading more about the way that a pandemic was dealt with and also was interested in some of the 'home remedies' that the author shared at the end of the book.  Remedies that I remember my own grandmother using.  Again, I love the characters and setting!

I also wanted to share the link to a guest post that Donis did on the Mystery Fanfare blog last Friday.  It was entitled What To Do When You Don't Know What To Do and in it, Donis talks about her research in writing The Return of the Raven Mocker and shares some of the 'old time' remedies.  Take a look!  And if you're thinking about reading something different, you might try this series.  The first book is The Old Buzzard Had It Coming. 

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As usual, I'll wish all of you a safe, sensible, and healthy day.  Take care!