Iowa murder mystery 'Seeking Signs' engages reader

For the second time in less than a month, I found myself reading a novel based on an actual Iowa murder that took place at least 100 years ago. Regular readers may recall that I thought Jess McConkey's “The Widows of Braxton County” was pretty good. I think Staci Angelina Mercado's “Seeking Signs” (Four Feathers Press, 223 pages, $15) is better.

Mercado's book is based on the 1913 death of Minnie Seamer in the rural community of Elvira. The death looked like a suicide but was suspicious in many ways. Mercado has crafted a story that takes the facts into account and goes on to reveal what might explain them.

The book is a success in large part because of Mercado's narrator, Elsie, Minnie's younger sister who is 13 at the time of Minnie's death. Elsie, inspired by a private investigator who once stayed in her parents' hotel, decides to investigate the death. She is determined and intrepid, and she recounts her story in an appealing narrative voice.

Mercado, through Elsie, also does a fine job re-creating the Iowa of 1913 without falling into the trap of providing or explaining too many details.

On the whole, based on these successes, I believe “Seeking Signs” is worth seeking out.

But the novel isn't perfect. Mercado reveals some key information too soon, and by so doing robs herself of the opportunity to heighten the emotional resonance of the book's later passages. Some information is simply mentioned too often, either because of a concern that the reader won't remember or because of an editing oversight. Some devices - like a series of poems that appears throughout the book - are unclear and clutter the text, which is itself oddly presented on the page.

In addition, some readers may find the book's ending troubling, or at least less than fully satisfying. In fairness, however, Mercado's fictional ending appears to be plausible given the actual facts upon which the story is based. As noted above, that's an essential part of her project.