Ilsa Poe was born in Dalton, Montana, but when her parents divorced, she moved to Arizona with her mother. Her father, Ike, has died, so she’s returned to settle his estate and mull over his last letter to her when he talked about a gold treasure in nearby Garrick. When she was a child, Ilsa used to enjoy the stories her father told her. But as an adult, she knows those tales were never rooted in reality.
Ike didn’t leave an inheritance for Ilsa, so she knows she will need to get a job while cleaning out her father’s cabin. The math teacher at the local high school is on maternity leave, so she’s quickly hired to fill that position. After just a few days on the job, Ilsa realizes that the students are lagging behind in what they know. Very few can pass the quiz she has them take. Soon she has parents lined up outside her door objecting to the failing grade so many earned on that test. She tells them this first test won’t be counted towards a final grade, but she puts everyone on notice that she’s not about to lower her standards. The students need to be pushed, and she’s just the one to do the pushing.
Ilsa had very little contact with her father after moving to Arizona. But going through his belongings, she realizes how little she knew about Ike’s life. Despite the divorce, she always thought Ike considered her mother his only love. A new woman had entered Ike’s life and when she died from cancer, he slid into a deep depression. Ike was fishing when he fell into the water and drowned. His death was ruled either an accident or suicide. When a stranger appears at Ilsa’s door and tells her Ike was murdered, she presses local law enforcement about the investigation.
Ilsa met Sheriff Cosi Raynes earlier when she called to report someone was creeping around the cabin, peering in windows. Raynes can find no evidence, not even footprints in the mud, to indicate someone was there. Although she’s annoyed that he dopes’t believe her, that doesn’t stop her from seeing him again, asking whether her father was killed. Sheriff Raynes assures Ilsa that the cause of death was confirmed by an autopsy. After she leaves he pulls out the file and goes through it once again, making sure he didn’t miss anything.
After the storage shed on the property is set on fire, Cosi is convinced someone is threatening Ilsa. He insists she not stay at the cabin, but with the only hotel in town booked up, she accepts his invitation to stay in his guest room. There’s another complication: Cosi’s son, Spencer, is one of Ilsa’s students. Ilsa is first and foremost a teacher and when she offers to help Spencer with his homework, he easily agrees.
The attraction between Cosi and Ilsa is immediate and strong and, despite a serious conflict of interest on both sides, Ilsa soon ends up in Cosi’s bed. Spencer, whose mother deserted him and his father when he was a child, enjoys having Ilsa around. And after someone breaks into the cabin and destroys everything, obviously searching for something, Cosi insists Ilsa stay with him and Spencer. Raynes initially thought one of Ilsa’s students, upset about her teaching style, had set fire to the storage shed. But the break in convinces both him and Ilsa that Ike had hidden something in the cabin and that’s what the intruder hoped to find.
Devney Perry’s Bluebird Gold is both a mystery and a love story. Everything is tied up perfectly – maybe too perfectly – for a satisfying ending. While “love at first sight” rarely works in real life, there’s nothing wrong with hoping that sometimes the planets are aligned and true romance can happen. Something to hope for in the new year.
Bluebird Gold
Devney Perry
Top Bigstock photo by BILLPERRY
Our editors love to read and independently recommend these books. As an Amazon Affiliate, Woman Around Town may receive a small commission from the sale of any book. Thank you for supporting Woman Around Town.
