Cyanide Wells (Review 1)
By Marcia Muller  

     Marcia Muller has stepped away from her Sharon McCone series to bring us this suspenseful and engaging mystery. Gwen Lindstrom, a.k.a. Ardis Coleman, has wreaked havoc on many people's lives, but the ones to take the biggest hits are Matthew Lindstrom and Carly McGuire.

     Gwen was married to Matthew and, while their relationship could be volatile, there was always love lurking underneath. One day, Matt came home to find Gwen gone. He never thought that people would seriously think that Gwen was murdered and that he did it.
But Gwen was gone, and his life was ruined by the suspicion that surrounded her disappearance. He left his hometown and tried a couple of new lives until he found one that fit him. Matt had settled into his new life for quite a while when he received a phone call from someone, telling him that Gwen is indeed alive. Matt finds Gwen, where she is living under the name Ardis Coleman, an award-winning reporter who is romantically involved with a woman, Carly McGuire.

     Matt is stunned, to say the least, but he still wants to be vindicated. His plan to take pictures of Gwen, alive and well, are put on hold when Gwen disappears yet again. Two past murders, a brand new one, and a missing child cause Matt and Carly to team up to try and find Gwen and to see if she is involved in this mess.

     Cyanide Wells is a good departure from Muller's series offering a nice mixture of interesting characters and a complex mystery. Carly McGuire is prickly but vulnerable with a great back story. I hope that Muller will choose to do more with Carly in future books. It took me a while to start liking Matt but once I did, there was no turning back. Cyanide Wells will delight Muller fans,