Henry Farrell, rural Pennsylvania police officer, has been called to the scene of a grisly murder; at least one more killing takes place, and Henry becomes a suspect – and then a fugitive.

I normally try to choose books that are the first in the series for the A to Z Mystery Tour, but the first Henry Farrell book was not available so I went with #3. I was a bit sad, upon reaching the end of the book, to find that it may be the last in this very short series, because the writing is beautiful – almost lyrical in places. The characters, including Henry, are flawed and unapologetically human.

This is not a five star book because the timeline is confusing. Since this is not the first in the series I want to be sure to avoid spoilers, so I’ll be vague: there is one ongoing event that Henry occasionally references. The way he does so seems to imply that weeks or months have passed, but then he comes back to the murder investigation and it’s clearly been only a few days. It feels almost like the author is working with two timelines, which he is not.

I alternated between my library copy of the hardcover and a Scribd audiobook. I regret not sticking to the hardcover, because the narration of the audiobook doesn’t begin to do the writing justice. I hope my suspicion that this is the series finale is incorrect.

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I really liked Bouman's first novel, [b: Dry Bones in the Valley|22253773|Dry Bones in the Valley (Henry Farrell, #1)|Tom Bouman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1422215732l/22253773._SY75_.jpg|25993839]. I liked his second less. And this one, not at all. I was already shaking my head as I slogged through the early pages (and pages...) of Farrell's singularly cheerless wedding and minute descriptions of every guest and their family connections. A body has been found, which has been fed on by a bear. And of course, soon afterward, the bear attacks Farrell in the woods, only to be fended off by the instant and convenient appearance of Farrell's father. More meandering episodes of gas station robberies, Farrell brooding about the obnoxious woman he had an affair with, and a snotty rich couple who complain about the "hooligans" who swim in a nearby creek. Does anyone really use the word "hooligans" any more? I was done. Dreary. ( )

A deputy finds himself compelled to investigate a death that at first seems due to a bear attack but in the end was a different sort of violence. Many characters. Sometimes I was confused by that. ( )

The Bramble and the Rose is a short, but beautifully written mystery set in rural northern Pennsylvania. Henry Farrell, the only police officer in a small town is called to a local property when a headless body is found. While first thought to be a bear attack, Farrell recognizes that the severed head was brutally removed post-mortem. This discovery leads him through the eclectic collection of residents in his rural community, questioning the motives of new and long-time residents alike.

At the same time, Farrell is getting married, starting a new life with the daughter of one of the leading businessmen of the area. His marriage is complicated, at least for him, by all the intertwining threads running through the community and increasingly, as he learns, tied to the murder of the headless outsider.

Family drama, community secrets, and outside interests lead Farrell headlong into a mystery in which he finds himself overly involved. An intricately woven story, deftly told in a somewhat dark narrative, The Bramble and the Rose doesn’t fail to live up to Bouman’s reputation for amazingly written literary mysteries. ( )

Not realizing this was the third book in a series, I gave it a go anyway. I haven't decided whether I like the main character of Henry Farrell enough yet to read the other books in the series. Farrell is a small town policeman - when a decapitated stranger is found dead in the PA back woods, he starts looking into the case. When his nephew inadvertently goes missing, he knows that things are about to come to a head.

But here's the rub, you don't quite know what the backstory is on one of the characters involved, only a piece of it, and the entire thing just feels like maybe I'm missing something. ( )