Review of "Lynched," by Ed Gorman

 Review of
Lynched, by Ed Gorman, ISBN 042519082x
Five out of five stars
Murder mystery with many twists
 Marshal Ben Tully is riding back into town after a significant absence. He does not need to have a significantly tuned radar to detect that there is something wrong in the town. He goes to his office to find a deputy lying on the ground outside, the office ransacked and a man hanging dead in a tree in the backyard. 
 It takes him some time to discover that his wife has been murdered and the man that was hung has been lynched for the murder. Some of the leading citizens performed the lynching and the other members of the town are very tight-lipped about the event. The man that was killed was a hobo that was passing through and went to Tully’s house with his hobo pal in hopes of acquiring some food. 
 While Tully initially wanted to simply drop the matter and he is strongly encouraged by the leading citizens to do so, his lawman professionalism takes charge, and Tully begins looking into the events. He is helped in this endeavor by the sister of the lynched man who arrives in town and passionately argues that her brother did not do it. She brings forward some evidence that muddies the case. 
 The story gets complicated when Tully learns that his wife was not all that virtuous, and there are occasional references to the mentally disturbed brother of a leading citizen. Tully develops some romantic feelings for the sister, but that also takes a dark turn. At the end, some of the people turn out to be different from what they project, and the actual killers were completely off the list of the usual suspects. 
 This is a great story where the original murderer(s) are discovered, and then there are some unresolved issues regarding the lynching of what turned out to be an innocent man and Tully’s future. There are many characters, all of which play a significant role in the story development. 

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