I’ve read several books in the Jonathan Stride series by Brian Freeman…although I tend to think of them as the Duluth series, because Freeman has done such a good job with the setting in this series, the city of Duluth and “the Point” in particular have become fixtures for fans of these books.

Thanks to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley, I received a copy of Funeral for a Friend, #9 or 10 in the series, in exchange for my honest review (although Amazon lists it as #10 of 9, which makes no sense to me, but whatever…). Along with Jonathan Stride himself, we have his partner Maggie, his (current) wife Serena, and teenaged former hooker Cat who now lives with the Strides in a family-of-choice situation. There are nine books in the series, and although this one can definitely be read as a stand-alone, I totally recommend reading the entire series…lots of backstory to the people and their situation.

As the story opens, Stride’s longtime friend and colleague Steve Garske is dying, and when Stride visits him on his deathbed, there is a classic deathbed confession indicating that there is a body buried in the backyard. Steve  put it there years ago to protect Stride, because he  believed Stride had been the one to put a bullet in the guy’s head. The victim,  an investigative reporter whose “…focus was digging up dirt on left-leaning politicians,”  had been in town researching decades-old anonymous allegations of a rape—allegations against the local Congressman who is now running for the U.S. Senate. Turns out the anonymous accuser is Stride’s ex-wife Andrea, and she and Stride seem to be the two most obvious suspects in the murder.

There are lots of twists and turns and red herrings. As usual, I did not figure it out prior to the resolution, and it’s a good story, but I admit there were a few things I didn’t care for. One was lines like “…huge blue lake, which constantly changed its mood like a beautiful woman” UGH). The other was the need for an editor here and there (“…wore a swimsuit adorned with colorful pineapples that came down below his knees”).

Now, about that ending…there were several things I didn’t like about it, most of which are spoilers, and one of which would just make me sound like a terrible person. I love the series, and I enjoyed this one up until…well. Let’s just say I will definitely look for the next episode (and why isn’t this either a TV or film series, anyway?) but I can’t go five stars with the reaction I had to the last fifty or so pages. Four stars.