Macavity and Anthony award winner Susan Dunlap is perhaps best known for her first mystery series, one of the early portrayals of women as law enforcement professionals instead of amateur sleuths. Jill Smith, a homicide detective, appeared in 10 novels between 1981 and 1998 and in short stories that vividly portrayed Berkeley, California, with its liberal political leanings and diverse population. She branched out a bit when she created Kiernan O’Shaughnessy, a former San Francisco medical examiner who moved to the southern end of the state and became a private investigator, appearing in four books between 1989 and 1998. Possibly her most intriguing character is Darcy Lott, a movie stuntwoman and an adherent of Zen. Lott appeared in seven books between 2006 and 2016.

Dunlap’s fourth series character only appeared in three books but I consider her the most original of all. Vejay Haskell is a Pacific Gas and Electric meter reader in northern California. My father spent some 30 years at the local gas and electric utility, installing and removing gas meters in what were supposed to be empty houses, only often they weren’t. He had hair-raising stories to tell. Vejay’s job takes her into all kinds of neighborhoods and she meets all kinds of people, just like my father did, and I am a little surprised Dunlap only managed three books about Haskell. The fantastic setup would have allowed for more.

In the second book The Bohemian Connection (St. Martin’s Press, 1985) Vejay’s coworker Vida is worried about her niece Michelle, who didn’t come home from a community organizing meeting. Vida and Michelle’s husband have looked in the obvious places and now Vida wants Vejay to find her. Complicating the situation is the annual river fest that brings thousands of tourists to Sonoma County, filling the local streets, hotels, camp sites, and store owners’ cash registers. The local marijuana farmers and coke dealers as well as the pickpockets and con men found this time exceptionally profitable too. When Michelle’s body was discovered in a construction site, the county sheriff and his staff were too rushed to consider her death anything more than an accident. Vejay wasn’t so sure and decided to ask a few questions.

Dunlap captures the sense of a coastal vacation town during the height of the tourist season so very well. Philip R. Craig did the same thing with his books set in Martha’s Vineyard. The pool of potential suspects and witnesses is considerably expanded and complicated by the number of strangers in the area temporarily, as Vejay discovers. Written before the technology explosion, part of the narrative hinges on the lack of cell phones. Good clue placement but I still did not figure out who the culprit was. Smooth pacing, solid plot, and some creative characterization. For fans of regional mysteries, amateur sleuths, and traditional crime fiction.