As soon as I saw the title, I knew I had to read “Black Bear Alibi” by J.C. Fuller.
Philip Russell enjoys his job as head ranger for Rockfish Island State Park near Olympia, Washington. It’s late winter and Phil is making rounds checking Rockfish Park when he is surprised to see a sow bear and three tiny cubs.
Since the sow’s muzzle is covered in blood, Phil assumes she has just made a kill. Armed with his shotgun, Phil backtracks and is shocked to find the mangled body of a blond woman.
Phil is surprised to see that the new sheriff assigned to the island is a petite woman. She introduces herself as simply “Lane” and makes it clear that she doesn’t want Phil’s help but grudgingly knows she needs it.
Sheriff Lane quickly determined that the victim’s throat was cut and she’s been partially scalped. The dead woman is the popular 22-old beauty Stacy Jensen. She is known for her endless energy and work with both the local church youth group and heading the cheerleading squad.
Phil can’t imagine anyone hating Stacy enough to lure her to the park, slit her throat and cover her body in honey to lure bears to destroy the evidence. After questioning almost everyone who had contact with Stacy, Lane focuses on Stacy’s boss, Harry Vicker.
Harry runs Hattie’s General Store for his 102-year-old grandmother. Hattie may not hear well, but she keeps an eye on everything. Unable to shake his alibi, Lane turns to the owner of Bert’s Outdoor World.
When Lane learns that the soon-to-be-divorced Bert is Philip’s alibi, she assumes they are a gay couple. She is shocked to meet Roberta “Bert” Esten and her daughter Shelby. She is told that Tim Esten walked out on the family the previous fall and is now living in Olympia.
When Harry confesses that Stacy was blackmailing him using a friend’s pregnancy test, they dig deeper and find that Stacy had tried to use the same trick on several men. The clues point them toward young Shelby Esten, but that doesn’t add up.
After some help from her cop brother in Olympia, Lane feels she knows the truth, but someone tries to shoot her before she can report what she knows. The killer is none other than Bert. While hunting for Lane, she confesses to killing Tim and scattering his body in the park, then luring Stacy there for a fake photo shoot to kill her, too. As Bert prepares to kill Lane, Phil and Harry arrive. Bert turns the shotgun on Phil but to their horror, shoots herself instead.
Both Lane and Phil are relieved when the paperwork is finished. Maybe now the two friends can settle into life on Rockfish Island.
AT A GLANCE
Book: Black Bear Alibi (A Rockfish Island Mystery, Book 1)
Author: J.C. Fuller
Publisher: J.C. Fuller
Year published: 2019
Number of pages: 477
Bear hunt leads to murder victim
