A delusional prison patient warns Dr. Brian Heiser, Marriage and Family Therapist, of enormous impending disaster. Dr. Heiser and his best friend, a lauded Forensic Psychologist, find themselves entangled in a 72-hour deadly race to stop an AI bill being fast-tracked through the Texas state legislature.
Under Vixen’s Mere is one of those novels that quietly gets under your skin and then refuses to leave.
From the opening pages, the prose immediately stood out to me. It’s spare without ever feeling sparse—clean, confident, and quietly assured. Dialogue and description are held in careful balance, each doing its work without calling attention to itself. Nothing strains for effect, and that sense of restraint builds trust early on, inviting the reader to settle in and follow where the story leads.
What makes this book especially satisfying is its sensory richness. The attention to detail is so precise you can practically smell the bread cooling on the racks, the sharpness of cheese, the damp stone after rain. It is comfort reading with substance: sunshine and laughter paired with the everyday complications life throws at us, and the quiet resilience required to meet them.
This is not a book about capital-H heroes. Instead, it centers on people who engage in small acts of service, kindness, and yes, heroism—not for recognition or glory, but because it was the right thing to do in the moment. These are stories of people showing up when it would have been easier not to.
The Locked Room is clever, cozy without being complacent, and deeply satisfying for puzzle-lovers. If you adore classic detective fiction but crave a fresh perspective, Harriet White deserves a place on your shelf—and very likely, in your reading rotation for a long while to come.
Wow, that’s a great one! Very nice. I’ll be posting my faded soon! I hope you’ll stop by.
I can imagine the orginal bright, bright, bright colour, but I much prefer the faded version. Great post for this week’s theme.
–smarmoofus
First of all, I love your new design! The picture is awesome, too :-) And…nudge[cafewriting]nudge.
great shot!
I love all things farm related.
I can just smell the tractor oil and dirt.
faded is good.
A powerful picture made even more powerful by its back story. I think I like this tractor more in its present state than I ever would have had it been right off the showroom floor.
great picture. The fields around here have a few these old beauties. Great take on the prompt.
A brand new one is nice, but the faded tractor…. well, it says a whole lot. Great choice for the theme!
What a history that tractor must have.
Great choice for the prompt.
Oh thank you! Not only is this a great photo, but you’ve given me an inspiration.
I love this photo. We have a antique tractor here on our little farm and i love the nostalgia that it brings. Great interpretation of the theme!