If you've never read a book by Irene Bennett Brown you've been missing treasures!  Irene's written for children, young adults and adults including her Western Writers of America Spur Finalist The Plainswoman.  She's also been recognized by the Oregon Library Association for her contribution to literature.  One of my favorite series of Irene's is The Women of Paragon Springs about a small Kansas town and the lives of women trying to make their way there.  She's a gifted writer who creates vivid images, authentic characters while weaving the readers into the lives of her stories.  Where Gable Slept is no exception.

                Where Gable Slept is a contemporary cozy mystery.  Cozies are sweet mysteries in my mind.  Yes, someone usually dies (and it's so in this novel) but the story line is not thumping suspense driven by horror or gore. A reader does want to know what happens and how it happened and worries about what will happen next. We usually laugh a bit (I laughed out loud in this book!) and feel like we know the characters at the end giving us a satisfying read indeed. Plus, this is the first in a planned Celia Landry Mystery Series.  Goody, more books!

                Where Gable Slept takes place in a small town in Oregon that has as a major claim to fame a hotel that Clark Gable supposedly stayed at as a young man. The owner has allowed local tourist guide, Celia Landry, to include it on her walking tour -- until a newcomer threatens to purchase it and tear it down.  Celia, who also owns a local Inn, is determined to keep this local attraction open.  She encounters resistance...and she discovers that maybe as a middle-age widow, her life is not yet to be without a little love.

                Irene herself lives in a small town in Oregon.  She didn't learn to drive, she told me, until she was in her fifties because she never had to.  She could walk anywhere in town and if she traveled somewhere else, her husband drove.  Her first road trip after getting her license took her to a huge metropolitan area so I know she's an adventurous western woman!  Here's another sign of her western spirit: after years of being published by main stream and small presses, Irene self-published this book (her daughter designed the cover).  She said this cozy story wanted to be written and with publishing as uncertain as it is today, she decided to try it on her own.  She took a risk and I for one am glad she did.  It's a great read.

                A bit of the story is true, Irene says.  Clark Gable did come to the Northwest and there was a house he was said to have stayed at while working in the timber industry for a time. I haven't asked Irene yet if that house was in her little village or some other Oregon town. I want to imagine that when she walks to her grocery store or the post office that she's walking by that very house in her story, a place I'd like to visit myself, assuming the heroine Celia Landry survives the threats on her life and manages to save Where Gable Slept. http://www.irenebennettbrown.com.  And available at Amazon.com