The Long Shadow of Murder (A Will Rees/Shaker Mystery Book # 12) by Eleanor Kuhns

When the body of a visitor is found in the woods by the local Shaker community, suspicion immediately falls on them. Rees is reluctant to believe anyone in this peaceful community committed murder. And Hans Bergin arrived with his wife, his brother-in-law and sister-in-law. They had their own reasons to want Bergin dead.

But as Rees investigates, he discovers everyone, including a recent Shaker convert, have secrets of their own, some stretching all the way back to the Revolutionary War.

Who, among the many suspects, decided to take matters in their own hands? Bergin's wife and other family? The new Shaker? Or someone else entirely?  (Summary via Goodreads)

The Long Shadow of Murder by Eleanor Kuhns is the twelfth book in her Will Rees/Shaker Mystery series and regardless of if this is your first time opening one of the books in this series, it won't be your last.

Yes, all of the books in this series revolve around a murder but in The Long Shadow of Murder readers will have to help Rees, his wife Lydia and Constable Rouge solve more than one this time.

In The Long Shadow of Murder Rees and Constable Rouge are called to look into the disappearance of a man visiting and staying at a local boardinghouse with his wife, sister-in-law and brother-in-law.  They are told the gentleman went out to the Shaker community to attend their Sunday service to see the "naked women dance".

But when he did not return, they were called in to find him ... and they did murdered and hidden under brush and leaves.  

Usually, the Constable and Rees do not work well together but in this one, they will have to seeing as the murdered victim is not from the area and it seems no one living there would have any reason to want him dead.  But when another person is found murdered in the same way, Rees will look to his very pregnant wife, Lydia, to help out.  She seems to always see things the men overlook.

The Will Rees/Shaker Mystery series is so captivating.  Seeing as this series takes place way before electricity, cell phones and computers, it is interesting to see how the cases are solved as well as how the characters lived.  You will definitely finish these books having learned something and that is just an added bonus.