Old fans and new readers alike should enjoy this latest, standalone mystery by Marcia Muller. Muller combines murder, betrayal, revenge and greed into a story of excitement and suspense.
Matt Lindstrom has created a new life for himself running a charter fishing business in Port Regis, British Columbia in the Canadian Pacific. Over a decade earlier he was forced to leave a quiet college town in Saugatuck, Minnesota where he was suspected of foul play in the disappearance of his young wife, Gwen. Gwen’s car was found abandoned along a lonely Wyoming highway with all her personal effects in place: purse, keys, credit cards and her blood.
Eventually, when the police had insufficient evidence to make a case against him, Lindstrom decided to move away to anywhere he could start fresh, away from people’s suspicions. After several false starts, he ended up in Port Regis and has started the fishing business.
Then Lindstrom’s quiet, new life is shattered. He receives an anonymous call from a “friend” who reveals that Gwen is alive and has lived for the past 14 years in Soledad County, CA, in a remote town called Cyanide Wells, four hours north of San Francisco. She has adopted the name of her mother, Artis Coleman.
Lindstrom struggles with the news and then decides he needs to confront Gwen/Artis and find out why she ran off. He leaves his business in the hands of his first mate and heads to Soledad County to find his answers.
Gwen’s life has been rebuilt, too. She has a daughter, the result of a brief relationship with a jazz musician from San Francisco. She works as a reporter for the Soledad Spectrum, and the publisher, Carly Maquire, who is also her housemate – and lover.
Gwen was the principal reporter on a series of articles on a double murder that helped the Soledad Spectrum win the Pulitzer Prize. She has since taken a leave of absence to write a book about the murders, a book that some people don’t want her to finish.
Just when Matt arrives in Soledad County to find his answers, Gwen disappears again. Was it really foul play this time, or did Gwen engineer another disappearance? And who was it that called Matt to Soledad County in the first place? To answer these questions, Matt and Carly join forces to find Gwen, before murder is once again a front-page story at the Soledad Spectrum.
In an unusual, but effective, tag-team approach, Sandra Burr and J. Charles provide an excellent reading of Cyanide Wells. Muller switches the story from two third-person perspectives, that of Lindstrom and Maguire, and Burr and Charles both perform admirably. The change in voices enables a switch in emotions and viewpoint that works very well to carry the action in simultaneous situations occurring in different locations. The readers both exhibit a vivid understanding of their characters’ motivations and emotions.
Cyanide Wells is a tense well-told story, and culminating in a surprise ending. Muller continues to entertain with believable characters, intelligent insight, and the right amount of humor.
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Great book, enough details for fully rounded characters and plenty of twists! ( )

Didn't love it, didn't hate it. Won't need to read it again. i liked the collaboration between Matt and the newspaper editor, Carly. The suspense at the resolution was adequate. I mostly just spent a lot of time being mad at Gwen/Ardis, who ruined a lot of lives. ( )

ok but over-complicated. two people doing all the voices. ( )