xNELL: MARSHAL OF BODIE by John Edward Mullen was published on September 15, 2022.
Eighteen-year-old Nell Doherty dreams of one day working for the Pinkerton Detective Agency. After her father, the sheriff of Bodie, is shot during the Chinese New Year celebration, Nell is appointed marshal so that she can look into her father’s murder. Her half-Chinese, half-Irish friend Rags works as her assistant in a pairing that is both strange and unseemly to the small town’s residents. Nell is convinced she knows who murdered her father, but, as she digs deeper into the shooting, she discovers that there are other serious crimes taking place in Bodie and that it’s up to her to stop the perpetrators.
NELL: MARSHAL OF BODIE was an interesting store. The setting—a mining town in the Wild West—was what compelled me to check out the novel. Nell is a likeable and sympathetic character, though a bit immature and impetuous. As a young woman in the late 1800s, she already has her gender working against her as she pursues a career in law enforcement. Her wooden leg and the issues it causes seemed like an additional but unnecessary handicap.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.