{"id":4526,"date":"2025-07-31T21:14:02","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T21:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/?p=4526"},"modified":"2025-07-31T21:19:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T21:19:03","slug":"the-pines-were-watching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/?p=4526","title":{"rendered":"The Pines Were Watching"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Life in a small town in Minnesota is not supposed to involve complex crimes in the middle of a heat wave, at least that\u2019s how Sheriff Red Hammergren feels, but when missing public-health nurse Joanie Crea\u2019s body is found on the run-down estate of the formerly wealthy Grandgeorge family, tensions and suspicions run away with the locals. There is little help coming from Joanie\u2019s rigid, bureaucratic robot of a boss or her glad-handing, church deacon of a husband. The body of a second woman is found and information from her abused and recently beaten young son may hold a key. A mystery man with a green jacket, missing funds, and long-held secrets all play with Red\u2019s sixth sense, making her feel that the solution is just beyond her grasp. Help comes from Red\u2019s poker-playing buddies and Waltz, a crime scene tech, but her indomitable need to solve the crime is primary. <strong>This is a deeply atmospheric and compelling read. We can only hope for more from the series.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Life in a small town in Minnesota is not supposed to involve complex crimes in the middle of a heat wave, at least that\u2019s how Sheriff Red Hammergren feels, but&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":4527,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[55,65,51,56],"class_list":["post-4526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-mystery-detective","tag-police-procedural","tag-thrillers","tag-women-sleuths"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/formidable\/4\/Pines-376x400.png","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/formidable\/4\/Pines.png","author_info":{"display_name":"Danise Hoover","author_link":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/?author=12"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}