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The Only Good Yankee is the second Jordan Poteet mystery and the book where Jeff Abbott settled into his form. The setup: a Yankee developer arrives in the small town of Mirabeau, Texas, with plans for a tourist development on a historic property. The developer is murdered. Jordan, again the library director, again the most outsider-feeling local, again drawn into investigating, has to navigate town factions that mostly liked the idea of the developer as an antagonist.
Abbott's strength is the social texture, and he leans into it here. The Bible-thumping cousin, the antiques dealer with the secrets, the mother's ongoing Alzheimer's storyline, all carry weight. The case resolves cleanly, and there is a moment in the closing chapters that genuinely surprised me.
Four stars. Read after Do Unto Others. The first four Jordan Poteet books are a quiet pleasure of the 90s cozy boom.
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