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Sharon L. Dean
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The Barn (A Deborah Strong Mystery) Kindle Edition

by Sharon L. Dean (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 out of 5 stars 30
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A barn with a wooden cow’s head peeking out of the loft…
Two girls bicycling on a September day in 1990…
The friend they find dead in the barn…


For the next thirty years, the case of Joseph Wheeler’s murder lies as cold as a New Hampshire winter. Deborah Strong has settled in the town she grew up in, learning to heal after her friend’s murder, and later, the deaths of her husband and child in an automobile accident. When her former best friend Rachel Cummings returns home for the funeral of Joseph’s mother, the precarious peace Deborah has found as the town’s librarian is threatened.
Against the backdrop of the beautiful but cold New Hampshire landscape in January, Deborah and Rachel reopen the cold case of their murdered friend, and uncover secrets about their neighbors that have festered for thirty years, as they often do in small towns.
The Barn is a story of friendship lost and recovered, of secrets buried and revealed, and of the power in forgiving others… and ourselves.

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  1. Part of series
    A Deborah Strong Mystery
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    July 3, 2020
  5. File size
    2988 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Starting a new series with a new protagonist is a difficult undertaking, but Sharon Dean brings this off with aplomb."

-Michael Niemann, Award-winning International Thriller Writer


"Quiet, but quite deadly. This book captures the New England vibe with an economy of words, a wealth of detail, and crisp characterizations."

-Carole Beers, Author of the Pepper Kane Mysteries


"A fascinating yarn about past events coming to roost in the present. As always, Dean's sense of place and vivid and compelling characters blend together to provide the reader with an intriguing look at life in her native New England. Highly recommended!"

-Clive Rosengren, Author of Eddie Collins Mysteries

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08BZWKTMB
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Encircle Publications (July 3, 2020)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 3, 2020
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2988 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 out of 5 stars 30

About the author

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Sharon L. Dean

Sharon L. Dean

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Sharon L. Dean grew up in Massachusetts where she was immersed in the literature of New England. She earned undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of New Hampshire, a state she lived in until moving to Oregon. In New Hampshire, she taught writing and literature at Rivier University. After giving up writing scholarly books that required footnotes, she reinvented herself as a writer of mysteries. Her first mystery series features retired professor Susan Warner, who has a different color streak in her hair for each of the three novels. A stand alone novel, Leaving Freedom, follows thirty-year-old Connie Lewis, who sees only irony in the name of the town where she grew up, Freedom.

The Barn, the first in a new mystery series, follows librarian and reluctant sleuth Deborah Strong as she solves a cold case with her friend Rachel. The second in the series, The Wicked Bible finds Deborah at a conference on the history of libraries where she must solve the theft of an antique Bible called The Wicked Bible because a typo says “Thou shalt commit adultery. The third in the series, Calderwood Cove, puts Deborah on the coast of Maine where she tries to solve the murder of her friend’s husband. Dean's collection Six Old Women and Other Stories explores settings in New Hampshire. Dean continues to find ways to integrate her knowledge of literary history into the intrigue of the mystery genre.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
30 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

James P. Hanley
5.0 out of 5 stars Murder in deserted barn
Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2021
Verified Purchase
In other reviews, the comments reflect praise for the descriptions and well-defined ambiance of New England as well as the intriguing plot. Often the creation of place is scene-setting that fades as the novel progresses—not so with Ms. Dean’s writing. You never lose the sense of New England’s frosty winters and moody weather along with its unique charm and complexity. The region is not all fall leaf watching, nor Frostian metaphorical, and in the successful writer’s hand, like Ms. Dean can be ominous, yet rustic. Two women, as amateur sleuths, seek to discover the murderer of a young man, each woman driven by a different attachment to the victim. Since the killing, both women, previously estranged, have had tragedy in their lives, but reunite for the single purpose of discovery the person who took the young man’s life. In addition to the region’s description, Ms. Dean has a fine eye for detail which makes the novel so realistic, and in many ways, familiar, drawing readers into the novel. The storylines points toward varied suspects and until the ending, retains the suspense until the end, when the hope of discovery seems fading.
Needless to say, I highly recommend The Barn as an enjoyable book not only for the plot but for the quality of writing.
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Ron R.
4.0 out of 5 stars Cold Case In A Cold Place
Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2021
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The French have a word, terroir, that refers to the qualities of a place, usually environmental, which give unique characteristics to a thing. While normally applied to vineyards, it could just as easily apply to Sharon L. Dean’s novel, The Barn. It’s rural New Hampshire in winter. One can see the paint peeling from clapboard siding; hear the scrape of a snow shovel; feel a blizzard’s wind; smell wood in a fire; and, taste the chowder. Isn’t that one reason we read—to be transported? Dean arranges a pleasant journey, less about the mystery of a devastating death than one about the unsolvable mysteries of friendships and families, including the non-related by blood “kin” of the residents of an isolated New England village. It’s a trip worth taking.
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Lesliewriter
5.0 out of 5 stars A Compelling Mystery from Start to Finish
Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2020
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Cold cases are notoriously difficult to solve, especially in the middle of a harsh New England winter when the snow piles up and the power goes out. This is the challenge that faces Deborah Strong, the main character of Sharon L. Dean’s latest mystery, The Barn, when her best friend, Rachel, returns to the New Hampshire town where they both grew up, determined to solve the thirty-year-old murder of a male classmate. Both women have lost loved ones: Deborah, her husband and young child in a car accident; and Rachel, the classmate who was her high school sweetheart and their unborn child through a miscarriage. Yet while Deborah has found a measure of comfort in the Church, Rachel’s anger and grief still rages, driving their investigation to its shocking conclusion despite warnings to stop.

Well-developed characters like Deborah and Rachel and other denizens of their small town, vivid scenes with carefully chosen details, and first-rate storytelling with often beautiful prose combine to make The Barn a compelling novel from start to finish. I’m looking forward to the next book in Sharon L. Dean’s Deborah Strong series.
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Sandy M.
5.0 out of 5 stars Letting the dead lie
Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2021
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This was an unusual and startlingly lovely mystery that asks profound questions about dealing with trauma. In most mysteries, finding the killer is not only the goal but the admirable course of action. But sometimes in life, and in this novel, an obsession with solving a mystery from the past and an inability to move on can have tragic consequences. Well done.
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Shelley Burbank
4.0 out of 5 stars Recommended for cozy mystery fans
Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2021
This cozy, rural, cold-case mystery had me turning the pages to find out what really happened on that long-ago day when a young man’s body was found on the floor of a barn. Good, solid prose. Multi-dimensional characters. Nicely-drawn setting details. Readers who enjoy cozy mysteries will enjoy this one, though it lacks the “cutesy”factor—which may actually be a plus for those who take their reading a touch more noir.
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M. Casey
5.0 out of 5 stars hot to be fire, cold to be ice
Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2021
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A wonderful read with the setting to include the weather an additional character to the story. I did not guess the real villain in it but there were evil suspects enough. I look forward to a sequel.
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Siesta1422
2.0 out of 5 stars Slow
Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2023
Lots of detail of every day New Hampshire winter life that filled the pages without advancing the mystery. I kept at it but I didn’t take to Rachel, I struggled to accept the 30 year delay to wanting to find Joseph’s killer, and I found the pausity of genuine suspects a challenge, guessing the killer well before the end.
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Scott Lipanovich
5.0 out of 5 stars Seeking truths; finding strengths
Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2023
Sometimes a childhood event is coupled with images, of people and a specific place, that permanently reside within us. This could be a triumph, an extraordinary experience, or a traumatic loss. In Sharon Dean’s The Barn, what dwells within the two main characters is decidedly the third.

Imagine being a teenager, riding bikes with a good friend. You arrive at a local hangout known as The Barn. Inside, sprawled face-down on hay is the town golden boy. He doesn’t move. You turn him over and your life is changed. Joseph Wheeler is dead. Murdered.

The murder is never solved. Cold New Hampshire winters come and go for thirty years. Those formerly teenage girls, now nearing fifty, meet when one of them, Rachel Cummings, returns to their hometown to attend the funeral of Joseph’s mother. Childhood friend Deborah Strong has settled into being the town librarian.
It’s January. The weather is about as cold as the now long-dormant case of who killed Joseph Wheeler. Deborah and Rachel have far more skills, drive and guts than they did when they were kids. Their quest to find out who killed dear Joseph uncovers secrets long buried, and more.
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