{"id":13022,"date":"2019-11-07T22:07:22","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T03:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=13022"},"modified":"2019-11-07T22:07:22","modified_gmt":"2019-11-08T03:07:22","slug":"the-bitter-fields-by-matthew-iden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=13022","title":{"rendered":"‘The Bitter Fields,’ by Matthew Iden"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Marty Singer, <\/strong>retired cop and occasional private detective, is invited down to Virginia\u2019s horse and wine country, along with his girlfriend Julie Atwater, by her friend Ruth Colvin, who runs a boarding stable. They\u2019re expecting a relaxing vacation. But Ruth has a reason for asking them. Her farm is in trouble. Someone has been sabotaging her operation \u2013 knocking down fences so the horses can get loose. In the competitive world of horse people, only a little doubt about the safety of her facilities could ruin her. That\u2019s how The Bitter Fields<\/a><\/em> begins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then murder intervenes. One of Ruth\u2019s employees, a charming polo player named Freddie Farrar, is shot to death. Marty can\u2019t help but suspect there\u2019s a connection between the crimes. Who could hate Ruth so much? There are suspects \u2013 a bigoted old lady who wants some of her land for a burial plot, a rich young woman who\u2019d been having an affair with Freddie, and that woman\u2019s husband \u2013 who has been arrested, but whose guilt Marty doubts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this is played out against the backdrop of the changing south, where history is a living presence, opinions are in transition, and people often cover up their real thoughts. One thing I liked about this book was that although it seemed at first to involve a lot of tired southern stereotypes, those characters were treated sympathetically and allowed to have their say \u2013 and to change. It all got kind of heart-warming in the end. Except for the killing, of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recommended. Cautions for the usual, particularly sexual\nmatters, but not bad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marty Singer, retired cop and occasional private detective, is invited down to Virginia\u2019s horse and wine country, along with his girlfriend Julie Atwater, by her friend Ruth Colvin, who runs a boarding stable. They\u2019re expecting a relaxing vacation. But Ruth has a reason for asking them. Her farm is in trouble. Someone has been sabotaging … Continue reading ‘The Bitter Fields,’ by Matthew Iden<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,15],"tags":[1786,1809,2785],"class_list":["post-13022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-reviews","tag-marty-singer","tag-matthew-iden","tag-the-bitter-fields"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13022\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}